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Valhalla #3
Guðsríki
Book Three
The end of the world has come, leaving Vibeke the sole survivor, alone in the desolation. She perseveres with only one goal in to reunite with Violet, even if it means the destruction of what remains of the planet Earth. But the consequences might be even more catastrophic than Vibeke expects.
A faint light still burns in the darkness, though—a last hope for love flickering amidst the atrocities mankind has wrought and the pain still waiting in the future. But it lies at the end of a long and deadly road.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2015
6 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Ari Bach
11 books81 followersAri Bach runs a blog devoted to the Valhalla series at http://the-walrus-squad.tumblr.com/
Ari’s artwork can be found online at http://aribach.deviantart.com/.
Ari also runs a webcomic at http://www.twistedjenius.com/Snail-Fa... and has a Tarot deck at http://surrealist.tarotsmith.net/.
But Ari is probably best known for the humor blog “Facts-I-Just-Made-Up” at http://facts-i-just-made-up.tumblr.com/.
Ari’s artwork can be found online at http://aribach.deviantart.com/.
Ari also runs a webcomic at http://www.twistedjenius.com/Snail-Fa... and has a Tarot deck at http://surrealist.tarotsmith.net/.
But Ari is probably best known for the humor blog “Facts-I-Just-Made-Up” at http://facts-i-just-made-up.tumblr.com/.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 10, 2017
2/3 stars idk there was a lot going on (this got really really long omg)
i was so disappointed by this. i LOVED the first two and had such high hopes for this one, but it really let me down on, like, all possible fronts.
first, the romances: made NO sense and were still unbelievably passionate and intense? i didnt even understand why i was supposed to like the individual characters, let alone together, let alone buy a world-shattering, life-changing romance developed in like 2 days? it was f/f and i felt like the author was really banking on that, like any f/f, even a miserable, overly dramatic, potentially abusive one, was going to be well-received bc the market is so starved. personally i would rather read a boring m/f couple who at least are decent people and nice to each other the majority of the time than this
second, (spoilers) the mind control thing! several key events were (much) later explained as the main character being mind controlled. thats not a twist! you cant just write whatever you want, regardless of logic or characterization, and then just say 'idk it was mind control or whatever lol' its like the sci fi equivalent of the whole thing having been a dream. and you REALLY cant use it twice!! two times!! wild!! (end spoilers i guess!)
third, the endless, extremely gratuitous, unnecessary violence. in the previous books i thought this was understandable and even cool most of the time but in this it was just really painful to read, especially since it was even unnecessary in-universe. like they would just kill and mutilate people for no reason other than that theyre awful, violent people with no regard for human life. and theyre the good guys!!! how are you possibly supposed to root for people that literally DELIGHT in murder for no reason other than murders sake! and the fact that they think their passing desires are more important than other peoples lives. basically none of the characters had any personalities beyond 'murder' i mean it was a lot
there was a canon nonbinary character who used they pronouns, which im sure the author felt really proud of, but was kind of laboriously done. like a lot of scenes with this character had attention drawn to their pronouns, for no reason that i could tell other than that the author really wanted to make it clear how progressive he is. also there was a genderless robot ai thing that was put into a clone of a cis womans body, which made it a woman right?? clearly!! like why even bother with an nb character if you dont understand why basing a characters gender purely on their genitals is a little uh. (this is such a casual sort of transphobia thing that i normally wouldnt expect authors to be aware of it or anything but since he included a nb character i have higher standards)
finally, the bizaare views on religion really bothered me. im not religious but i know that religion can be a really positive force in peoples lives (not always, i know). i dont even know how to discuss the weird religious stuff going on here but it made me super uncomfortable
2 stars bc there was still some cool stuff but im definitely not recommending this series anymore
i was so disappointed by this. i LOVED the first two and had such high hopes for this one, but it really let me down on, like, all possible fronts.
first, the romances: made NO sense and were still unbelievably passionate and intense? i didnt even understand why i was supposed to like the individual characters, let alone together, let alone buy a world-shattering, life-changing romance developed in like 2 days? it was f/f and i felt like the author was really banking on that, like any f/f, even a miserable, overly dramatic, potentially abusive one, was going to be well-received bc the market is so starved. personally i would rather read a boring m/f couple who at least are decent people and nice to each other the majority of the time than this
second, (spoilers) the mind control thing! several key events were (much) later explained as the main character being mind controlled. thats not a twist! you cant just write whatever you want, regardless of logic or characterization, and then just say 'idk it was mind control or whatever lol' its like the sci fi equivalent of the whole thing having been a dream. and you REALLY cant use it twice!! two times!! wild!! (end spoilers i guess!)
