Godslayer

Bifrost Guardians #1

by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Mickey Zucker Reichert makes her smash debut with this exciting novel of an all-too-mortal human caught in the middle of a war between the gods. Al Larson, an American soldier in Vietnam, must adapt to a world where magic and sword blades, not machine guns and missiles, are the chosen weapons of war.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

222 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Mickey Zucker Reichert (pseudonym for Miriam Susan Zucker Reichert) is an American fantasy fiction author of several best selling novels. Perhaps her most famous work is the epic Renshai series, which offers an intriguing perspective on traditional Norse mythology. She is also a parent and paediatrician with a soft spot for critters great and small. She has been known care for a veritable zoo of creatures, at times including mice, horses, snakes, llamas, parrots, squirrels, possums, and foxes.

Alongside her twenty-two novels, Reichert has also published one illustrated novella and fifty-plus short stories.

Reviews

[Mari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly this is probably more of a 1.5, 1.25 star rating. A one star feels a bit harsh, so I put it at two, but I might go back and change it later as I mull things over.

Look. Look, okay, I don’t need my books to be literary masterpieces in order to enjoy them. I love a good guilty pleasure. Like dumb things!! It’s okay!! I am fine with that! I love a lot of dumb things!

But this book was so freaking Bad from start to finish with almost no breaks. The characters were paper thin, with basically no personality that went beyond a one-sentence blurb (he’s a cool Asian who fights with swords! She is a gorgeous sorceress lady but oh look she’s also fragile and vulnerable! What conflict!). The main character is the one with the deepest personality, as we experience the story through his point of view. Unfortunately he was such a schmuck I could never find it in my heart to give a shit about him. I would start to be swayed by his potentially very interesting backstory (guy trying to deal with PTSD from the Vietnam war while also adjusting to a new, alien world could’ve been a compelling story!) but then he would casually drop some racist or sexist remark and any sympathy I would have in my heart would evaporate. Plus, as I kind of said before, this guy was an absolute moron, and watching him consistently fail his objectives while somehow garnering the love and respect of everyone around him was super annoying to read.

Look, I could go on. I could talk about how the main female character was a powerful sorceress while also somehow being a totally passive object to won, a dichotomy I never thought I would have the displeasure to see. I could rail on how her entire personality was defined by the men in her life and how shitty that was. I could talk more about the casual racism in this book, because boy howdy is there a lot to unpack there.

But honestly? It’s stupid. It’s just a Bad book my friend. It’d a weird dumb Norse-mythology flavored isekai and now I’ve read it and it’s in my brain and I will never be the person I was before I read it again.

One thing I did like about this book was the pure, fun, fantasy vibe of it. I hadn’t realized how much I had been craving a good, classic fantasy setting, with the dragons and the cloaks and magic and the traveling by horse through nature to a quest. That was fun. That I enjoyed.

[Amitai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I give this review three stars, I strongly recommend it for those sympathetic to the genre and themes.

I often like to say that whereas fiction tends to portray interesting characters in familiar times she settings, fantasy and science-fiction portray the settings as characters, and the bridge to the familiar is crossed by stereotyped characters.

The protagonist is interesting as a flawed hero (this is thrown in your face), suffering from Vietnam inflicted PTSD, even if all the other actors in the state are 2D props. This is a debut, and short, so I forgive these shortcomings, and look forward to see what MZR does with them.

[Adan Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding...whole new take on ragnarok.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rec by Andy.

I may have been hyped too much for this but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. The concept was interesting but the flashbacks actually hurt the story for me and distracted it. It was much shorter fantasy from what I've been reading of late so the character growth wasn't so much a factor here. I didn't really find any of the characters too likable, though the Kensei was probably the most interesting. We'll see if the other books build on the world/characters enough to make this feel more momentous than it started for me.

[Ellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book as part of the trilogy edition.

It’s terrible if you’re expecting an expertly written high fantasy epic, but it’s ok for a debut.

The story is messy and the characters are quite flimsy, but the book flies by quickly enough (for better or worse). It’s a relic from a time when protagonists fall in lust, not love.

[Jolie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t often give up on a book but this was uncategorically bad. Messy, confused plot. Characters with zero development. It longed to be epic fantasy without any of the really good bits of epic fantasy.

[D. Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did feel like the story had two threads that were woven together and they didn't really fit. I like the world being big enough to not be one culture, but the overlap to magic and science had a lot of hand-waving in it and didn't really satisfy me in the end.

[John Debardino · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was in 6th grade this is the first book I read back to front in one sitting. I love this series. This is a part of my childhood.

[AJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little cringe but like, it’s okay and i do want to read the next in the series if only to get a little more character depth?? is that too much to ask!?

[Rebecca McChesney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad start, I know that this was one of her earlier books.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for the first time almost 19 years ago. Having just started delving into the world of fantasy, I thought it was the most fantastic thing I had ever read. Ten years later I read it again, and it still held the same magic that it had when I was in 8th grade. Third time around and I still find it a great read, although now I can see some of the errors in her writing. Editing problems. Certainly there are some confusing moments and times when things could have been clairified more. Yet I still really enjoy this book. The story itself is an interesting one. Norse gods, magic, a soldier from the vietnam war suddenly finding himself in the weaker body of an elf... Very amusing.

[Linnzy Keifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the Renshai novels, but a good debut. I absolutely adore all of her Renshai books, so I started this series with high expectations. I am not sure whether it was just difficult to reconcile this Midgard with the other one, or the nature of the gods, or if I just had difficulty relating to and understanding her characters. The Vietnam flashbacks were unsettling, and I liked the premise, but it seemed that Al Larson was lacking something. Like I said, a good debut, but I probably won't read this one again.

[Guenevere · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I was not super impressed, but it was entertaining for the 15 mins or so I'd read it each night before bed. The characters remained fairly flat throughout the story which bothered me. I never really grew to like the main character, and even less his muse. It was highly recommended so I gave it a chance. I've been finished with it for a few weeks, and replaced it with a geographical nonfiction, and last night I decided to abandon the nonfiction and dove into the second book of this series, Shadow Climber. Not even through the prolog and the author has peaked my interest.

[Apanakhi Buckley]

This book has stayed in print for 28 years for good reason. Snatched from war and tossed into Old Norse Midgard, a soldier would be driven crazy if he weren't already there from PTSD. But in Midgard he finds honor and reason, while in his own world, "My country trained its babies to kill, then condemned them as murderers." Reichert doesn't ask if war is ever justified, but she lets her protagonist struggle with how to find love and sanity in a world fraught with hate and violence.

[Yupa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Assolutamente ridicolo.
Un marine accoppato in Vietnam finisce in un mondo in cui i miti norreni sono reali. La sua nuova missione? Uccidere Loki per evitare il Ragnarök!!
Scrittura pietosa, intreccio oltremodo esile, machismo di quart'ordine in sottofondo.
Se letto con lo spirito giusto può almeno assicurare quattro risate. Sicuramente impreviste dell'autore.

[Allen Garvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre fantasy about a vietnam soldier who cries to Odin just as dies, and gets transported back to medieval scandinavia--reincarnated as an elf! Somewhat confused story. Stick with the series, if you want, and it gets better as Reichert finds her footing as a writer.

[Pqdaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be light reading... so far the blood and flashbacks make for a little more serious theme.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. A war vet is transported to the land of the Asgardian gods. There he relearns to be a warrior. Recommended