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May 12, 2011

Paul rated it:

Occasionally, a novel can be greatly appreciated without being appealing. Like a piece of art in which one can enjoy the beauty and craftsmanship, but feel no connection with it. No matter how hard one tries, the novel and reader never engage each other; there is only an emotional flatness, a seed of a story that never germinates. Sometimes certain books don’t work with certain readers. This is not a criticism as much as an observation. What doesn’t emotionally connect with one reader could jus More...

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Jul 16, 2009

Ben rated it:

What a great read! This one really was a winner. I admit that I'm a sucker for a female protagonist, especially of the gritty persuasion, and in that respect Muire doesn't disappoint. And talk about a flawed hero! She was the LONE Valkyrie to run away from the Ragnarok. The first one at least. This book is about her saving the world from the second. And it features a villain with human and justifiable motivations. How lacking in sci-fi/fantasy! My own quibble was that I wish it would have been a More...

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Nov 24, 2010

Margaret rated it:

You never know what to expect when reading a book by Elizabeth Bear, and All the Windwracked Stars is no exception. This is a post-apocalyptic novel centered around figures of Norse mythology who are trying their best to stave off the next round of apocalyptic disasters. The main character is an immortal who has managed to keep her naivet� mainly because she believes in black and white and doesnât understand everything that has been happening around her.[return][return]Muire wants to help, but More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Alytha rated it:

It all started with Ragnarok. While a world ended, only three survived: the valkyrie Muire, who is more a historian than a fighter, and ran away when the fighting got bad; Kasimir, a valraven (body of a horse, wings, one deerhead and one antelope-head), whose rider was killed, and the Grey Wolf, who must be somehow related to Fenrir, whose betrayal sparked the final battle.

Over 2000 years later, another world is ending, wrecked by warfare and environmental destruction. Only one city, E More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Lucy rated it:

This is the second Elizabeth Bear book I've read, after 'Dust'. I can't decide which I like more. 'Dust' reads with more authority, more strength in the author's voice and experience and confidence in her subject matter. But the wide-ranging themes and ideas of 'All the Windwracked Stars' are so beautifully ambitious and so carefully grounded in what passes for reality in its world, that I was completely enthralled. I couldn't stop reading, whereas with 'Dust' I struggled a little more to unders More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Mervi rated it:

The story starts with Ragnarok. Some of the einherjar and the walcyrie have become tainted, and they have turned against their brethren. In the fight in the snow, they and the creatures of darkness kill each other. Only Muire, the smallest and the least of the waelcyrge, is still alive because she ran away in the middle of the fighting. She will call herself a coward for the rest of her life. Only one other person is alive on the battlefield; Kasimir who is a walcyrie’s steed, a valraven. His ri More...

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Apr 25, 2011

Lesley rated it:

I'm a great fan of Elizabeth Bear's writing style and imagination, so I dived eagerly into this. Apparently it's one of her earlier works, heavily revised for publication, and the first book in The 'Edda of Burdens' series. It's a curious blend of post-apocalyptic science fiction and Norse mythology with bits of high fantasy, steampunk and animal anthropomorphism thrown in, and it all works together suprisingly well. It's also great to read about a well-imagined world that borrows heavily from N More...

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Jan 08, 2011

Hilcia rated it:

There is something about a post-apocalyptic/apocalyptic, Sci-Fi Fantasy story that does it for me – mix in some Norse mythology and it’s a win-win situation. Elizabeth Bear’s All the Windwracked Stars has all of the above and more. She uses mythology loosely to construct her world and if you are familiar with Odin’s crew of Gods and immortals, you will recognize their integration into Bear’s world, her characters and usage of language.

Our fantasy adventure begins with the end. It’s the More...

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Dec 23, 2010

Abigail rated it:

This is a flawed, but still extraordinary, book about redemption, in which Christian and Norse myth are woven together brilliantly.

First the flaws - The story takes a long time go get off the ground with loads of sluggish introspection from the main characters. The steam-punk aesthetic jars against the high fantasy tone of the Norse myth. The language is by turns strangely modern and strangely antiquated. Pacing is odd. Characters encountered thousands of years apart do not feel as th More...