third, the endless, extremely gratuitous, unnecessary violence. in the previous books i thought this was understandable and even cool most of the time but in this it was just really painful to read, especially since it was even unnecessary in-universe. like they would just kill and mutilate people for no reason other than that theyre awful, violent people with no regard for human life. and theyre the good guys!!! how are you possibly supposed to root for people that literally DELIGHT in murder for no reason other than murders sake! and the fact that they think their passing desires are more important than other peoples lives. basically none of the characters had any personalities beyond 'murder' i mean it was a lot
there was a canon nonbinary character who used they pronouns, which im sure the author felt really proud of, but was kind of laboriously done. like a lot of scenes with this character had attention drawn to their pronouns, for no reason that i could tell other than that the author really wanted to make it clear how progressive he is. also there was a genderless robot ai thing that was put into a clone of a cis womans body, which made it a woman right?? clearly!! like why even bother with an nb character if you dont understand why basing a characters gender purely on their genitals is a little uh. (this is such a casual sort of transphobia thing that i normally wouldnt expect authors to be aware of it or anything but since he included a nb character i have higher standards)
finally, the bizaare views on religion really bothered me. im not religious but i know that religion can be a really positive force in peoples lives (not always, i know). i dont even know how to discuss the weird religious stuff going on here but it made me super uncomfortable
2 stars bc there was still some cool stuff but im definitely not recommending this series anymore
February 24, 2016
WELCOME TO THE WORLD'S LONGEST REVIEW. SERIOUSLY. BE WARNED.
Three stars is my go to for hard to place books. So welcome, Gudsriki- welcome to the same tier Night Vale, The Selection, and your last book are on. The weird one.
If you're not 99% attached to these characters- or at least, the main duo- this book will have a hard time winning you over. You HAVE to care for a lot of these things to work... and I didn't. I'll admit, I'm a stone cold fiend who doesn't really get into romance or most fictional characters, but the sadistic lengths everyone in this book was pushed to... still failed to elicit a genuine reaction from me
Except Wulfgar and Hati. Ari, you jerk. It was probably intentional the origional 'villain' of the series ges progressively more redeemed, only to die meaninglessly, soon to be a footnote, and by the end of the book utterly forgotten.
Where can I even start?
WRITING
I've never been impressed by Ari's writing. It's not a main pull of the series, and other reviews have pointed this out as well. It's a little bit bland, jabby, and to the point- describing things simply, with no prose or heavy emotion. Sentences are often short and jarring, and many things aren't explained.
Many. Some tech, I know. I get. I'm used to it- I love the tikari, I'll admit. A lot of stuff just isn't properly explained, and never refreshed, meaning many/most action sequences were meaningless to me.
The writing is often too wordy about nothing in particular (like this review), but dreadfully sparse about things I was more keen about- details on the world, exposition, explanations. settings. action.
Most of this book is dialog. Like 80%! Probably less, but yeah, seriously, most scenes open with dialog, at some point introduce who's speaking, add a bit more detail/action, and finish with more dialog. Lots of short sentences, sometimes easy to confuse who's speaking. This may make sense when you consider that this book, like the last two, originally was a film script.
POVs switch around, but it often isn't clear who we're focusing on for a paragraph or two. this is disorientating.
This book is really long, too. It's not many pages, but the formatting really squeezes a lot in there. I know it's definitely over 100k, but split into 13 gigantic chapters. This makes reading more daunting, since I'm the type who feels compelled to end reading on chapter marks.
I didn't have as big of a problem with the writing in the last two books compared to this one- odd.
ACTION
This is an action book. It better have some good action... except action isn't really my genre, as I'm complained in other reviews. This book more than ragnorok I could follow the story, but I felt even more lost by a lot of the action. I don't think I've seen anyone mention this, so it just might be me instead of the writing. Still, I'd glaze over reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of jumping, moving, running, moving... and not absorb what was happening in the slightest.
This is probably the only book/ series I've ever dealt with that has been this hard for me to follow.
Vibeke, the main character (I really haven't mentioned much of the plot yet... it's coming. welcome to long review hell folks). Anyways, Vibeke is a god. Simply that. Nothing stands in her way, and nothing feels like a threat- and when she is threatened, at the very end, I can barely believe it based on how unstoppable she's been previously. She feels no fear, feels no pain, and is... unstoppable.
This does not lead to any sort of stakes. There's a lot of travel- most of this is travel- as characters look for people, things, and some sort of objective. nearly no one know what they're doing or why they're doing it. Everyone feels aimless, but also unstoppable. Unpredictable, maybe, but the plot didn't feel like it was building, even in the climax.
The climax, also, is like three or four fight scenes, between various people, going on for ages. When one ended dramatic, bringing in that emotional bit... another starts, and lasts for a good while. This final, final fight in particular was hard to follow- I wasn't even sure what the enemy looked like at this point- and didn't really feel NEEDED. Or at all necessary. In fact, based on previous interactions between the two combatants, I was expecting more of a mind games/talk it through sort of happening.
The final fight also has a great clashing of the armies moment, where two forces unit to fight off one... which is..... uh.... they're crippled? This enemy army, the wolves (not a huge spoiler), lost it's leader and isn't presented as ready for a full assault. Wait, I don't even remember why they were heading up north anyways- I think it was explained, but it's lost to me. They're there. There's a fight. What?
CHARACTERS
You need an emotional investment with everyone for half the events to really count, because while a lot of the book- a lot, actually- is spent talking about feelings, and hurt feelings, it isn't done in such a way that helps build them up. I didn't really bond with anyone (besides wulfgar, ari, you monster). Vibeke is cool, but I remember her alluding me last book too- I don't think I quite 'get' her. I don't really understand her emotions half the time, what's driving her- well. I do. The book tells me pretty often how she feels, and what she's doing. But I can't bring myself to care.
