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Runemarks (Runemarks #1)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 2,729 ratings · 444 reviews

Seven o'clock, on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again...

Maddy Smith was born with a rusty-coloured runemark on her hand - a symbol of the old gods and definitely cause for suspicion. For magic is dangerous. Or so everyone thinks. But Maddy enjoys working magic. Even if it is just to control some pesky go...more

Paperback, 504 pages

Published 2008 by Corgi (first published January 1st 2007)

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Sep 03, 2008 Jane rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jane by: YABC, Alethea

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, home-library, yabc, high-fantasy, middle-grade

My main complaint about Runemarks was the complexity. The narrative was far too extensive and unfocused. I don’t know much about Norse mythology, so I found myself frequently frustrated with the intricate and complicated Norse histories. I usually prefer being eased into a new world where I’m given time to absorb the characters’ personalities and different politics, etc. It wasn’t my taste.

YABC May 2008

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Mar 27, 2012 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, the-sparkles-mean-its-magic, you-go-girl, hark-a-questing-beast, handmaid-of-literature, ust-ftw, but-wait-theres-more, goodreads-made-me-do-it

Sometimes when I’m reading a book, friends, I have figured out the ending within three seconds.

This is what I thought was happening with Runemarks.

“Really, Joanne Harris,” I said, rolling my eyes and flinging my arms around in a grandiose manner, “you really think this is a book with twists and turns? The main character just met a witty maybe-evil prankster named Lucky. Am I supposed to be SHOCKED when he turns out to be Loki, the witty maybe-evil prankster god? And am I just blown away by the r...more

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May 27, 2008 Alethea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, sci-fi-fantasy, magic, intermediate-reader

I loved the movie Chocolat and I read a bit of Jigs and Reels, but nothing has hooked me on Joanne Harris as much as this! She started it as a story for her daughter, years later it is a fantastic tale of magic and adventure for all ages. The mythology is Norse, a nice break from the Greek gods if you've been devouring Rick Riordan's Olympians. So soon after reading Michael Scott's The Alchemyst, it's neat to come across more references to Yggdrasil, the World Tree. And if, like me, you love kee...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked Runemarks it was a nice change of pace and if you love anything to do with mythology especially Norse mythology then you will defnitely love this book.

I am a huge fan of mythology and while I like Norse mythology I didn't really know much about it and I felt that Runemarks was actually a really good way to learn a bit more about Norse mythology.

I found the book as a whole to be really really fascinating and I loved every bit of it. While Runemarks is a big book I actually felt tha...more

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Dec 21, 2008 Kenzie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent fantasy esp. if you enjoy mythology.

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Jul 17, 2011 Hilary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, juvenile

We're all familiar with the author who lives in denial of their genre writing ("It doesn't have spaceships in, so it can't be science fiction!"). Joanne Harris is somewhat the opposite; for years she's been slyly slipping fantastic elements into her otherwise resolutely mainstream fiction and getting away with it. Here she goes for all-out fantasy, and it's a sad reflection on the publishing world today that in order to do so she's had to have it marketed as YA. This is a lovely book: a joyous,...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine that Ragnarok happened, Asgard fell, and in the aftermath the survivors stumbled blindly forward to build a new world on the ashes of the old. Imagine, also, that the ancient runes have power for those that are born marked with them. Five hundred years after the end, much of the world is dominated by the Order, which has done its best to eradicate rune-magic and magical creatures of all kinds - with a thoroughness comparable to the Inquisition at its worst. But on the far side of the mou...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marked by a rune on her hand, Maddy Smith has been shunned by the villagers of Malbry for all her life. As a child, she finds a friend in the traveller One-Eye, an Outlander who teaches her to use magic – a dangerous art connected to the old gods and condemned by the Order. Now One-Eye asks fourteen-year-old Maddy a favour: to go into World Below and retrieve a mysterious object. Little does Maddy know that there are others after it too, and so her great adventure begins. The plot is very intric...more Marked by a rune on her hand, Maddy Smith has been shunned by the villagers of Malbry for all her life. As a child, she finds a friend in the traveller One-Eye, an Outlander who teaches her to use magic – a dangerous art connected to the old gods and condemned by the Order. Now One-Eye asks fourteen-year-old Maddy a favour: to go into World Below and retrieve a mysterious object. Little does Maddy know that there are others after it too, and so her great adventure begins. The plot is very intricate and to reveal more would be to spoil it.

Set five hundred years after the End of the World, the novel draws heavily from Norse mythology (though whether it's a fresh take or a bastardisation of the source material depends on your tastes). In fact, so much of the mythology is appropriated that it can be difficult to follow, hence the included maps and list of characters. I myself found it a bit overwhelming, despite having some familiarity with the tales (translation: the main thing I remember is that Loki once turned into a lady-horse and did it with a man-horse and then gave birth to Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse – but this particular story isn't included in Runemarks). The narrative often seems to progress rather slowly, mired by the history of its setting. It's worth getting through though as the book only gets better the further you read.

