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Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X, #1)

Richelle Mead

Start date: August 22, 2013

Finish date: August 31, 2013

Discussion: Books of the Month

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What Members Thought

Mar 15, 2015 Trisha rated it it was ok

"I had this dream... I was out in the woods at night, but there was this brilliant full moon that lit everything up. I saw on the ground with three people in front of me. I was holding a golden apple."

For the first 200 pages or so, this book really had me. Mae is a pretty kickbutt main character and she was pretty amazing. She was hot headed but Hey, that was her training and her implant in part.

There was also Justin. The mysterious stranger who is pulled back home to help investigate some murde ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2013 Tien rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, dystopia, edelweiss

There is everything to love in this book!

The world: spick & span shiny High-Tech Dystopian country (the Republic of United North America) yet there are primitive settlements surrounding it, not to mention the Romanesque religions (the worship of many gods) incongruously rooted as part of life.

The kick-ass heroine: Absolutely gorgeous chick, intelligent and super strong, she can literally kick ass! I defy you to not love this goddess! um, no, that’s not at all a spoiler

The player hero: With a han ...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Dina rated it liked it

Review originally published on All The Stacks

Reviewing Gameboard Of The Gods by Richelle Mead is difficult. I liked the book and thought it was mostly good. (Not using star reviews on All The Stacks, it can be hard for me to explain what I mean by good. On goodreads, for example, I gave Gameboard Of The Gods three stars.) The book has a lot of potential but the problems made it a slugfest at times where I kept checking how long my Kindle thought it would take me to finish.

Gameboard Of The Gods h Review originally published on All The Stacks

Reviewing Gameboard Of The Gods by Richelle Mead is difficult. I liked the book and thought it was mostly good. (Not using star reviews on All The Stacks, it can be hard for me to explain what I mean by good. On goodreads, for example, I gave Gameboard Of The Gods three stars.) The book has a lot of potential but the problems made it a slugfest at times where I kept checking how long my Kindle thought it would take me to finish.

Gameboard Of The Gods has a solid story. Hot shot guy, Justin March, who is given a chance to get his job back after four years of exile. The catch is he has to solve the mystery behind these ritualistic murders. All solid and quite interesting stuff here. Here is my problem, it takes forever. Even with the book being overly long, I never felt I really understood what was happening. The story takes place in a dystopian world that is never fully fleshed out. We never really learn what happened to have society end up like it is. Why is RUNA, which stands for Republic Of North America which is not spelled out until many chapters into the book, one of the only places to prosper. There is talk about the before and hints that religion and genetic mutations caused a lot of it but I would have liked more specific details. I also had a difficult time picturing the world. There are areas, somewhere in North America, where ethnic groups live. They live within the country but separately. This is important because the murders involve these groups and the main characters do quite a lot of travelling. It took me until halfway through the book to get a good explanation about these groups and why they decided to live separately. The length of time it took to reveal many important plot points, like why Justin is sent into exile and what on earth is up with the talking birds that live in his head, is frustrating.

All of these issues aside, the actual story is interesting. I enjoyed the who-done-it-ness of the plot. I enjoyed how many strong female characters the books contains. Waiting so long to reveal really important information about the main characters lives, motivations, and backstory, made it difficult to care about them until the end of the book. I enjoyed the characters and the overarching world enough to read a book two. It will be read with caution and with the hope that it will be more concise.

Overall, I can recommend Gameboard Of Gods by Richelle Mead but would suggest checking it out from the library or borrowing it from a friend rather than purchasing it. See if it is something that you like before making the purchasing plunge. As I said in the beginning of this review, writing about Gameboard Of The Gods by Richelle Mead is difficult because it has lot of potential but quite a few problems. ...more

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Apr 04, 2015 Vickie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: listened-to, booksthatmakemegowow

Below is my review from three years ago when I read this as a handheld book. Getting the chance to listen to it was super. I loved this then and even more now listening to it. I wasn't sure about the narrator, Emily Shaffer, at first but enjoyed her enthusiasm within the first disk. Really looking forward to the rest of the series.
Definitely recommend this book, series and author.
************
Richelle Mead is a demigoddess of world-building. She's drawn a rather dystopian future of enhanced sol ...more

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Oct 28, 2013 Logan rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed-library, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, 2013-books-read

While I can understand a lot of the complaints I've seen in other reviews, I thought this was engaging and unique. I liked both Justin and Mae as lead characters I could root for, and Tessa added warmth to an otherwise chilling narrative. Yes, some aspects of the world could have been explained better - and sooner - but Mead did a great job selling it as the norm, so I went along with it. The book had a nice mystery that resolved itself by the end, giving me the answers I needed to feel satisfie ...more

2 likes · Like · see review