This book has a lot more romance than the two before it, and it isn't the worst thing- there's some nice bits, and I didn't hate it. I didn't hate this book, either, despite all the problems I have with it. But I also didn't quite believe the romance between Vibeke and Violet last book, or in this one. It was nice to hear about the romance, but also, I never really felt like they were falling in love throughout the journey. the thought of them doing so is nice but... I'm not sold.
vibeke's love for violet is a big thing I need to believe for this book to work, and I don't. For every careful point hit, you really, really need to care. Fair warning.
Other characters include... the rest of the gang. I swear, I thought veikko was dead. He's not really, but was he really this much of a jerk in the other two books? Everything he says is vile, rude, and often cruel. Same level as the 'real' villain of the series, miscka (I forget how to spell her name every time).
There's a new character in this book, also. A necosis? A non binary gendered fish person. I really forget how to spell their gender identity. Anyways, I 100% did not realize they even used 'they' pronouns until over 100 pages in, past several sections with them- simply because their name was used far more often than their pronoun the entire book. Oddly, with Vibeke, it felt like the opposite was true. lots of paragraphs consisting only of 'She'.
Anyways, Pytten is a fish person, and they... don't do anything? Their part kind of feels written in extra, we follow them for the whole book like a main character, but compared to the omnipotent all powerful gods of the other MCs (read above), Pytten is very very normal. This could be a brief of fresh air, but Pytten is also lacking of a real personality. some scenes with them are FINE, and I didn't hate them or anything- they just didn't feel needed.
There's a new character named Nel in this book, and she's interesting enough. Her thought process was fun to follow, though perhaps not written/developed as I'd preferred to see it. She's a robot AI, and she sometimes acts like one, sometimes doesn't. there's some emphasis on her gaining morals while her human companion loses them, but it doesn't feel fully explored. A lot about her character doesn't, and I felt like I could have grown more attached to her if she had had more time and space to develop, instead of showing up halfway and mostly being seen through the eyes of others.
Despite knowing roughly who the majority of the characters were, their roles, abilities, and the like... they all sort of sounded the same, acted the same, seemed the same. I didn't feel too much that anyone was all that different from each other.
RELIGION
Are you an atheist? Are you particularly one who enjoys mocking religion, and scorns those who dare hold any sort of belief?
Congratulations! Read this book and weep tears of joy.
Listen buds, I'm no religious stalwart- in the deepest cavities of my sickly heart there's probably the faint hope for something greater, but otherwise I'm agnostic, not concerned about what doesn't effect me.
Still, the portrayal of religion in this book just isn't classy. I'm not offended- I'm rolling my eyes.
In the last two books, there were mentions of catholic uprisings, and extremists. Religion is banned for being dumb, now, basically- this is the staple of a dystopia. This book takes no time in establishing the government was 100% right in this regard. Religion is dumb.
Varg hated religion for killing his family or something, I remember. I was okay with this! I'm okay with the idea of religious extremists, and how that is bad. The problem is that there's no alternative, no middle ground- anyone religious in this book is a following sheep, an idiot who would quickly turn to violence to follow their beliefs, and deserves death.
There's a flashback to 2006 in the beginning of the book, to help explain the origins of the Geki. Look, I like the Geki- they're cool! Hearing how they got their tools, and why, is neat. But the origin story is the most contrived thing I've ever had to read, strawmen preforming straw acts to reach an end, with a bit of shock value sprinkled in. Nothing about it feels real, plausible, or actual in any way shape or form. This was information that shouldn't have been displayed in the first place. Leave it in the dark, with brief details, so we can write something better in our heads.
Oh boy. I'm still not done with religion. People are converted in seconds, change beliefs in less. They're frantic crowds without minds or morals, just religion. Christianity is probably the main choice, but Islam is used too, and there's one mention of buddism. The people used- so often, speaking in long winded paragraphs about the glory of god, spewing long sentences about Evil and Hell and How Bad Women Are to make these believers more- The people are sockpuppets. Straw sheep. They are not presented as anything else, and there's no attempt to connect to WHY or HOW they act like this... just that common people are idiots, anyone who believes in religion is an idiot, duh they're going to merge.
Seriously. These tangents- frequent throughout the book- read like fake stories off tumblr. "I SAID THIS AND THIS AND THAT AND THE WHOLE BUS CLAPPED BECAUSE I PROVED THEM WRONG".
Ugh! Really, really, not classy, and got in the way big time of me having fun reading what should just be an actiony lesbian gore fest.
Ending
BE READY: SPOILERS. I"LL KEEP IT VAGUE BUT STILL.
The ending didn't devastate me, or shock me. I guess it's everything you could hope for. I liked the crew back in Valhalla- like in ragnorok, I kept thinking back on how much better that book was. I didn't like Valhalla hugely at the time, but now I have rose colored glasses on, and an itching to reread. Everyone's changed, and while there's some neat turns and concepts, and extreme suffering, I'm too detached to really care.
I kind of knew some things were going to happen, but I guess the one thing I was expecting was Nel to fly to the moon and just live there, immortal. Like some sort of eternity old guardian, watching over things. Hanging with a certain Geki in a sad kind of way. Then again, that's basically also the ending of that other 3 star book I read, 'Expiration Day', isn't it?