The world and magic system are interesting and the characters work well as an ensemble, but what you'd really read this book for is the plot. There are many different characters with many different motivations and it was interesting to see how their plot-lines intertwined with one another. Best of all is the adventure. There is always something happening and new places to be explored. The journey to a certain place (near the end of the book) was particularly gripping, taking a darker turn than I had anticipated. Though it's an epic tale that fits in one book, not everything is completely tied up and there is a sequel, Runelight.

Though I was distracted by the abundance of semicolons early on, the writing itself is generally smooth and easy to read. I found that I wasn't particularly invested in the (early mentioned) history of the world to begin with, since it was quite dense and since I didn't quite care for anything or anyone yet. On this note, the shortness of the chapters was a real help to me in getting me through the history-heavy parts, making them seem less daunting. Another problem I had was in the frequent shifts in point of view (which itself was occasionally omniscient but mostly read like third person limited) – shifts which sometimes happened between paragraphs. There were two or three times I wasn't sure whose head I was in, and these moments took me out of the story and were jarring enough to leave an impression. This problem also disappeared as I got near the end.

Runemarks is a good YA fantasy, especially for those who want something epic in scope but one book in length. It was hard for me to get into at first, but I was glad I kept reading. While the world-building elements can be quite heavy-handed at times, these elements are woven into the story and the book certainly delivers on the adventure front. The way the plot wraps up is also very satisfying.(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 Yune rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mythology, young-adult-fantasy

What happens when the Norse gods are still around after Ragnarôk, but weakened enough to depend on a girl born with a strange rune on her hand?

I picked this up because it's usually fun to see mythological gods depicted as characters in modern narrative fiction. But even with some basic knowledge of Norse mythology, I came away a little confused by the book, in an "ooookay" kind of way.

The story's pretty straightforward -- too much so in the beginning, when Maddie's told emphatically not to tell...more What happens when the Norse gods are still around after Ragnarôk, but weakened enough to depend on a girl born with a strange rune on her hand?

I picked this up because it's usually fun to see mythological gods depicted as characters in modern narrative fiction. But even with some basic knowledge of Norse mythology, I came away a little confused by the book, in an "ooookay" kind of way.

The story's pretty straightforward -- too much so in the beginning, when Maddie's told emphatically not to tell anyone about her one-eyed teacher (and guess what she does) or when she encounters a less-than-honest youth named Lucky (yep, guess who that is) -- but it's long and kind of bendy, with lots of points of view thrown in. Unfortunately, the turns didn't any delightful surprises, even though as I went along they became less predictable; they just advanced the plot and put off the endpoint without really engaging me further. Someone called it epic, but I'd just call it winding.

Thinking back, there was no particular character growth. Maddie's likeble enough, and you know she's going to end up becoming significant, but she's an "ever-forward!" kind of girl who just keeps adventuring and doing the best she can with few qualms. The gods are pretty focused on their tasks, and some characters like the parson (who even got some chapters of his own) made me skim ahead because I just couldn't care about them despite their clearly being up to Plotty Things; they were just too...thin to care about.

And there was a sense of whimsy that infused much of the book; it's a type of humor/fabulist bent that didn't quite work for me. I could deal with a goblin sneaking into the cellar for a drink of ale, but not someone turning into a pig. I want a little more reason with my rhyme (Roald Dahl excepted).

I will say that one of the neat parts was the magic system, with people casting runes at each other and detecting lies by observing the colors in others' auras. But noting this as a highlight in a book that's about a romp with Norse gods in the flesh probably says enough. Just not for me.(less)

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Oct 12, 2012 Fangs for the Fantasy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I almost didn't read this book to be honest, the cover and the synopsis on the back did little to recommend it. Had it not been for the comments on Goodreads, which gave a greater detail of the story, I never would have read this book. If I were Harris, I would have been enraged at the person who wrote the synopsis because it gave no hint of the great story inside. Prepare yourself for some serious fanpoodling, you have been warned.

From the moment of her birth Maddy Smith had always been an outs...more I almost didn't read this book to be honest, the cover and the synopsis on the back did little to recommend it. Had it not been for the comments on Goodreads, which gave a greater detail of the story, I never would have read this book. If I were Harris, I would have been enraged at the person who wrote the synopsis because it gave no hint of the great story inside. Prepare yourself for some serious fanpoodling, you have been warned.

