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Valhalla: Into The Darkness
“An axe age, a sword age,” Bookwyrm chanted. “A wind age, a wolf age.”
“Brothers shall fight and slay each other,” sang Knut. “Garm howls in Hel, and the wolf runs free.”
It's late Winter, and Robin’s still isn’t used to Asgard.
Last year she left Valhalla without permission. “I don’t want to fight and die at Ragnarok,” she told her new friends. “I want to win!” Every day, they swore their oath on her magic sword Frostbite, even the snarky squirrel Ratatosk. “All for one, and one for all.”
Now her magic sword Frostbite has turned into handsome Frost Lokison, and they’re living together, and someday soon they’re going to get married. The really unsettling change is that Robin and Frost have dinner once a week with his parents.
Robin is nervous whenever Loki giggles at her.
Meanwhile Odin has new plans for Robin and her oathmates. And Odin’s plans include his favorite foster brother, Loki (who has plans of his own).
And then there were the Norns who weave everyone’s life threads onto their loom.
Their tapestry has gotten very dark. Maybe Robin and her oathmates can save the Sun! Odin thinks they can!
Loki thinks they’ll need his help
“Brothers shall fight and slay each other,” sang Knut. “Garm howls in Hel, and the wolf runs free.”
It's late Winter, and Robin’s still isn’t used to Asgard.
Last year she left Valhalla without permission. “I don’t want to fight and die at Ragnarok,” she told her new friends. “I want to win!” Every day, they swore their oath on her magic sword Frostbite, even the snarky squirrel Ratatosk. “All for one, and one for all.”
Now her magic sword Frostbite has turned into handsome Frost Lokison, and they’re living together, and someday soon they’re going to get married. The really unsettling change is that Robin and Frost have dinner once a week with his parents.
Robin is nervous whenever Loki giggles at her.
Meanwhile Odin has new plans for Robin and her oathmates. And Odin’s plans include his favorite foster brother, Loki (who has plans of his own).
And then there were the Norns who weave everyone’s life threads onto their loom.
Their tapestry has gotten very dark. Maybe Robin and her oathmates can save the Sun! Odin thinks they can!
Loki thinks they’ll need his help
473 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 12, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2023
Note: This review will have SPOILERS for Valhalla: Absent Without Leave so if you have not read that book, you may want to read that review first.
Robin Grima Jonson and her oathmates have managed to avert Ragnarok, or at least the version of it that was in the prophecies. Now would seem a good time to plan weddings for those that fell in love, and mending fences for those who hurt others, however necessarily. But Ragnarok itself was not the only prophecy of doom for Asgard. The sun is growing cold, and Fimbulwinter is coming. The warriors of Valhalla and their allies will need to find new reserves of courage and willpower to overcome this menace.
The quests begin as requests from Odin, chief of the Asgardians, to find certain long-lost relatives to invite to the wedding feasts. This turns out to be connected to certain horrific crimes of the past, the perpetrators of which are planning new ones.
This is the second part of a trilogy written by Lee Gold, long-time editor of the Alarums & Excursions gaming APA. She’s done a lot of research on Norse mythology and culture, and it really shows on the page–though the take on the mythos is…unique, turning some assumptions in the original eddas on their heads.
Chatterbox narrator Ratatosk is much more of a central character in this one, with relatively few scenes not from his viewpoint. The other characters are certainly still there, but pushed into the background a bit. When the narration is on point, it can be fun to have infodumps in the middle of the paragraph, but it can be tiresome to have daily rituals repeated over and over. And this also means that what would be in most fantasy novels one of the most exciting chapters is mostly offstage (ala Bilbo being unconscious for the big final battle of The Hobbit.)
I can really spot the influence of many years of running role-playing games on the narrative. The heroes avoid splitting the party as much as possible, plan carefully and take precautions, remembering to renew their protections each day. Much more emphasis is placed on negotiation and problem solving than on combat; there’s surprisingly little on-screen violence for something based on Norse mythology. But it is a good way to make allies even out of people who have been enemies.
The villains are despicable with their mind-bending magic and pretense of benevolence. Late in the story, there’s a connection made to Workaday World politics of recent vintage, you’ll know it when you see it.
I don’t like this cover. I do like that there’s extensive author notes on the people and places that appear in this volume (and a couple of hints for the last one.)
Content note: Bullying, emotional abuse, extramarital sex happens but is not described, some of it being pretty iffy. Body horror, which would be a lot gruesome if it were shown rather than narrated. Cannibalism. Readers who are able to handle unexpurgated Norse mythology shouldn’t have a problem here.