Still. I knew who the Geki was talking about the moment he mentioned it was a certain family member, and once Nel returned to land I knew what was going to happen.
I guess when Ari kept mentioning how devastating and final this end was going to be, how he'd been planning it all along, I knew it'd be something tragic... and I really thought it'd still be something better.
LET'S BE POSITIVE. I'M SO SORRY EVERYONE
My sexual orientation is being a jerk on the internet. Sorry guys.
As always, the world is very unique, and I get that feeling ari knows A LOT about it. if only it was conveyed in a way that was a bit easier for me to get, or featured a story that was a bit more appealing, even if it'd be less unique.
I kept thinking back on Valhalla, which Ari has noted is the more mainstream, 'YA', nearly hero's journey tale. The books... I think I'd like them more if they kind of stuck to that. Even if the plot lost some notches- this is definitely one of the most unique things I've read, with a plot that goes places no other book does. Even if the plot was more mainstream and boring, but kept the world and initial character concepts- maybe toned Veikko down a bit- it'd be a lot... better?
I know, it sounds like slaughter. A disneyfication. But still, I feel like there's a lot I could like, and did like, but it was buried by problems the whole book through.
It's definitely a full world, but I think it needed to have been a bit different for me to really like it.
WULFGAR
I... will name my first born wulfgar....
I mentioned in book 2 wulfgar was my weird fav, while the others were okay and fine, I was oddly most interested in him. I guess I just like mobsters? And ceos. They're my types of people, man. Also, it's sort of nice to see someone who doesn't fight, just runs his business and chills.
He really is more and more humanized and redeemed in this book, as I've already mentioned, until he's uselessly killed, as I've also mentioned. The most emotional I've gotten in this book was when HATI DIED. AND UMBERTO, POOR GUY, becomes that train station dog.
I just really liked Wulfgar's sad, chainsaw jawed attempts to reconnect with his daughter, and rise up to lead an apocalyptic world. I hoped Hati would succeed him- maybe, if he HAS to die, she could've been left alive, and taken on his role anyways. Lead the world with a regretted brutality.
You know what? There's all the makings of a good plot there. Her fiancee would have to deal with his wife becoming more and more like her bloodthirty father- she'd have to deal with it too. Is it nature or nurture? She'd have to wrassle support from the underlings, recruit her own, compromise between bloodlust and power and... managing homes in a futuristic apartment building.
She had a lot of potential, is what I'm saying, and then she died.
(there's a metaphor there for this book, not to be overly mean)
(when the valhalla trilogy is made into blockbuster flics, I want to play hati)
OVERALL
I feel bad for not liking this book more. my feelings are large and hard to qualify... on the series as a whole, actually. It makes me want to start a podcast to discuss books. I wish I had a friend to do this with, some sort of 'indie talks' series?? There's just A LOT to cover, and I can't tell if I feel like I WASTED my money or anything. Clearly, I didn't love this book, or really even like it. Still, I don't know if I regret anything
I just want to discuss it over like 40min. Who's with me?
Three stars is my go to for hard to place books. So welcome, Gudsriki- welcome to the same tier Night Vale, The Selection, and your last book are on. The weird one.
If you're not 99% attached to these characters- or at least, the main duo- this book will have a hard time winning you over. You HAVE to care for a lot of these things to work... and I didn't. I'll admit, I'm a stone cold fiend who doesn't really get into romance or most fictional characters, but the sadistic lengths everyone in this book was pushed to... still failed to elicit a genuine reaction from me
Except Wulfgar and Hati. Ari, you jerk. It was probably intentional the origional 'villain' of the series ges progressively more redeemed, only to die meaninglessly, soon to be a footnote, and by the end of the book utterly forgotten.
Where can I even start?
WRITING
I've never been impressed by Ari's writing. It's not a main pull of the series, and other reviews have pointed this out as well. It's a little bit bland, jabby, and to the point- describing things simply, with no prose or heavy emotion. Sentences are often short and jarring, and many things aren't explained.
Many. Some tech, I know. I get. I'm used to it- I love the tikari, I'll admit. A lot of stuff just isn't properly explained, and never refreshed, meaning many/most action sequences were meaningless to me.
The writing is often too wordy about nothing in particular (like this review), but dreadfully sparse about things I was more keen about- details on the world, exposition, explanations. settings. action.
Most of this book is dialog. Like 80%! Probably less, but yeah, seriously, most scenes open with dialog, at some point introduce who's speaking, add a bit more detail/action, and finish with more dialog. Lots of short sentences, sometimes easy to confuse who's speaking. This may make sense when you consider that this book, like the last two, originally was a film script.
POVs switch around, but it often isn't clear who we're focusing on for a paragraph or two. this is disorientating.
This book is really long, too. It's not many pages, but the formatting really squeezes a lot in there. I know it's definitely over 100k, but split into 13 gigantic chapters. This makes reading more daunting, since I'm the type who feels compelled to end reading on chapter marks.
I didn't have as big of a problem with the writing in the last two books compared to this one- odd.
ACTION
This is an action book. It better have some good action... except action isn't really my genre, as I'm complained in other reviews. This book more than ragnorok I could follow the story, but I felt even more lost by a lot of the action. I don't think I've seen anyone mention this, so it just might be me instead of the writing. Still, I'd glaze over reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of jumping, moving, running, moving... and not absorb what was happening in the slightest.