From the moment of her birth Maddy Smith had always been an outsider in the little rural community into which she had been born. Some five hundred years after Ragnarök mankind is now captivated by something called the word and people are told not to dream and most certainly not to perform any kind of magic. Born with a runemark on her hand Maddy is capable of performing various kinds of magic but she has no idea how much until one day in her 7th year she meets old one eye otherwise known as a good-for-nowt Outlander. Year after year he comes to her for a few weeks and tells her the stories of he Norse Gods as he teaches her various runemarks and how to harness her power. Being isolated Maddy spends in the time dreaming that the various Norse Gods are friends and famly to her.

One morning Maddy is called to Mrs. Scattergood's to deal with yet another goblin infestation in the cellar when this time she manages to catch and correctly name Sma-rakki. In an effort to capture hold him she lets loose all of the bilge and vermin in the area rise from depths. She quickly leaves the cellar knowing that they will disappear in an hour but the racket draws the attention of Adam Scattergood, as Maddie races off to meet with the Outlander. It is at this meeting that Maddy is observed by Adam and her secret ability to perform magic becomes known. The Outlander sends Maddy on a quest to find the Whisperer long buried in One Horse Hill while he stays behind to deal with the townsfolk. The Outlander tells Maddy not to trust anyone she meets, well aware of exactly what is at stake.

There is so much more to Maddy's quest than she realises. To be successful Maddy must heal the rift between the Æsir and the Vanir all the while gambling that Loki will not actually betray her. The Word feels that it's time for it to rule the world and will stop at nothing to cast aside the old Gods. It has gathered a host of followers amongst the folk and is determined to rule in Asgarde as the Gods of old once did. Can Maddy get them to leave the past as the past because the word represents not only a threat to their continued existence but to the nine worlds as well.

If you are a fan of Norse mythology, I suspect that this book will catch you from the very beginning of its epic tale. It is so clear that Harris did a lot of research to write this book, with everything from the mythos of the Gods themselves to the runemarks she uses throughout the book. Though familiar with many of the Gods who appeared in this story, Harris skillfully builds on their stories while keeping true to the original tales. I found myself warming to the healer Iðunn and the ease at which she managed to block out the most desperate circumstances. I laughed at Loki's antics and wondered when people would finally get wise to the fact that he is no good. I was saddened for Hel and her tireless pursuit of Baldr - a love destined to be forever unrequited as he sits in death next to her on his throne - a shadow of his former self. Harris brought them alive for me in a way that was new and eer so compelling.

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Aug 08, 2012 Joe Gibson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd been asking my friend for a book to read for ages and in the end she handed me Runemarks. At first I was intimidated by it's size but thought what the hell and started reading it. To be completely honest, it was a mess of a read for me and I really found myself forcing myself to read it and looking back I don't know how I did in all honesty. The writing of the book is great don't get me wrong but the way it's planned out isn't. I was utterly confused by the climax of the book and finished th...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Amashelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Despite playing fast and loose with some of the runes, Harris weaves a fantastic 'what if?' post-Ragnorak story that I could not put down. Sometimes, there were echoes of K. A. Applegate's Everworld books, in that the the Gods of Runemarked are fallible, selfish, and often manipulative beings that are all too human for their own good.

The main character is a curious, powerful young girl who, having lived all her life on the outskirts, will believe anything if it makes her belong. So she sets out...more

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May 07, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Joanne Harris has made quite a leap from Chocolat to Runemarks. Not aforward leap of quality, but a sideways one of genre and tone. It’s a long ways from enchanting romantic comedy to a raw and sweeping adventure in the underworld of the Norse Gods. This is supposed to be a children’s book, and in many ways it is. My eight-year-old granddaughter loved it. I suspected for a while that it was meant to ride on Harry Potter’s coattails, but it’s unfair to suspect every excursion into magic and fant...more Joanne Harris has made quite a leap from Chocolat to Runemarks. Not aforward leap of quality, but a sideways one of genre and tone. It’s a long ways from enchanting romantic comedy to a raw and sweeping adventure in the underworld of the Norse Gods. This is supposed to be a children’s book, and in many ways it is. My eight-year-old granddaughter loved it. I suspected for a while that it was meant to ride on Harry Potter’s coattails, but it’s unfair to suspect every excursion into magic and fantasy of Potter copycatting. These themes and motifs were around long before Harry and Hogwarts.
What happens is this: Maddy is a feared and different village child (the time seems to be roughly medieval) born with a runemark on her arm. Runemarks are like birthmarks except more dynamic. They glow and burn and jump around and indicate a relationship with the world of goblins and fairies (furies) which beset humans in all sorts of ways. In her isolated rejection, she’s befriended by a strange one-eyed peddler (another reject, this one older who becomes her teacher--seen that one before?) who comes to the village every year or so starting when Maddy is seven and instructs her on the uses of the powers that her runemark gives her. After seven years (note the magic number), circumstances combine to make it necessary to begin force her into using her powers in earnest. She finds a gateway into an underworld where there are more gods and goblins with greater powers than the nervous village humans had ever imagined.
There is a Salem witch hunt quality to the sanctimonious religiosity of the town elders who try to squelch the uprising of the pagan deities. However, it’s not as simple as the Puritans vs truth. Harris’ imagination is more complex and interesting than that. She creates and manages an enormous cast of characters with intricate powers and motives without confusion and creates readers’ sympathy and enmity for all of them. The scope of concluding cast and battle is worthy of War and Peace. You won’t believe who the one-eyed peddler turns out to be. And there are a lot of laughs as she plays with vulnerabilities of the gods’ powers. For example, certain of them can transform into animals, but they have no way for bringing clothes along for when they want to come out of that guise into their more human-appearing form. Thus, there are some truly comic scenes of naked gods and goddesses scrambling to cover or explain their undress. Harris may not have achieved Tolkien status with Runemarks, but she certainly rivals Rowling in literary achievement. Not popularity, of course. But then who does or will ever again?(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Barb Middleton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, ya

