I’m going to get pilloried by the Gaimanites out there, but this book falls a little flat for me. Neil Gaiman has an authoritative voice and clearly knows the stories in and out, but this I fear is actually where the problem lies.

In Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman introduces us to the tales of gods, elves, trolls, and giants, but he does so as an outside from the now, and this removes us from the story.

When Joanne Harris gave us her Runemarks books or Kevin Crossley-Holland of his many retellings, they are told as stories aknew and they involve us in the characters and the settings. Gaiman is accessible enough but doesn’t after anything new or different.

At it’s heart this is a collection of sixteen short stories and like all collections they are of a mixed bag. Whilst few in the over-arching story arc are good, they seem to lose their way in the second half, but the closing couple are back to the fore. If you want an introduction or reader norse mythology, this might be for you.

It wasn’t until I started to read this novella that I realised it was the fifth part in J.F. Penn’s Arkane series. Not that this matters as it is a standalone story in its own right. I was attracted to it my the mix of Norse mythology, Vikings, and the present day, and it did not disapoint.

Day of the Vikings is a fast-paced, enjoyable romp (the author’s own confession) that made me with think of Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth if with more blood, guts, and gore. Some scenes are not for the faint-hearted, much like Game of Thrones, but none of it is gratuitous with it all having a place in the story.

If anything, my own criticism with Penn’s story is that, with its clever plot, sharp writing, and fast-pace, I actually wanted more … lots more. Ragnarok is a big event in the Viking calendar – the biggest you could say – and this could have an been an epic of a story to match that bigness. As it is, it remains a small, and perfectly – formed story.

Just like in the original, when I needed some friends for Eleanor, Alice and Kirsten wandered into the story straight out of one of my earlier (unconnected) stories, so Alice has continued to talk to me through here diaries. She’s given me one such entry which could well act as a prologue for some more Loki/Freyja action.

Possibly don’t read on if you are wary of spoilers…

Alice’s Diary
5 September, Reykjavik

It was weird seeing Andy again. He had looked just as ever he did, but different too. I guess I had never really noticed it before but he had something of a hawkish look to him since when we first met. No, not a hawk but a corvid – both he and and that Valdis woman – Ódinn’s two raven friends.

I still don’t know why Kirsten and I accepted that we should go whilst Ellie, Ben, and Hanna went back into the other world. We did though. I think it was worse for Kirsten though. She and Ben had only just recently – and she was convinced that this was forever. I told her to be strong, I mean like really told her, like I had the metaphorical baseball bat in my hands and was really telling her. We went down the stairs and we didn’t look back.

I say we didn’t look back but I definitely sneaked a glance over my shoulder so I’m sure that Kirsten must have.

It’s hard to describe what the Bifrost is like to walk through. When you are up high, at the top of the arch, the bridge is almost transparent. You can see the world outside; storm clouds and burning mountains. Actually, sometimes you can hardly make out the colours. Down near the entrance it is more like a cave, or a stone wall with steps hewn from single pieces of rock. And then you leave the entrance like a mouth of a cave but you take no more than two or three steps and the bridge is gone. You can see the rainbow, but like rainbows they always seem to jump further from you the closer you get to them. We couldn’t have followed the others then if we had wanted to.

And we did want to, we really did. It had felt so much safer on that bridge than on this hillside right then. The wind was howling – no, raging – and behind us we could see the molten lava spitting from, and a surge of melt water ice, and rock pouring out of a fractured glacier. We looked about us, but on the exposed ridge on which we found ourselves was quite isolated.

And aghh, I couldn’t breath! Kirsten too was choking on the air. It was thick with dust – ash I guess – and sulphorous fumes. It burnt at that back of my throat. I was soon on my knees and squinting through my eyes because it hurt so much.

The next time I woke it was in a bed in Reykjavik Hospital. I turned my head to one side and saw Kirsten lying in the next bay along. She was sleeping and I wondered if she had woken up yet.

I tried to remember what had happened back on the mountain. I remembered the ground quaking, and the following eruption. I remembered lying with my face on the ground paralysed with fear and eating dirt.