This is probably the only book/ series I've ever dealt with that has been this hard for me to follow.
Vibeke, the main character (I really haven't mentioned much of the plot yet... it's coming. welcome to long review hell folks). Anyways, Vibeke is a god. Simply that. Nothing stands in her way, and nothing feels like a threat- and when she is threatened, at the very end, I can barely believe it based on how unstoppable she's been previously. She feels no fear, feels no pain, and is... unstoppable.
This does not lead to any sort of stakes. There's a lot of travel- most of this is travel- as characters look for people, things, and some sort of objective. nearly no one know what they're doing or why they're doing it. Everyone feels aimless, but also unstoppable. Unpredictable, maybe, but the plot didn't feel like it was building, even in the climax.
The climax, also, is like three or four fight scenes, between various people, going on for ages. When one ended dramatic, bringing in that emotional bit... another starts, and lasts for a good while. This final, final fight in particular was hard to follow- I wasn't even sure what the enemy looked like at this point- and didn't really feel NEEDED. Or at all necessary. In fact, based on previous interactions between the two combatants, I was expecting more of a mind games/talk it through sort of happening.
The final fight also has a great clashing of the armies moment, where two forces unit to fight off one... which is..... uh.... they're crippled? This enemy army, the wolves (not a huge spoiler), lost it's leader and isn't presented as ready for a full assault. Wait, I don't even remember why they were heading up north anyways- I think it was explained, but it's lost to me. They're there. There's a fight. What?
CHARACTERS
You need an emotional investment with everyone for half the events to really count, because while a lot of the book- a lot, actually- is spent talking about feelings, and hurt feelings, it isn't done in such a way that helps build them up. I didn't really bond with anyone (besides wulfgar, ari, you monster). Vibeke is cool, but I remember her alluding me last book too- I don't think I quite 'get' her. I don't really understand her emotions half the time, what's driving her- well. I do. The book tells me pretty often how she feels, and what she's doing. But I can't bring myself to care.
This book has a lot more romance than the two before it, and it isn't the worst thing- there's some nice bits, and I didn't hate it. I didn't hate this book, either, despite all the problems I have with it. But I also didn't quite believe the romance between Vibeke and Violet last book, or in this one. It was nice to hear about the romance, but also, I never really felt like they were falling in love throughout the journey. the thought of them doing so is nice but... I'm not sold.
vibeke's love for violet is a big thing I need to believe for this book to work, and I don't. For every careful point hit, you really, really need to care. Fair warning.
Other characters include... the rest of the gang. I swear, I thought veikko was dead. He's not really, but was he really this much of a jerk in the other two books? Everything he says is vile, rude, and often cruel. Same level as the 'real' villain of the series, miscka (I forget how to spell her name every time).
There's a new character in this book, also. A necosis? A non binary gendered fish person. I really forget how to spell their gender identity. Anyways, I 100% did not realize they even used 'they' pronouns until over 100 pages in, past several sections with them- simply because their name was used far more often than their pronoun the entire book. Oddly, with Vibeke, it felt like the opposite was true. lots of paragraphs consisting only of 'She'.
Anyways, Pytten is a fish person, and they... don't do anything? Their part kind of feels written in extra, we follow them for the whole book like a main character, but compared to the omnipotent all powerful gods of the other MCs (read above), Pytten is very very normal. This could be a brief of fresh air, but Pytten is also lacking of a real personality. some scenes with them are FINE, and I didn't hate them or anything- they just didn't feel needed.
There's a new character named Nel in this book, and she's interesting enough. Her thought process was fun to follow, though perhaps not written/developed as I'd preferred to see it. She's a robot AI, and she sometimes acts like one, sometimes doesn't. there's some emphasis on her gaining morals while her human companion loses them, but it doesn't feel fully explored. A lot about her character doesn't, and I felt like I could have grown more attached to her if she had had more time and space to develop, instead of showing up halfway and mostly being seen through the eyes of others.
Despite knowing roughly who the majority of the characters were, their roles, abilities, and the like... they all sort of sounded the same, acted the same, seemed the same. I didn't feel too much that anyone was all that different from each other.
RELIGION
Are you an atheist? Are you particularly one who enjoys mocking religion, and scorns those who dare hold any sort of belief?
Congratulations! Read this book and weep tears of joy.
Listen buds, I'm no religious stalwart- in the deepest cavities of my sickly heart there's probably the faint hope for something greater, but otherwise I'm agnostic, not concerned about what doesn't effect me.
Still, the portrayal of religion in this book just isn't classy. I'm not offended- I'm rolling my eyes.
In the last two books, there were mentions of catholic uprisings, and extremists. Religion is banned for being dumb, now, basically- this is the staple of a dystopia. This book takes no time in establishing the government was 100% right in this regard. Religion is dumb.
Varg hated religion for killing his family or something, I remember. I was okay with this! I'm okay with the idea of religious extremists, and how that is bad. The problem is that there's no alternative, no middle ground- anyone religious in this book is a following sheep, an idiot who would quickly turn to violence to follow their beliefs, and deserves death.