The villagers think Maddie is a witch because of the runemark on her palm. People and animals with runemarks are usually killed at birth but Maddie is not because the midwife who delivered her is considered mad and no one took her seriously when she told of the runemark.

After her birth, the villagers begin seeing goblins who are known to watch Maddie. She is ostracized and wild until she meets One-Eye, the man who tutors her in performing magic using her runemark. For 7 years, One-Eye teaches h...more The villagers think Maddie is a witch because of the runemark on her palm. People and animals with runemarks are usually killed at birth but Maddie is not because the midwife who delivered her is considered mad and no one took her seriously when she told of the runemark.

After her birth, the villagers begin seeing goblins who are known to watch Maddie. She is ostracized and wild until she meets One-Eye, the man who tutors her in performing magic using her runemark. For 7 years, One-Eye teaches her for a short period of time traveling from the World’s End. He is late this year and when he does arrive he finds that Maddie’s powers have grown and he wants her to help him open a gateway into the Red Horse Hill to retrieve the Whisperer. Thus begins Maddie’s quest where she meets the Norse gods of old who wage a battle with the religious rulers of the world who want to rid themselves of the gods forever.

This book is going to be a difficult read without any knowledge of Norse mythology and the creation stories. Because I had read three Norse books prior, I didn’t have too many problems following the story. There are quite a few references to the myths but not in-depth explanations which was good because I think it would have taken away from the main story. The reader should know the difference between the Aesir and Vanir and Order and Chaos. A knowledge of Mimir’s story is necessary and I think they should have included that in the story (or had it in an appendix) because the Whisperer, Oracle, and Mimir are the same people.

I thought the author did a nice job of developing Loki as the lying trickster who incorporates both good and evil and order and chaos. The reader should be familiar with his story in Norse mythology in order to fully understand his contradictory behavior. While he is presented as charming, I wished he had been more playful. The story is heavy handed at times with religious aspects. The villagers who represent order are narrow-minded zealots and only Nan seems to be presented as a less extreme person.

The ending has some interesting twists. I didn’t really understand what the author meant with Adam running away with the golden key. Maybe she was referring to Grimm’s fairytale that has no ending. A boy finds a golden key and unlocks a box but the reader doesn’t know what happens after that.

The book has violent parts and some might be uncomfortable with when the gods shift shapes into animals they come back to their human form with no clothes on. This creates some odd situations for them – some funny, some not. Fantasy lovers should find this an interesting read with plenty of action.
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Oct 06, 2011 Romaine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: confident-readers

The first children's book by Joanne Harris writer of chocolat. Got the priviledge to read this before it came out officially and I absolutely loved it. Second installment will be out later this year, Nov 11.

Maddy is born with a rune mark on her hand and everyone in the village has made her an outsider because they know that rune marks are part of the old Gods and involve the use of magic. There is only one that person labels her by the name of rune mark and she gains only one friend or is he? Ma...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Kimberli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In "Runemarks" by Joanne Harris, it’s been five hundred year since the gods fought at Ragnarok which was an epic war between the Norse gods. A new group called the Order took over and has put everything back into place, but the only thing it’s their view of what is wrong and what is right so basically it's their way or the highway. Maddy Smith was born with a copper mark on her hand which makes her an outcast or a witch you might say. When she meets a friend whom she calls One Eye, she asks him...more

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Jun 29, 2010 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Review for Parents by Strict Christian Parent (contains spoilers)

I thought this book was subtly devious and subversive. I regretted allowing my 12-year-old son read it. And the ending wasn't very good.

I read this book because my son read it, and I wanted to see what it contained. You can get a summary on your own, so I'll just explain what I didn't like.

