V tieni Yggdrasillu

by Jan Valchar

According to old prophecy of powerful völva one day there will rise gods, so the forces of good and evil meet in last fight, which destroy the world. The gods' hopings for the oracle's turnover are upon Thorger, young man who lived just fourteen winters...

Ragnarok is comming.

Genres: Fantasy

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Laci · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend said she loved this book, and insisted it's better than Gaiman's Norse Mythology. I was suspicious immediately, because I see Gaiman's book as a retelling of mythology, whereas this was a novel set in that setting.

Even so, the story here was quite bland, there were no twists and no mystery, and from all the original characters there only was one that I actually liked. (And no, it was _not_ the protagonist. Compare that with Gaiman's mythology, where many of the characters are outright lovable - you laugh at the gods' excesses, at how Thor is an aggressive oaf, you feel for Kvasir and respect Odin and really, _really_ want to kick Loki. That was a contrast even more stark than the books' differing aims; in Valchar's book, you couldn't give a darn about any character, good or bad.)

I'm not saying the book is irredeemably bad... but it isn't good, either. I'm kinda tempted to give it 2*, but I'll be generous this time.