There's a flashback to 2006 in the beginning of the book, to help explain the origins of the Geki. Look, I like the Geki- they're cool! Hearing how they got their tools, and why, is neat. But the origin story is the most contrived thing I've ever had to read, strawmen preforming straw acts to reach an end, with a bit of shock value sprinkled in. Nothing about it feels real, plausible, or actual in any way shape or form. This was information that shouldn't have been displayed in the first place. Leave it in the dark, with brief details, so we can write something better in our heads.
Oh boy. I'm still not done with religion. People are converted in seconds, change beliefs in less. They're frantic crowds without minds or morals, just religion. Christianity is probably the main choice, but Islam is used too, and there's one mention of buddism. The people used- so often, speaking in long winded paragraphs about the glory of god, spewing long sentences about Evil and Hell and How Bad Women Are to make these believers more- The people are sockpuppets. Straw sheep. They are not presented as anything else, and there's no attempt to connect to WHY or HOW they act like this... just that common people are idiots, anyone who believes in religion is an idiot, duh they're going to merge.
Seriously. These tangents- frequent throughout the book- read like fake stories off tumblr. "I SAID THIS AND THIS AND THAT AND THE WHOLE BUS CLAPPED BECAUSE I PROVED THEM WRONG".
Ugh! Really, really, not classy, and got in the way big time of me having fun reading what should just be an actiony lesbian gore fest.
Ending
BE READY: SPOILERS. I"LL KEEP IT VAGUE BUT STILL.
The ending didn't devastate me, or shock me. I guess it's everything you could hope for. I liked the crew back in Valhalla- like in ragnorok, I kept thinking back on how much better that book was. I didn't like Valhalla hugely at the time, but now I have rose colored glasses on, and an itching to reread. Everyone's changed, and while there's some neat turns and concepts, and extreme suffering, I'm too detached to really care.
I kind of knew some things were going to happen, but I guess the one thing I was expecting was Nel to fly to the moon and just live there, immortal. Like some sort of eternity old guardian, watching over things. Hanging with a certain Geki in a sad kind of way. Then again, that's basically also the ending of that other 3 star book I read, 'Expiration Day', isn't it?
Still. I knew who the Geki was talking about the moment he mentioned it was a certain family member, and once Nel returned to land I knew what was going to happen.
I guess when Ari kept mentioning how devastating and final this end was going to be, how he'd been planning it all along, I knew it'd be something tragic... and I really thought it'd still be something better.
LET'S BE POSITIVE. I'M SO SORRY EVERYONE
My sexual orientation is being a jerk on the internet. Sorry guys.
As always, the world is very unique, and I get that feeling ari knows A LOT about it. if only it was conveyed in a way that was a bit easier for me to get, or featured a story that was a bit more appealing, even if it'd be less unique.
I kept thinking back on Valhalla, which Ari has noted is the more mainstream, 'YA', nearly hero's journey tale. The books... I think I'd like them more if they kind of stuck to that. Even if the plot lost some notches- this is definitely one of the most unique things I've read, with a plot that goes places no other book does. Even if the plot was more mainstream and boring, but kept the world and initial character concepts- maybe toned Veikko down a bit- it'd be a lot... better?
I know, it sounds like slaughter. A disneyfication. But still, I feel like there's a lot I could like, and did like, but it was buried by problems the whole book through.
It's definitely a full world, but I think it needed to have been a bit different for me to really like it.
WULFGAR
I... will name my first born wulfgar....
I mentioned in book 2 wulfgar was my weird fav, while the others were okay and fine, I was oddly most interested in him. I guess I just like mobsters? And ceos. They're my types of people, man. Also, it's sort of nice to see someone who doesn't fight, just runs his business and chills.
He really is more and more humanized and redeemed in this book, as I've already mentioned, until he's uselessly killed, as I've also mentioned. The most emotional I've gotten in this book was when HATI DIED. AND UMBERTO, POOR GUY, becomes that train station dog.
I just really liked Wulfgar's sad, chainsaw jawed attempts to reconnect with his daughter, and rise up to lead an apocalyptic world. I hoped Hati would succeed him- maybe, if he HAS to die, she could've been left alive, and taken on his role anyways. Lead the world with a regretted brutality.
You know what? There's all the makings of a good plot there. Her fiancee would have to deal with his wife becoming more and more like her bloodthirty father- she'd have to deal with it too. Is it nature or nurture? She'd have to wrassle support from the underlings, recruit her own, compromise between bloodlust and power and... managing homes in a futuristic apartment building.
She had a lot of potential, is what I'm saying, and then she died.
(there's a metaphor there for this book, not to be overly mean)
(when the valhalla trilogy is made into blockbuster flics, I want to play hati)
OVERALL
I feel bad for not liking this book more. my feelings are large and hard to qualify... on the series as a whole, actually. It makes me want to start a podcast to discuss books. I wish I had a friend to do this with, some sort of 'indie talks' series?? There's just A LOT to cover, and I can't tell if I feel like I WASTED my money or anything. Clearly, I didn't love this book, or really even like it. Still, I don't know if I regret anything
I just want to discuss it over like 40min. Who's with me?