The fantasy novel has as antagonists a group of people that are modeled after the Christian religion that are amorally evil, and who derive thei...more Review for Parents by Strict Christian Parent (contains spoilers)

I thought this book was subtly devious and subversive. I regretted allowing my 12-year-old son read it. And the ending wasn't very good.

I read this book because my son read it, and I wanted to see what it contained. You can get a summary on your own, so I'll just explain what I didn't like.

The fantasy novel has as antagonists a group of people that are modeled after the Christian religion that are amorally evil, and who derive their power from the same "magic" that the Norse Gods do. It even has a book that they follow called the "Good Book" and an evil man called "The Pastor". The "Order" follows an "Unnamed" supernatural being that ends up being a selfish power-hungry entity that wants to destroy the worlds so he can rule it.

This author of this book chooses to model religion, especially the Christian religion, as an organization that creates rules to give power to the leadership, rather than as a body that brings joy to it's followers. The organization outlaws dreaming and imagination and such, claiming it to be a source of evil in the world, and parallel to witchcraft.

Fiction is enjoyable because it is believable. If it's not "real," it's not very good fiction. This is a problem because exposure to false principles through fiction can impact and form one's perception of reality, especially for children. If a youth reads a thousand books, and all of them portray mothers as evil, destructive people, then the youth will be much more likely to accept that as truth, even if the books aren't true. This is the problems with many pieces of fiction today. They take a wonderful entity, the Christian Church, that has been the source of so much good in the world, and demonize it, claiming that it is okay because "it is only fiction". This book is a perfect example of that.

This book does the same thing with relative morality, teaching that what is good at one time is evil at another, and vice versa.

The ending was a poor one, as well. The chief antagonist spends five hundred years preparing to take over the world, and the culminating events of that preparation (the climax of the book) are very shallow and difficult to believe as "real". Not nearly like the battles in the Harry Potter or Leven Thumps where the battles are based on solid strategy and feel real.

All in all, not worth reading.(less)

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Aug 14, 2009 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Someone who liked Norse mythology but wasn't particularly picky.

Recommended to Jessica by: Online review

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Fair-to-middling fantasy. It's nice to see a book based on Norse mythology, but it would've been nicer if the book had been better. Joanne Harris is British, and the tone is extremely British, which is odd with the Norse gods running around--as were the occasional anachronisms in the way the characters talked, modern sarcasm and irony ("Duh!") that clashed with the medieval/old-timey setup. It also felt like Joanne had written a couple of scenes before she had the entire storyline in mind or had...more Fair-to-middling fantasy. It's nice to see a book based on Norse mythology, but it would've been nicer if the book had been better. Joanne Harris is British, and the tone is extremely British, which is odd with the Norse gods running around--as were the occasional anachronisms in the way the characters talked, modern sarcasm and irony ("Duh!") that clashed with the medieval/old-timey setup. It also felt like Joanne had written a couple of scenes before she had the entire storyline in mind or had chosen a 14-year-old girl, Maddy, as the protagonist--the tone and focus shifts suddenly, and the sequences feel "older" than the rest. For example, one of the big moments of the climactic confrontation turns on a weirdly modern "men and women have totally different expectations" conversation, complete with the woman thinking "Men!" This, while Chaos is busting loose and all the Nine Worlds are in peril? With all the focus shifts, it felt like Joanne couldn't quite decide which of the characters she wanted to concentrate on, or how she felt about them. She clearly likes Loki, however, which makes him one of the more engaging characters; because he's the Trickster, and supposed to be charming, she gave him more lively dialog and initiative.

The other Aesir and Vanir come across as little more than name dropping, there to fill out the myth more than to really "live"--on the other hand, their behavior certainly mirrored the myths. They are all stupid, treacherous, selfish, and argumentative; real people wouldn't have stayed together so long without actually either making friends or coming to blows, but that's very common for the allegorical figures in myths, right? You've got the pantheon, and each of the gods have to act in line with their assigned roles. Thus, Thor's always a big bruiser, Freya's vain, etc., and none of them have souls so much as they have parts to play. That two-dimensionality clashed with the way Joanne treated the human types, who did react emotionally, change their minds, and follow logical consequences. For example, the humans quickly learned to distrust and fear Skadi, who'd proved herself not just dangerous but a literal maneater, but by the end, the "gods" seemed to forget or disregard the fact that she'd betrayed and tried to kill them. Psychic dissonance!

The biggest problem with the plot came from these "because I said so" interactions. The emergence of a villain who not only had amazing telepathic powers but also managed to gather a vast army of followers threw me out of the story, because Joanne never explained how the heck he managed to do it all, or why anyone would follow him, or why nobody had noticed after all these years. Yeah, big surprise, but definitely on the "What?!?" side rather than the "Wow!!" side. Maddy's feeling of relief and happiness at the end of the book comes out of the same area of left field--after everything that's happened, her conclusion that she's finally got a "family" was absolutely bizarre. These people had spent the entire time either ignoring her, arguing, and trying to kill each other--and she's glad that she's part of their group?

