Norse Code
Jan. 10th, 2011 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviewthatBook: Norse Code
By: Greg Van Eekhout
Pages: 292
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Stars: 3
This is an urban fantasy that centers around the Valkyrie Mist, who goes AWOL when she looses faith in the Valkyrie project and the manner in which the dead are being recruited to fight on the side of the gods during Ragnarök. Leaving her post, she goes looking for the Norse messenger god (Hermod), and the two of them attempt to stop the end of the world.
I will admit that I was hoping for a bit ... more from this book. I was entertained, and I think that it was a good book for a rainy or cold afternoon, when all you want to do is hide underneath the covers. But I love reading about Norse mythology and Ásatrú in an academic sort of way, so that may be where my bit of disappointment comes from.
I also wasn't entirely happy with the way that the book ended. It wasn't that I don't think that the things that happened weren't lead up to, it's more a feeling like there wasn't enough closer about what happened to some of the characters. Frigg is felt through the majority of the book as a mover and shaker of things that are occurring, but her fate is never revealed, and that left a bad taste in my mouth. If she is really so significant to the lead up to the end of the world, to not tie things up with her made me feel like there was a huge part of the story that was just left adrift.
That being said, I did like that there was a bit of mystery how the world would go into reboot after the end of the world was averted, and that there was a bit of mystery about those who had died and had found themselves in the realm of the living when everything was over. They seem to be left in a space between living and dying, and their fates are not explained. I think that was a smart thing to do (not trying to explain what may or may not happen to them) since all we really have in real life is faith about what may or may not happen to us.
I'd say to check it out as a light read, but don't go into it thinking you might get anything truly deep out of it.
By: Greg Van Eekhout
Pages: 292
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Stars: 3
This is an urban fantasy that centers around the Valkyrie Mist, who goes AWOL when she looses faith in the Valkyrie project and the manner in which the dead are being recruited to fight on the side of the gods during Ragnarök. Leaving her post, she goes looking for the Norse messenger god (Hermod), and the two of them attempt to stop the end of the world.
I will admit that I was hoping for a bit ... more from this book. I was entertained, and I think that it was a good book for a rainy or cold afternoon, when all you want to do is hide underneath the covers. But I love reading about Norse mythology and Ásatrú in an academic sort of way, so that may be where my bit of disappointment comes from.
I also wasn't entirely happy with the way that the book ended. It wasn't that I don't think that the things that happened weren't lead up to, it's more a feeling like there wasn't enough closer about what happened to some of the characters. Frigg is felt through the majority of the book as a mover and shaker of things that are occurring, but her fate is never revealed, and that left a bad taste in my mouth. If she is really so significant to the lead up to the end of the world, to not tie things up with her made me feel like there was a huge part of the story that was just left adrift.
That being said, I did like that there was a bit of mystery how the world would go into reboot after the end of the world was averted, and that there was a bit of mystery about those who had died and had found themselves in the realm of the living when everything was over. They seem to be left in a space between living and dying, and their fates are not explained. I think that was a smart thing to do (not trying to explain what may or may not happen to them) since all we really have in real life is faith about what may or may not happen to us.
I'd say to check it out as a light read, but don't go into it thinking you might get anything truly deep out of it.