December 30, 2015
In my review of Ragnarok, I call it the most perfect Valhalla book. Gudsriki is not the most perfect. Gudsriki may or may not be my favorite, but it's definitely in my opinion the best Valhalla book. It's the highest articulation of the series' tools. Blunt narration, genius dialogue, plausibly absurd situations, and a series of changing points of view that lets you see the setting as a world and not jut a background.
Gudsriki is also Valhalla at its nastiest. Its depictions of cannibalism, extremism, and even bureaucracy will make the reader shiver - this is not a book for the faint. This is a book about society collapsing as the world ends. If you want the characters to win, think about what winning might mean in a context like this for people like these.
Gudsriki is also Valhalla at its nastiest. Its depictions of cannibalism, extremism, and even bureaucracy will make the reader shiver - this is not a book for the faint. This is a book about society collapsing as the world ends. If you want the characters to win, think about what winning might mean in a context like this for people like these.
November 10, 2015
s h o o t
m e
save me from this Suffering
m e
save me from this Suffering
March 30, 2017
did not enjoy the commentary on religion, the characters the author chose to kill, the ending, the characterization of everyone but particularly veikko. did not care at all about the cetaceans, even though they were clearly meant to be secondary characters.
August 3, 2016
This was definitely the low point of the series for me, and not because of how sad or brutal the story was. With the biggest character gone, there wasn't much motivation or interest to be had.
The strongest point in the book is its opening. We get our first glimpse of the post-apocalypse world and things are bleak. Really bleak. Rapist jerky bleak. This part paints a very vivid picture and gives you the only real feel you'll ever get of the apocalypse.
Things devolve pretty quickly after this. I have a few main issues with this book:
1. The world feels small. Incredibly so. The characters travel from location to location and there doesn't seem to be much in between - there's a bit about them walking or riding or whatever - and then they arrive. There's no sense of scale to the world at large. Time also seems to move inconsistently.
2. Nel starts out as an interesting character, but becomes tired once the romance begins. This is the book's biggest waste of potential. Nel stops feeling like a "weapon-made-woman" and feels instead like a watered down version of Violet.
3. Deus ex machina. Or something like it. There are too many instances of "I hacked you to think/do that". It reminds me of the bit in every Mission Impossible movie where someone pulls off their mask, causing you to rethink everything! Which is great because it only happens once. If every character started pulling off their faces, you'd just think you wasted your time. Guðsríki (how do you pronounce that, anyway) does it too many times and it feels like a tired way to try to put in a late-game plot twist or three.
I had other, more minor issues with it (we get it, those pesky Christians are bad), but there were also lots of good things that carried over from the previous novels. Honestly though, there was nothing here that was both new and good, only some unexpected disappointments I hadn't seen before.
The strongest point in the book is its opening. We get our first glimpse of the post-apocalypse world and things are bleak. Really bleak. Rapist jerky bleak. This part paints a very vivid picture and gives you the only real feel you'll ever get of the apocalypse.
Things devolve pretty quickly after this. I have a few main issues with this book:
1. The world feels small. Incredibly so. The characters travel from location to location and there doesn't seem to be much in between - there's a bit about them walking or riding or whatever - and then they arrive. There's no sense of scale to the world at large. Time also seems to move inconsistently.
2. Nel starts out as an interesting character, but becomes tired once the romance begins. This is the book's biggest waste of potential. Nel stops feeling like a "weapon-made-woman" and feels instead like a watered down version of Violet.
3. Deus ex machina. Or something like it. There are too many instances of "I hacked you to think/do that". It reminds me of the bit in every Mission Impossible movie where someone pulls off their mask, causing you to rethink everything! Which is great because it only happens once. If every character started pulling off their faces, you'd just think you wasted your time. Guðsríki (how do you pronounce that, anyway) does it too many times and it feels like a tired way to try to put in a late-game plot twist or three.
I had other, more minor issues with it (we get it, those pesky Christians are bad), but there were also lots of good things that carried over from the previous novels. Honestly though, there was nothing here that was both new and good, only some unexpected disappointments I hadn't seen before.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2015
This one has left me pretty numb too, but not as much as Ragnarok. The end of the world has come and the story was not what I expected. But the way it all comes together.. Well. Just .. I have no words really. And Violet is dead. Absolutely and irrevocably dead. How strange to have a third book that has the 'main' series character dead. That was both hard and easy to get past; we go through the same journey as Vibeke (who was always my favourite anyway).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2016
Fantastic book, great finish to the series. I think I stopped breathing for like 30 minutes after I finished the book just because I had to process everything that I had just read. I've never read anything that made me feel so emotional and so hopeless but also hopeful about anything. Very good book.
November 5, 2015
A truly great ending that blew my mind... The writing complements the feeling of the story and the characters are easy to get attached to.
January 16, 2016
I liked the first one the best and I liked the second one up until thing happened. This one I read to complete the series.
December 19, 2024
I have very mixed feelings.
I enjoyed a lot of this book. The backstory on the Geki is interesting and I wanted more of them and their tirade. Vibeke on her own, carrying Violet’s heart through the frozen wasteland of a nuked world, fighting and eating the disgusting men who would have done worse to her is a fantastic sequence. The cetaceans and spending time underwater is so fun and I want an entire spinoff dedicated to them. Even the introduction of Nel is interesting and I enjoyed watching her become her own person.