Logic, clearly, is not the book's strong suit. But one brain-itching part of that illogic does come from the mythology itself. Everybody's fighting, Loki's afraid of getting killed, nobody wants to die--but we spend a fair amount of the book actually in Hel and Netherworld, where all the dead are stored (can't really say they're living there), and several of the Aesir (including Loki) have actually been dead before. So where does this fear of death come from? Given the setup, dying is more like getting misdirected--instead of ending up in Asgard, you're stuck in the Black Fortress until you can figure out a way to escape, or until somebody comes and frees you. Which makes the "deaths" of two characters in the final confrontation even weirder: if you go to Hel when you die, but you die in Hel, where does your soul end up? If there's no more than the Nine Worlds, where else is there to go? It doesn't say that the soul (or Aspect, to use the term in the book) is utterly destroyed, but it also doesn't explain how a soul can end up someplace other than the Underworld.

But then, metaphysics aren't really the book's strong suit. For the villainous Order, it feels like Joanne lazily copped bits from Anglicanism without the actual doctrinal underpinnings, and everybody uses "gods" as an exclamation/expletive--including the gods themselves--without any kind of reference to an actual divine belief. So why would everybody use that particular term? It's the kind of careless writing that hurt the book for me. (less)

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Oct 04, 2011 Cassandra rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-and-fantastic, reviewed, y-a-lit

This was a pretty good book. Not amazing, but not half bad either--the kind of rollicking adventure, with themes of self-esteem and rebellion against intolerant, controlling leadership, that seems to have taken the world of young adult literature by storm. I had already fallen in love with the subtle overtones of fairy-tale in 'Chocolat,' so when I discovered this, Joanne Harris' first excursion into YA fantasy lit, I picked it up and devoured it eagerly.

To say that I was disappointed with the...more This was a pretty good book. Not amazing, but not half bad either--the kind of rollicking adventure, with themes of self-esteem and rebellion against intolerant, controlling leadership, that seems to have taken the world of young adult literature by storm. I had already fallen in love with the subtle overtones of fairy-tale in 'Chocolat,' so when I discovered this, Joanne Harris' first excursion into YA fantasy lit, I picked it up and devoured it eagerly.

To say that I was disappointed with the book would be an unfair exaggeration--but there's no denying it didn't hook me quite as much as Chocolat. Perhaps this is partly due to my utter lack of familiarity with the Norse myths that are the basis of the the story; but Runemarks' plot seemed loose and wandering, with new characters and plot twists introduced with such frequency, and so little explanation, that their significance was often lost on me.

That said, Harris' characterizations are delightful. The Trickster Loki in particular is a deliciously cheeky, wickedly mischievous, roguish, irreverent, and impertinent scoundrel who, in true Joanne Harris style, single-handedly redeems the book from any plot pitfalls and keeps readers, like his cohorts, simultaneously laughing at him and wanting to strangle him, and unsure whether he is set to save the world or bring it crashing down into Chaos (which, despite Loki's family connections there, is NOT at all a nice place).

What is missing, ironically, is that mysterious spark or zing--that flirting with the supernatural--that indescribable, but tangibly present, whiff of otherworldliness that brought 'Chocolat' tantalizingly close to the borders of Faery. Spells and cantrips--not to mention the eponymous runes of power--are as thick as fog in all nine worlds of the World tree, and gods and goblins run amok; but that magical quality in the former sense is markedly lacking. What made Chocolat so memorable was the way it infused everyday life with a mythical sense of wonder.

Runemarks, on the other hand, brings the legendary down into the realm of the everyday. “God’s just a word,” Loki says, dismissing with a single gesture a world of awe and mystery. “Anyone can be a god if they have enough worshippers… Just words people use for things they don’t understand.” Within the story, where the gods may turn out to be the enemy, this idea may be reassuring; but once that awe of the divine has been diminished, the world does seem a colder and less colorful place.
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Jul 25, 2011 Routa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As someone who loves early Scandinavian history and mythology, this was an absolute must for me.

The idea of the book is rather fascinating and seems original to me, as what happened after Ragnarök always seemed rather vague. I like how Harris portrays the characters: they do not seem distant like divinities in books sometimes do, but very humane and relatable. I especially liked how Loki was portrayed: untrustworthy, yet not completely evil or despicable person. The book itself doesn't seem to...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Patricia J. O'Brien rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4.5. The only reason it didn't hit 5 for me was the beginning. I almost bailed, because I wasn't engaged at first. Not sure why. What I do know is that once I did become engaged it turned into total fascination. I loved these characters and this epic, epic tale.
I listened on audiobook and really liked the reader, Sile Bermingham, who had the tough job of handling a huge cast of characters. Amazingly, I don't feel like I needed a who's who chart--each is drawn so well that I remembered pretty eas...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Shiloh (SnarkyWriter) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, medieval, mythology, young-adult

4.5 stars.