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Apr 05, 2009

Paul rated it:

Elizabeth Bear is an audacious, difficult, and ultimately rewarding author. There are good reasons why she won a Campbell award, and a Hugo award. She's ambitious, writes characters who are all-too-human, and is very willing to take standard pieces of the F/SF genre, and rework them, remix myth and Story into it, and come out with books and stories that bite.

All the Windwracked Stars is the latest in that tradition. Informed and infused by Norse mythology, the novel begins with, pa More...

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Dec 19, 2008

Samantha rated it:

I've loved Bear's short fiction on Escape Pod, so was excited to get my hands on one of her full length novels. And I was not dissapointed! This is a sweeping, elegant story that meshes technology with ancient mythology. There's a bit of melodrama, but I think that just goes hand in hand with the whole "valkyrie" theme, and its really not overbearing. A quick spoiler-free synopsis: the last valkyrie, long coping with guilt and loss, tracks a sinister and ancient foe through a high-tech More...

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Dec 14, 2010

B. rated it:

Windwracked Stars follows the story of a Valkyrie named Muire, living 2,300 years after the Ragnarok while "the world winds down only ponderously" (32). Holding the burden of being the last survivor of her kind, and with the guilt of her past deeds in the Last Battle, she lives in the final stronghold of the world—the rest of civilization rising and falling, and only this one city holding out for the last gasps of the earth's death. Within this city, in what its citizens believe are it More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Lauryn rated it:

This is my sixth or seventh Elizabeth Bear book I've read this year so I'm used to the feeling of floundering as she throws you right into the middle of ... everything. Do not expect to get an explanation of the world. Do not expect to fully understand who or what the characters are. Expect to be drawn in with delicate and detailed descriptions. Expect compelling and flawed characters. I feel like this book is a much better introduction to Bear's work than where I started (Dust, the first book i More...

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Feb 13, 2011

Luke rated it:

A beautifully written novel combining shadows of Norse mythology with the setting of a post apocalyptic future world on the brink of yet another Armageddon. Long after the prophesied Ragnarok destroys the mortal realm of Midgard the Valkyries endure an apocalypse of their own home world of Valdyrgard. An Armageddon that only three fallen angels and an angelic steed survive. As a long time fan of Norse mythology I knew that I would love this book.
While slightly reminiscent of Wolf' More...

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Jul 21, 2011

Michelle rated it:

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Jan 12, 2009

Elijah rated it:

I am about to go into some extreme nerd territory here, but what All the Windwracked Stars reminded me of, more than anything else, was a video game. Final Fantasy VII to be exact. And while many people like to compare films or books to video games in some sort of derogatory way, I mean it in the absolute best way possible. The point is, there's something so pitch perfect about this novel's depiction of the tragic melancholy of a world that is slowly and clearly in the throes of death, of the wa More...

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Oct 23, 2010

Rob rated it:

...It took me a while to grow into this book but nearing the end I realized this was one of the best books I’ve read in 2008. With Bear’s choice of themes it is not a happy tale. Desperation, a sense of loss and a good deal of guilt are present throughout the story. The characters don’t wallow in it however. They get on with their lives no matter what, and provide a measure of hope in the bleak word they inhabit. Norse legend, magic, strange technology and strong characters, I have high expectat More...

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Jun 10, 2009

Jason rated it:

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Nov 13, 2009

Stefan rated it:

All the Windwracked Stars is the first book in the EDDA OF BURDENS trilogy by fantasy and SF author Elizabeth Bear. The novel is a very original blend of fantasy, science fiction, steampunk and mythology, and while it has some weaknesses, its originality sets it apart in a genre that's all too often filled with cookie-cutter material.

Surprisingly, All the Windwracked Stars actually begins with Ragnarok, the final battle between the Children of the Light and the Tarnished. Muire, a wa More...

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Feb 28, 2010

Michael rated it:

Elizabeth Bear does amazing things with traditional myths by updating them into a science fiction future. Purists surely shudder at the thought of such a wonderful merging of science fiction and fantasy, but Bear really does this remarkably well. In All the Windwracked Stars Bear takes up the threads of Norse mythology, post-Ragnarok, and follows the last surviving Valykrie, Muire, as she tries to keep her head down, millennia after that last Ragnarok, with another impending world-doom on the More...