But man. Veikko becoming a caricature of an evil guy who does evil things was the most tedious and annoying thing to read about. It was clear in book 2 that it was building up to him not being the goofy guy we got to know and love in book 1, but he became such an over the top “bad guy” so quickly it was hard to believe. It felt like Bach didn’t know what to do with Wulfgar, so he got to have a redemption storyline before unceremoniously dying and all his bad traits were given to Veikko. And I could have bought Veikko becoming worse and worse over time - left alone to rot in an abandoned ravine, in excruciating pain constantly because he is literally holding up the world from falling into the hands of the people that he hates most, becoming more and more insane from the isolation. But we don’t get this progression, even when he can communicate via thoughts with Nel. He just...is evil now and that’s that.
The mind hacking trope is what really brought this down to 3 stars for me. Vibeke being deceived by a brain hack not just once (falling for Violet, albeit suspected and not confirmed), not twice (creating Nel), but THREE TIMES (Nel betraying her), was too much. It’s not a fun gotcha when the reveal happens 3 times in 300 pages.
All that said, I did enjoy the overall arc of the trilogy. Valhalla instilled me with such a strong sense of found family and an invincible feeling that they could do anything. Ragnarok and Gudsriki beat that into the ground. No one got what they wanted in the end. Everyone on the team hates each other or dies. And in that way the story feels realistic - despite their best efforts, despite the incredible technology that they have at their disposal, despite the hubris about being the Hall of the Slain, they couldn’t do a thing to save themselves or the world.
I enjoyed a lot of this book. The backstory on the Geki is interesting and I wanted more of them and their tirade. Vibeke on her own, carrying Violet’s heart through the frozen wasteland of a nuked world, fighting and eating the disgusting men who would have done worse to her is a fantastic sequence. The cetaceans and spending time underwater is so fun and I want an entire spinoff dedicated to them. Even the introduction of Nel is interesting and I enjoyed watching her become her own person.
But man. Veikko becoming a caricature of an evil guy who does evil things was the most tedious and annoying thing to read about. It was clear in book 2 that it was building up to him not being the goofy guy we got to know and love in book 1, but he became such an over the top “bad guy” so quickly it was hard to believe. It felt like Bach didn’t know what to do with Wulfgar, so he got to have a redemption storyline before unceremoniously dying and all his bad traits were given to Veikko. And I could have bought Veikko becoming worse and worse over time - left alone to rot in an abandoned ravine, in excruciating pain constantly because he is literally holding up the world from falling into the hands of the people that he hates most, becoming more and more insane from the isolation. But we don’t get this progression, even when he can communicate via thoughts with Nel. He just...is evil now and that’s that.
The mind hacking trope is what really brought this down to 3 stars for me. Vibeke being deceived by a brain hack not just once (falling for Violet, albeit suspected and not confirmed), not twice (creating Nel), but THREE TIMES (Nel betraying her), was too much. It’s not a fun gotcha when the reveal happens 3 times in 300 pages.
All that said, I did enjoy the overall arc of the trilogy. Valhalla instilled me with such a strong sense of found family and an invincible feeling that they could do anything. Ragnarok and Gudsriki beat that into the ground. No one got what they wanted in the end. Everyone on the team hates each other or dies. And in that way the story feels realistic - despite their best efforts, despite the incredible technology that they have at their disposal, despite the hubris about being the Hall of the Slain, they couldn’t do a thing to save themselves or the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2017
Oh thank god that's behind me. Honestly, the entire book seemed kinda redundant. I would've been perfectly happy with everyone dying at the end of the last one, since, ya know... (and also because I would not feel obliged to read this, but well, I'm done now anyway)
Anyway, the writing didn't get much better, it was still pretty dry most of the time, and I did not care one bit about any of the characters, could not connect with them. Hard to truly enjoy a book then. I like the idea that spurred this, sure. The execution, however, lacks like... a lot.
Anyway, the writing didn't get much better, it was still pretty dry most of the time, and I did not care one bit about any of the characters, could not connect with them. Hard to truly enjoy a book then. I like the idea that spurred this, sure. The execution, however, lacks like... a lot.
February 26, 2018
This was such a tough read not because it was boring or because it was bad, it was mostly because of the subject matter.
October 17, 2019
I enjoyed the series overall, however this one felt even more over the top than the rest. I was satisfied with the ending and look forward to checking out more books from Ari Bach.
January 30, 2017
Unique writing and very interesting series
This book is definitely unlike any book I've ever read before, it was actually quite refreshing and interesting. The ideas explored in this book are incredibly interesting and thoughtful. I really don't know how to describe it other than that.
This book is definitely unlike any book I've ever read before, it was actually quite refreshing and interesting. The ideas explored in this book are incredibly interesting and thoughtful. I really don't know how to describe it other than that.
November 10, 2015
Review to come.
April 26, 2016
This one was a bit much for me. I get the idea, and it really was the logical conclusion, but not nearly so enjoyable as the two prior.
July 23, 2017
I am by turns enthralled, sickened, amused, and concerned for the author.
I love the ending though.
I love the ending though.
April 2, 2017
Ari Bach continues to deliver, this time starting off at a very different place, and introducing some interesting new main characters. Full review will come in a few days.
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