A superb rendition of Red Sonja that delivers a propulsive sword and sorcery tale with a modern fantasy feel. Zero knowledge of Red Sonja's world or previous incarnations on page and screen is required; being new to the character may even be an advantage. With plenty of action centred on a compelling character - sometimes gritty but by no means depressingly dark, it's a proper adventure. Horror elements that are actually horrific, relationships that ring true and fun 'imaginary scholarship' chapter headings make this an infectious brew with a fresh feel. Raise your foaming tankard to Gail Simone and Red Sonja and enjoy the ride!

A decently constructed fantasy novel. I enjoyed the character of Sonja and the events of the story were interesting. However, I found the pacing of the overall story to be quite messy, especially with the majority of the big conflict taking up the last 40%. A slow build up to a quick resolution. Some of the relationships that have importance don’t have enough emotional weight to fully have me invested in the story.

Sadly not for me at all, I was hoping for so much from this, but I was just sadly let down, I couldn’t connect with the writing or story, so sadly I had to give up.

I really liked the sound of this one and though I didn't know too much about Red Sonja I believed that we would get some background/world-building to fill in the blanks.

I sadly ended up dnfing this one. I just could not get on with Simone's writing style and I felt like that characters just felt so flat. From what I did manage to read the world-building felt lackluster and I just wasn't enjoying myself.

Sorry to Orbit for dnfing!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This landed a little flat for me. Red Sonja is a classic Sword & Sorcery character and this does pay tribute to that genre. That said, I've recently read plenty of S&S from the 80s written by men and women which still managed to be complex, entertaining and have well developed characters. The genre gets a bad name tbh. This was ok but something was missing.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope, NOPE. The main character was the most cliche of a strong woman you could find in fantasy ever, she wasn't even shallow, she was straight up flat like a sheet of paper, except physically of course. The plot was boring, it was action sequence on action sequence and I like myself some action but with some slower scenes in between, not JUST that, develop your characters for Christ's sake!!! Bad, bad, bad.

I have seen quite a few negative reviews of this book, I can understand why, I read this book as I read all books, I switched my brain off from the stressors of the world and just tried to enjoy it, it’s a fantasy book in the style of Conan or Kull and as that quite enjoyable

[ARC provided by NetGalley and Orbit. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Red Sonja: Consumed.]

Rating: 3/5

Before jumping into Red Sonja, I was unsure if I should have background knowledge on who this character actually is. All I really knew was that she's a sword-and-sorcery Marvel Comics character and that she generally doesn't wear a lot of clothes. And I don't think you need to know much more than that to read this book, but I might have been able to sink into this story quicker if I already knew and loved this iconic character.

Written by the legendary comic writer, Gail Simone, Red Sonja is filled to the brim with adventure, rage and a main character that you will either love or hate. Described as a she-devil with a sword, Sonja is the hot-headed and ferocious barbarian you would expect her to be, and as much as she would prefer to drink and fight her way into the sunset, mysterious and horrific rumours from her homeland may be what it takes to bring her back to the country that abandoned her.

My favourite element of this story was the fast pacing, but unfortunately there were a lot of areas I had issues with that prevented me from fully enjoying the story. One of the main things I struggled with was the multiple POVs that are great at expanding the world but not as good at introducing us to new characters. I never felt like I fully understood the motivations behind each character and ultimately didn’t appreciate the high stakes because of this.

I also felt that a lot of things in this book weren’t given enough context from characterisation to worldbuilding which made the book sometimes tedious to get through. Perhaps if I’d known more about the character it wouldn’t have been so obvious, but as someone who isn't familiar with these characters and this world, I sometimes felt a little lost and like I was missing crucial information.

So yes, I had some issues with this story, but there's never a dull moment so it's easy enough to blast through. If you're looking for something fast-paced and can overlook some superficial storytelling, I’d still say this is worth checking out.

Thank you to author and publisher for the arc.

Uh… I was very surprised by how much I hated this book. Immediately from chapter one I knew I was not going to like it at all and I was correct. I hated it so much, the stereotypes and overly sexual portrayal of people was just so unnecessary and just plain rude.

Please save yourself the time and don’t pick this up, you’ll regret it tremendously.