The book suffers a bit from being the middle part of a trilogy, though it does nicely tie up most of the plot threads introduced here so I didn’t feel cheated. Ratatosk is a better narrator than a protagonist, and I am hoping the spotlight moves off him for the final volume. If you liked Absent Without Leave, you should enjoy this sequel.
Robin Grima Jonson and her oathmates have managed to avert Ragnarok, or at least the version of it that was in the prophecies. Now would seem a good time to plan weddings for those that fell in love, and mending fences for those who hurt others, however necessarily. But Ragnarok itself was not the only prophecy of doom for Asgard. The sun is growing cold, and Fimbulwinter is coming. The warriors of Valhalla and their allies will need to find new reserves of courage and willpower to overcome this menace.
The quests begin as requests from Odin, chief of the Asgardians, to find certain long-lost relatives to invite to the wedding feasts. This turns out to be connected to certain horrific crimes of the past, the perpetrators of which are planning new ones.
This is the second part of a trilogy written by Lee Gold, long-time editor of the Alarums & Excursions gaming APA. She’s done a lot of research on Norse mythology and culture, and it really shows on the page–though the take on the mythos is…unique, turning some assumptions in the original eddas on their heads.
Chatterbox narrator Ratatosk is much more of a central character in this one, with relatively few scenes not from his viewpoint. The other characters are certainly still there, but pushed into the background a bit. When the narration is on point, it can be fun to have infodumps in the middle of the paragraph, but it can be tiresome to have daily rituals repeated over and over. And this also means that what would be in most fantasy novels one of the most exciting chapters is mostly offstage (ala Bilbo being unconscious for the big final battle of The Hobbit.)
I can really spot the influence of many years of running role-playing games on the narrative. The heroes avoid splitting the party as much as possible, plan carefully and take precautions, remembering to renew their protections each day. Much more emphasis is placed on negotiation and problem solving than on combat; there’s surprisingly little on-screen violence for something based on Norse mythology. But it is a good way to make allies even out of people who have been enemies.
The villains are despicable with their mind-bending magic and pretense of benevolence. Late in the story, there’s a connection made to Workaday World politics of recent vintage, you’ll know it when you see it.
I don’t like this cover. I do like that there’s extensive author notes on the people and places that appear in this volume (and a couple of hints for the last one.)
Content note: Bullying, emotional abuse, extramarital sex happens but is not described, some of it being pretty iffy. Body horror, which would be a lot gruesome if it were shown rather than narrated. Cannibalism. Readers who are able to handle unexpurgated Norse mythology shouldn’t have a problem here.
The book suffers a bit from being the middle part of a trilogy, though it does nicely tie up most of the plot threads introduced here so I didn’t feel cheated. Ratatosk is a better narrator than a protagonist, and I am hoping the spotlight moves off him for the final volume. If you liked Absent Without Leave, you should enjoy this sequel.
December 31, 2023
I sang as I ran, and I never got tired. I was inspired, rhymes blazing like fire. I can’t even begin to tell you what it was like. When I ran across a patch of ash honey, and the bees swarmed up and stung me, I cried out in joy, because I knew just how they felt.
Where the first book’s hero was Robin Grima, this book highlights Ratatosk, the Internet obsessed squirrel. Ratatosk’s narration retains the feeling of a deep dive into Norse mythology as if it were the real world.
A tree with the square root of minus one flowers has imaginary flowers.
Apple Books, in its “More Books Like This” row, suggested that I’d also like Gene Wolfe’s Soldier of Arete. I haven’t read that yet—it’s the next in the Latro series that I want to read—but in general that’s a good suggestion. Both series have a similar quality of unreality, adherence to the rules of an unrevealed world, and an almost fairy-tale-like presentation.
After the bath you could lie down in a meadow and nap in the sunlight, or dry yourself off with a towel and climb into a bed and nap, or climb onto a sheep and have it grow wings and fly up into the summer-warm blue sky and turn into a fluffy white cloud…
Even more than the previous book, this is a romp through the Nine Worlds, where someone is taking advantage of a few of the unresolved events in the first book to attempt to enslave various of the peoples of the worlds.
Between one hope and another I fell asleep.
There are, of course, signs and portents. Literally so. And Ratatosk retains his combination of knowledge and humor that makes this a joy to read.
The salt wind blew her shining hair this way and that, and the sea waves rose and fell. Nobody said anything, and the minutes went by slowly, and still nobody said anything, and I hadn’t brought a book to read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews