Gods of the Wyrdwood is a fantasy novel written by RJ Barker. It is published by Orbit and was released in June 2023, with the paperback released in March 2024. It is the first book in Barker’s The Forsaken trilogy. I have read the book in ebook format. This review is intended to be free of spoilers for the book, but some events, characters, and themes from the novel may be alluded to. A review copy of the book was provided. There are affiliate links at the end of this review.
Blurb:
OUR LANDS ARE WILD WITH GODS, OUR WOODS ARE WILD WITH MONSTERS…
Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester – a humble man who can nonetheless navigate the dangerous Wyrdwood like no-one else. But once he was more. Once he was a warrior.
Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of the small and helpless. When she ventures into the Wyrdwood to find a missing child, Cahan will be her guide.
But in a land at war, in a forest full of monsters – Cahan will need to choose between his past life and the one he leads now – and his choice will have consequences for his entire world.
From one of the most original voices in fantasy comes the start of an epic trilogy of vicious outlaws, warring deities and an evil empire, set within the bounds of a forest out of darkest folklore. The Gods of the Wyrdwood have awoken, and their time is come.
Review:
This is my first time reading one of Barker’s books, though I’ve been told that I would enjoy his Tide Child series. In terms of genre, this book is most definitely fantasy, and quite dark fantasy at that. The story is quite sweeping with some interesting characters and, most important for me, some really excellent world-building.
The story does work well, following the character of Cahan, who is taken from his family early on and raised for a specific and important purpose before ultimately being discarded into obscurity. As is the case in all such stories, he is not allowed to languish as a hermit and is eventually drawn back into the world. His character is well developed in a book where not many character are. When I realised we were going down the “powerful hermit drawn back into the world” trope, I did groan a little, but he’s actually a really endearing character and I enjoyed going along with him on his journey. A second character is also given POV chapters and she acts as something of an antagonist. Like all good villains, she has what she considers some damn good reasons for her seemingly cruel actions; namely the protection and advancement of her child.
The story is interesting and complex, but it’s slow. It’s also well over 600 pages long. This book felt like a commitment. The trilogy, the next instalment of which is due out later this year, will likely be similar in this regard. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, this could have been more concise, but it’s not like this space was wasted. This is where I feel the world-building did the real heavy lifting in my enjoyment of this book. It’s a bit cliche to pick out part of the setting and describe it as another important character, but cliches become cliches for a reason. It really does apply here. When we start the book, we’re really expected to hit the ground running. We’re placed into an existing world and expected to pick things up as we go along. Some things are not really fully explained, whilst others are expanded on over time. There’s also quite a few bigger info dumps that expand on aspects of the setting, of which the Wyrd Wood is the most interesting part.
The political and social aspects of the world are also well developed, and you quickly get a feel for the structure of the society and the disadvantages laid upon ‘clanless’ such as Cahan. Again, this is sometimes shown via context cues, and sometimes via those big ol’ info dumps. I actually really love the political aspects of this book. I’ve spoken recently of my love for politics in sci-fi and that feeling is just as strong in fantasy.
Regular readers will know that, being a blog that deals heavily in tabletop gaming, I often give play suggestions alongside my reviews. There are a few interesting options, here. Clound Empress and Obojima, both successful Kickstarter campaigns for Ghibli-esque RPGs, seem appropriate. D&D would aloso be fine, and actually would work really well if we could also bring in some material from Kobold Press. Their forest setting, as detailed in Tales of the Old Margreve, really chimes with the feeling I get from Barker’s Wyrd Wood. I think you could do a lot by combining the rules and scenarios in Tales of the Old Margreve and some of the detail and ideas from Gods of the Wyrd Wood. I think that would make for a pretty awesome game.
Back to the novel, let’s settle on a final verdict. I feel this was a good introduction to Barker’s work, and I enjoyed the book. The story was bit slow and I don’t feel that the story entirely did justive to the world that was built around it. It’s engaging. It makes sense. It’s a bit difficult to get into. I’m new to giving out star ratings and I’m swithering over this one. If we’re talking about developing a detailed world that I want to dive into and really explore, we’re looking at 4 out of 5, which is solid. The story, though, feels more like a 3. It’s good, but it’s not something that, to quote Warren Zevon, “maketh my spirit to shine”. I do recommend this book to anyone looking for a new, expansive fantasy world to explore. The fact that the next book is out later this year also means that you’ve not got long to wait to dive right back in.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
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