Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this story has, like the Norse mythology upon which it's based, moments of rather grim violence. There's also some swearing and references to drinking, drunkenness, and pipe smoking.
Families can talk about the Norse myths upon which this book is based. What is Yggdrasil? How are the Nine Worlds organized? Has the author stayed true to the myths, or has she changed them? See the recommended list section below for some places to start.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
You have to admire an author who can think big. As armies clash and worlds collide across the infinite plains of Hel, you'll be reminded of other great epic fantasies: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, or Pullman's His Dark Materials. This may not be on quite the same level as those classics, lacking their propulsive motion along a clear path, but it has their epic scope and exciting grandeur.
Every mythology has its own unique mood and consciousness. If Greek myth has the clarity of the Aegean light, and Egyptian myth the shifting aspect of desert sands, Norse myth has the fuzziness and confusion of the bleak, cold darkness of northern wastes. Readers will get more out of this if they have some familiarity with Norse mythology, but even so, as the worlds of Dream and Chaos impinge on Order, much is left unclear. Still, it's a wild ride with an appealing protagonist, and this post-Ragnarok mash-up will have experienced readers gleefully buzzing through its more than 500 pages.
From The Book
Seven o'clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the End of the World, and goblins had been at the cellar again. Mrs. Scattergood -- the landlady at the Seven Sleepers Inn -- swore it was rats, but Maddy Smith knew better. Only goblins could have burrowed into the brick-lined floor, and besides, as far as she knew, rats didn't drink ale.
But she also knew that in the village of Malbry -- as in the whole of the Strond Valley -- certain things were never discussed, and that included anything curious, uncanny, or unnatural in any way. To be imaginative was considered almost as bad as giving oneself airs, and even dreams were hated and feared, for it was through dreams (or so the Good Book said) that the Seer-folk had crossed over from Chaos, and it was in Dream that the power of the Faerie remained, awaiting its chance to re-enter the world.
Plot Summary:
"Five hundred years after the End of the World," Maddy is growing up an outcast in her small village, where magic is present but forbidden and ignored. But in her friendship with a one-eyed vagrant, she first discovers that she has magic of her own, and then that she is at the center of a battle among the Norse gods, resurgent powers, and the Nine Worlds for control of the universe, a war that didn't end when the world did. Includes maps, character list, and list of runes.
Related Books:
More Fantasies Based in Norse Myth:
Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones
A Wizard of Earthsea: The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1 by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
Beowulf by Gareth Hinds
The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
Related Web Sites
Official Site
Author's Site
The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum (etext)
Encyclopedia Mythica
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ViolenceLots of fantasy violence, some a bit gory. A man is beaten into unconsciousness, hit in the shoulder by a crossbolt, stabbed, and slashed; a wolf rips out a man's throat. The characters experience gruesome visions of torment in the Underworld. |
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Language"Bitch" and "bastard" used infrequently; "bulls--t" is said once. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoReferences to drinking and drunkenness, pipe smoking. |
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