That was when I first met him – Luke, the male nurse who was on duty the afternoon that I woke up He was passing through the ward at that moment and saw that I was awake. He crossed the floor and got me to drink a little water – my lips and the back of my throat were so dry.

I remember trying to sit up, and wincing in pain. Feeling numb in my body because it hurt so much. Just bruising I think, or that’s what Luke told me later. Kirsten too, we had been so lucky. Luke helped me to sit up a bit and copy of the National Geographic to read – I think it was one of the few they had in English.

He was really very attentive to me. Too attentive I thought, actually. If he shows this much care to me then he can hardly have any time for his other patients. Not that I was going to complain because he is hot I mean like seriously fit. He had waves of thick, dark hair that hung over those dark eyes of his – eyes of mystery I called them.

The hospital was really insistent that we spoke with our next of kin – which we did – for all the good it did us. My folks were still cross with me that hadn’t got the next flight home and had put myself in further risk even after I had pointed out to them that the only airport was a complete no go area. Still, we need to go when we were discharged and Luke helped us. It seems that everyone knows Hanna’s pabbi!

When the morning came of our departure, Luke helped us down to reception and waited with us until Baldur and Lára arrived. He hugged me, held me tight, and I pressed him a kiss. I wasn’t going to see him again. Kirsten couldn’t believe I had done that but she has always been so much more reserved than me.

It wasn’t until later that night, when I got this journal to write this journal that I found Luke’s card slipped between the pages. I’m staring it now; his name, personal address, email, and mobile number in clear type.

Of course I can’t ever do anything with this information. Not ever.

Tales of the Norse Gods by Barbara Leonie Picard, Rosamund Fowler (Illustrator)

This is a charming little book that takes you through the stories of the Norse Gods. There is an over-arching story that runs through the series of shorter tales hich could each be read, if you liked, individually.

Each story is headed up with a small woodcut which really does add to the appeal of this book. I think my favourite story in this collection is The Lady of the Vanir which features Loki, Freyia and the Brisen-gamen. I feel having read it that I should have read this years ago before tackling Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisengamen as I think I might finally be understanding Susan’s story in that.

But that’s the joy of a book like this. It tells the tales in a simple way, almost like fairy tale, or fable, or even as a kind of ‘Just So Story’. It’s a collection not to just entertain but to inspire. I am getting ideas of my own for a follow-up to The End Of All Worlds! But then this book invites sequels and retellings…

one day, out of the sea that had engulfed it, and out of the ruins, the world would grow again, fresh and green and beautiful; with fair people dwelling on it, born from Lifthrasir and Lif, the only man and woman to escape the fire

Viking!

Vikings have had a resurgence of popularity in the last few years, as have the interest in the old Norse legends – just witness the new exhibition about the Vikings at the British Museum. This book from 2002 serves as a brilliant beginners guide to the joys of the Norse legends and stories of Viking gods.

Although I have long been a fan of Kevin Crossley-Holland’s work and retellings of old myths, I hadn’t heard about this book until I stumbled upon it at my local library. It is immediately readable and entertaining series of individual short stories that have a common thread that runs through them, from the creation through to the end, or Ragnarok.

And, just as in Joanne Harris’ Runemarks books, you will not fail but love the trickster God, Loki by the end of him, and be ever so wary of Odinn.

Religious fiction is not really my usual bag, but urban fantasy (for want of a better word, and I think there probably is…) is. When I came across this book with its clear Christian allegories, but also its promise of involving Christian, Greek, Roman and Norse gods and mythology I had little idea of how that was going to work. Rightly or wrongly, in my head I had these religious beliefs partitioned off as separate belief systems and so couldn’t get my head around anything that joined them all up into one world.

After a slightly slow start which saw our hero Ben Stanford investigating what he thinks to be just the usual homicide, the pace really gets going and I found myself loving the way that Angella Graff did mix up the apparently separate religions. As an atheist myself I also loved some of the things that Mark (he who wrote The Bible) said about what his ‘actual’ intentions were.