500 years after Ragnarok, the world is on the brink of war again. The gods are trapped in various places in the Nine Worlds, except for Odin, who is very weak. In the power vacuum after the war came the Order, a University-turned-religion which resembles the worst of Puritanism and the Spanish Inquisition rolled into one, which wants to create perfect order everywhere (which, of course, would be just as bad as perfect chaos). Into this world, Maddy is born, bearing a runemark on her ha...more

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May 30, 2009 Miz Lizzie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 10 and up

Shelves: adult-fiction, alternate-reality, childrensbooks, fantasy, magic, religion, spirituality, tricksters, young-adult, norse-mythology, britain, families, dreams, death

Wow! Another top-flight fantasy by an excellent writer. In an alternate world that bears some resemblance to Britain and is grounded in a rich vein of Norse mythology, fourteen-year-old Maddy Smith discovers that the rune mark on her hand not only gives her magical powers but binds her to a family and destiny shrouded in prophecy. The end of the world, battles between Order and Chaos, old feuds and new alliances, religion and spirituality all figure into an engrossing tale of Maddy's journey to...more

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May 05, 2012 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, hist-fic, paranormal

Fans of post apocalyptic fiction, fantasy, mythology, coming of age themes, and computer games will probably love Runemarks, the debut young adult novel by Joanne Harris. Better known for her adult relationship novels (Chocolate, Coastliners, Blackberry Wine), Harris takes on Norse mythology, setting this book in early Christian England. The landscape, with its gigantic horses carved into hillsides and its prehistoric burial mounds, plays a major role in this tale. Fourteen year old Maddy has be...more

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Jan 07, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book isn't usually my area of interest, but I figured I shoudl read it since a lot of the students here seem to like that kind of stuff.

I like the idea of a book involving Norse Gods, but I felt like Runemarks was way too long! It is too much of an adventure story to appeal to most older middle school students, but its 550+ pages make it a little too much for the average 4th & 5th grader. Not sure who the target audience is.

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Nov 08, 2011 Vivienne Serendipity Reviews rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not a book to be rushed. It is like a fine wine that needs time to mature, allowing your mind to fully appreciate the detailed world building that has gone into it. Joanne Harris has provided comprehensive lists and pictures to help you and I would suggest reading and studying them first before you embark on this epic tale as you may find yourself slightly lost with the huge cast of characters that appear in the story.

Within in this book, you need to tread carefully and keep your eyes o...more This is not a book to be rushed. It is like a fine wine that needs time to mature, allowing your mind to fully appreciate the detailed world building that has gone into it. Joanne Harris has provided comprehensive lists and pictures to help you and I would suggest reading and studying them first before you embark on this epic tale as you may find yourself slightly lost with the huge cast of characters that appear in the story.

Within in this book, you need to tread carefully and keep your eyes open as all is not what it seems. You can never really trust anyone and someone who may have seemed nice, can easily turn out to be bad. Deception and trickery are lying in wait to catch you at every turn.

There are many humorous passages in the book which I haven't ever found before in books by this author. I found that in between all the high drama, I would found myself giggling uncontrollably at something one of the characters said.

The characters are extremely well written with detailed backgrounds which made you feel instantly that you had met them before. To begin with I was taken in by the Whisperer. I honestly wanted my own Whisperer to sit on my dressing table, casually predicting my future. He seemed to be delightfully obnoxious and a real know it all. However as I mentioned above, I soon learnt that this book is full of devious characters who are all out to get what they can purely for selfish reasons. Loki is just adorable and I am sure I am not supposed to feel that way about him but I do. Talk about a trickster! He could sweet talk his way into Buckingham Palace! Maddie is amazing. She takes all her new found abilities in her stride and basically kicks butt, leaving the old Gods trailing in her wind.

I love the way this book completely revolves around runes. I don't think I have read a story before that has featured them so heavily. I found it fascinating how each rune was used to create different things. As I was reading it, I found it reminded me a little of West Of The Moon by Kath Langrish. It has that old world feel to it, where the legends of the myths cause havoc in the world of today.

This is a fast paced book that will make you feel like you are riding a motorcycle at over 100 miles per hour. Maggie and Loki seem to spiral through their mission until they descend into Hell. When you look at the way the world is drawn at the beginning of the book, you come away imagining it like a nine floor multi-story car park with the dream world acting as the road linking each of the floors.

My only niggle with this book is one about myself. I really wish I had more personal knowledge on Norse myths to fully appreciate the amount of work the author has put into this book. You can tell that Joanne Harris has gone to great lengths within her research which has made this book the magical epic tale it is.