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Aug 21, 2009

Sandi rated it:

When I read the first chapter of All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear, I thought I would be giving it 5 stars. The language is beyond beautiful. The story is told in the manner of an epic poem, without the verse. This is the stuff of myth and legend and that is reflected in the style. The reader doesn't really connect to the characters, but can one really ever connect to legends?

I ended up downgrading this story by one star for a couple of reasons. First, about halfway th More...

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Dec 04, 2011

Kate rated it:

This took me a long time to get into. Part of this was due to Bear's writing style which is quite dense and expects you to just 'get on board'*, part of this is that my scanty knowledge of norse mythology made it hard to keep up with what might have been obvious to better read readers, but mostly I think it's that Bear keeps us in the dark about who these characters are and why they're doing what they're doing.

A little more of the back stories early on might have made it easier for me More...

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Aug 26, 2009

Lawrence rated it:

The premise of the book is fascinating: take an older mythology and extend it into the future. Mixture of fantasy and sci-fi. Interesting story ensues.

Wrong. Boring, slow, stories with overly weird writing and mythological terminology ensues.

I'm not so into fantasy these days, so I took a small chance on this one based on how much I liked one of her recent novels, Carnival. While that story turned culture on its head, it remained interesting. This one had almost no charac More...

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Jan 01, 2012

Lisa rated it:

(originally reviewed on starmetal oak book blog)

I've read two other Bear books to date, The White City (review) and Dust (review). All the Windwracked Stars is my favorite so far. I really loved the integration of Norse myth into a fantasy setting that also included some science fiction elements. Bear's creativity and aptitude in creating this word, called Valdyrgard, is really what caught and held my interest the whole way through.

Muire is the last Valkyrie, an angel and Ch More...

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Nov 08, 2011

Kyle rated it:

This one actually deserves three and a quarter to three and a half stars, but it didn't quite rise to the four-star level because there were a number of points in the story when I found myself skimming forward, and, frankly, the editing is spotty, with jarring point-of-view shifts, mismatched tenses, and copy editing errors galore. But the story is excellent.

Bear mixes up science fiction and epic fantasy in that "tabloid weird" style writers are always told to avoid. Bu More...

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Jun 22, 2010

Seth rated it:

I was very eager to read this novel, as I completed a Masters and some doctoral work in Old Norse mythology. The first few chapters seemed to confirm my decision, dealing as they did with the fallout from Ragnarok and the ensuing chaos. The scene then shifts to a far future, and the story rapidly deteriorates. Elizabeth Bear is a strong writer, ccertainly, but her vivid prose isn't enough to carry the flagging story. As a result, I didn't even finish the book.

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Jun 20, 2009

Joy rated it:

If your looking for fantasy NOT based on Celtic mythology this one is a nice change. The last Waelcyrge (Valkyrie) is in the end days of Valdyrgard after 2 Ragnaroks. The world is dead but for one human city and a Technomancer is sucking the essence out of even the gods to keep it alive for only the few. Its a world one can relate with as the humans have killed all other life with virus wars and other horrible weapons, making this also sic-fi but still filled with magic.

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Jul 26, 2011

Ruth rated it:

c2008. This was not the easiest Scifi/fantasy read. Most of the time I was confused (which seems to be happening to me quite a lot lately) but the writing was equisite. Terse, edgy, descriptive - it was a joy to read. Names were tongue twistingly awful though. Hints and echoes of Scandavian mythology deftly entertwined the plot. Deep issues as overriding plot arcs not least of which is the meaning of life and servitude. Loved it!

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Jan 13, 2009

Hope rated it:

Meh. I added this to my list because of a good review in Library Journal. The story sounds like it would be pretty good, but it takes forever to get going. The style left me frequently briefly confused, as it jumped around in time without any sign or warning. Also, I kept trying to fit the mythological elements into what I know of Norse mythology, and couldn't. I found that I didn't really care enough about the characters to keep going. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I have so m More...

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Nov 11, 2010

Vishal rated it:

All the windwracked Stars is a science fiction fantasy that combines elements from norse mythology with end or world resurrection and soul transfers. The plot is convoluted at times and lacks the depth and roundedness of an accomplished author but makes for a compelling read if you are interested in the genre. This is the first book in a trilogy.

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