My only criticism of this (if this can be counted as criticism), the first in a series of books, would be that at times the pace of the novel can be a little too breakneck. At times I wanted Angella to just slow down, show us a bit more of the scene, and let us enjoy being with this truly fascinating and disparate cast of characters. Not less dialogue, just a bit more description…

Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland

From the beginning, the first book in Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Viking trilogy reads like an old Norse myth or saga. The language is, as you would expect from the author, beautiful and poetic, and he captures the world and scene perfectly. Some of the imagery is familiar of some of the traditional Norse sagas I have read, or indeed Halldór Laxness’ Independent People.

The story is one of a girl, Solveig who sets out to follow and find her father when he leaves on the old trade route to what is now Constantinople, and of the adventures she has, and the people she meets, on the way. It is a story though that is at times quite hard to follow, and at times I did find myself just going with the flow and enjoying the pictures that he paints in mind whilst I catch up with what’s happening!

It has reawoken my desire to read the sagas in their original (so far as that is possible) versions though!

This is the follow-up to  Runemarks and picks up the story three years on from the conclusion of that story.

It’s a big book, and a big story with a large cat of characters made all the larger by them having several different names each depending on which of the nine worlds they are currently in and which Aspect they are inhabiting. This can at times make the story a little hard to keep track of but it’s worth sticking with.

For myself, some of the best parts are those that are set in World Above, in Malbry or Worlds End, but the rollercoaster rides of Dream are also fun. If there is one thing that makes me come back to this story time after time, then that is the way that Joanne Harris paints and plays with the Norse mythology. I simply love the bickering Gods each with their own motives and secrets. It’s wonderful.

Like the first book, this story is complete but there are stands of story left at the end of this, each of which are another story waiting to be told.

Edited to add: In a fine example of auto-correct fail on my tablet, I originally, inadvertently type “worth drinking with”. I only noticed this when Joanne Harris tweeted me herself to tell me so and that “may be the best compliment I’ve EVER had… :-)”. I’ve corrected it now, but it should be worth noting that Maddie, Loki, One-Eye and the rest would definitely be worth drinking with!

This is the follow-up to  Runemarks and picks up the story three years on from the conclusion of that story.

It’s a big book, and a big story with a large cat of characters made all the larger by them having several different names each depending on which of the nine worlds they are currently in and which Aspect they are inhabiting. This can at times make the story a little hard to keep track of but it’s worth sticking with.

For myself, some of the best parts are those that are set in World Above, in Malbry or Worlds End, but the rollercoaster rides of Dream are also fun. If there is one thing that makes me come back to this story time after time, then that is the way that Joanne Harris paints and plays with the Norse mythology. I simply love the bickering Gods each with their own motives and secrets. It’s wonderful.

Like the first book, this story is complete but there are stands of story left at the end of this, each of which are another story waiting to be told.

Edited to add: In a fine example of auto-correct fail on my tablet, I originally, inadvertently type “worth drinking with”. I only noticed this when Joanne Harris tweeted me herself to tell me so and that “may be the best compliment I’ve EVER had… ”. I’ve corrected it now, but it should be worth noting that Maddie, Loki, One-Eye and the rest would definitely be worth drinking with!

As soon as I found out that this book existed I wanted to read it, but I didn't have any idea of what to expect. If you are familiar with Joanne Harris' more famous Chocolat then this is completely different.

Because it contains magic and the Norse gods you might expect to find it on the children's or young adult shelves but at the same time it is a complex, bloody, and treacherous tale. Joanne Harris herself says that it is a book for whoever wants to read it, and I agree.

Divided into nine 'books' to match the nine worlds it begins in a world very much like our's with one important difference. Whilst our world has been directed by the might and beliefs of the Roman empire, this one has been affected by the Vikings and the Norse religion. Particularly in the earlier stages of the book I was reminded strongly of Alan Garner's books early in his career, before he went weird.

It's a complex book with lots of ideas and a sprawling cast of characters that range from the Folk – people like you and I – to the Order, and of course the gods. Now I just want to go on and devour up it's sequel, Runelight.