Atticus is back for another excellent adventure. Now
having left his home after killing Thor and a goodly part of the Norse pantheon
he has some problems to handle. Firstly there’s the fact that the Norse want
him dead and so do several Thunder Gods… just because really (they’re thunder
gods, they don’t need a lot of explanation).
There’s also a problem of killing a large portion of the
Norse pantheon. Seems that those gods were largely the reason Ragnorak wasn’t
happening – and now you have Hel and the denizens of Niffilheim running around
unchecked. Add in that Leif’s incapacitation means that there’s a whole lot of
vampires flocking to the area to fill the void.
And Atticus owes Coyote
a favour. Which is never, ever, ever a good thing. It seems simple enough (in
an almost impossible way), Coyote wants to rebuild the economy in an area for the
Navajo (Diné) people. But the Trickster has
far more in mind than that – as you would expect – and Atticus soon finds himself
up to his eyebrows in far more than he expected.
When I finished this book I was sad. Because it was over
and I now have to wait months, MONTHS, before Kevin Hearne releases another
awesome book.
To assuage myself I turned back to page one and read it a second time – I didn’t even put it down between readings. Alas, I have finished it again and, again, I am sad that it is over.
In short, this book is most awesome.
What? You want more?
The characters are amazing. I love Atticus and Granuaille
and their relationship. Atticus engages in a lot of deep and fascinating
introspection, grows as a character as he accepts his own arrogance and pride have
tripped him up once too often. And, of course, he is utterly and unbelievably
funny and awesome with amazing wit, clever ideas without them being
ridiculously over the top and a powerful sense of both the ridiculous and
righteous wrath.
Oberon remains beyond hilarious. And he gets to be the
hero as well, showing he’s not just a witty, sausage obsessed doggy with the
best lines. And Snugglepumpkin has a very very very amusing and likely accurate
hypothesis. The whole book is full off
wit and humour that lightens
The world is incredible – the pantheons of the different
gods and belief systems with creatures and beings from each pantheon and
culture all apparent. And the mob attack by the collected thunder gods was
worth reading over and over again.