This is a complex book that takes you on a thrill ride. A bit like the Krypton Factor on a roller coaster. The use of magic was outstanding and original. Joanne Harris has managed to recreated the Norse Gods and make them hip and stylish, ready to take on the modern world.
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May 16, 2010 Lynn Calvin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

I skipped though to the end, but at about half way I finally decided that while it had nifty bits (a post Ragnorak world with a "Nameless" god like entity and a religious structure of inquisitor types).

The magic structure of a runemagic with magicworkers being born with runes is interesting and well done and I really liked the Norse myth as a background structure.

My biggest problem was headhopping (must have been 50 POVs although it was in third) and spending a lot of time in a multitude of POV...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Rachel Of Questionable Luck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

AWESOME! I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK, DO YOU HEAR ME? AWESOME! "Runemarks" is based on Norse Mythology, and the witty and surprisingly colorful cast of characters includes many Norse Gods (including Loki the Trickster, Odin the All-Father, and Thor the Thunderer), several hilarious goblins (my favorite of which was named Sugar-&-Sacke), and quite a few persnickety, clever, and downright serendipitous humans (including Nat Parson, his wife Ethelberta who is not all she seems, and the uptight...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Rory Williams rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book started out really interesting. I liked Maddy and One-Eye, I was excited when Loki showed up, and for the first third of the book or so, I followed their stories with interest.

But it all went downhill from there.

For one, I wish Maddy had more character developement. She certainly had some, but as more and more characters started accumulating, she fell by the wayside. By the middle of the book Maddy was disappearing for long stretches at a time while we followed other characters, and ev...more The book started out really interesting. I liked Maddy and One-Eye, I was excited when Loki showed up, and for the first third of the book or so, I followed their stories with interest.

But it all went downhill from there.

For one, I wish Maddy had more character developement. She certainly had some, but as more and more characters started accumulating, she fell by the wayside. By the middle of the book Maddy was disappearing for long stretches at a time while we followed other characters, and even when she did show up it was, more often than not, from Loki's perspective. I didn't like that she stopped putting focus on the main character.

Of course, the middle of the book was when it really stopped interesting me. All these different people had all these different agendas, and I honestly hated trying to keep up with all of them. To make matters worse, I really didn't care about any of them! The only characters I cared about were Maddy, Loki, and Odin, and yet there grew to be so many other random characters that these three were all but buried. And as the character list swelled, so did the plot's complexity, so that I had stopped caring long before the climax.

Also, Harris obviously hates Christianity with a passion, as the Christian God is the enemy here. This did not sit well with me, and I imagine it won't sit well with a lot of people.

There was one other thing that didn't sit well with me; it's a small detail, and purely my opinion, but it bothered me A LOT.

I had always seen Loki as a good father. Maybe because I imagined that, since he's a Jotunn, he wouldn't view his children--Hel, Jormungand, and Fenris--as the monsters that the gods thought them to be. Maybe it's because I saw Loki's hostility towards the gods as stemming from the way they treated said children--banishing or imprisoning them. Regardless of the reason, I had firmly believed Loki to be a good father.

However, in this book, Loki is portrayed as a horrible father. He seems to despise his own children, and is even mortally afraid of one of them! They hate him just as much, if not more, and are constantly trying to kill him! I have to admit, that completely ruined the book for me. It's purely my own interpretation of myths that are already vague and debatable, but it still bothered me. A LOT.

Also, why does Harris call Loki and those like him 'demons' or 'Ice People' instead of 'Jotunn'? She calls the gods by their proper names, Aesir and Vanir...why can't she do the same for the Jotunn?

Anyway, I didn't like this book much. The second star is purely because Loki's character (his offspring aside) was entertaining.(less)

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Jun 13, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Runemarks is about a girl living within the Middle Earth on the tree Yggdrasil, who is marked with a rune on her palm. This rune sets her apart from everyone else around her and leads her into helping and hindering the gods in their affairs. This is certainly a novel steeped in Norse myth. I actually came out of this one feeling like I'd learned something about Norse mythology and gods that I hadn't known before. The main character, Maddy, is set apart from the gods and gives a nice outsider's p...more

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About Joanne Harris

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels; The Evil Seed (1989), Sle...more

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Quotes from Runemarks

“In any case, fire burns; that's its nature, and you can't expect to change that. You can use it to cook your meat or to burn down your neighbor's house. And is the fire you use for cooking any different from the one you use for burning? And does that mean you should eat your supper raw?"

Maddy shook her head, still puzzled. "So what you're saying is . . . I shouldn't play with fire," she said at last.

Of course you should," said One-Eye gently. "But don't be surprised if the fire plays back.” — 31 people liked it

“The dead know everything but they don't give a damn.” — 22 people liked it

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