Carly Rheilan's Reviews > Children

This is a spin-off from Norse mythology – but not Norse mythology as you know it. This is for real. The children of Gods – and their parents – are real characters, flawed, flesh and blood characters, gritty, compelling and extraordinarily three dimensional. In this sense, it’s also fantasy, but not fantasy as you know it. Fantasy meets Tolstoy perhaps.

Possibly it’s that important, too. Certainly it’s that important for the future of fantasy literature. If the author continues to write like this, the fantasy genre will grow in importance, but a lot of lesser players may be knocked off the board.

The writing is gorgeous. You could read it just for the writing. But you will find yourself reading it to know what happens. At the heart of it, and alternating the PoV of the story, are Magni, Thor’s son, and Maya, Freya’s adopted daughter, who are both actors and pawns in the beautifully crafted plot, that takes in well known components of the Norse tales – such as Thor dressing up as Freya – and weaves them into a new saga whose components are equally memorable and very much deeper in their significance.

Don’t be taken in by the title. This is grown up writing, for grownups. It doesn’t hold back, and you possibly don’t want your own children reading it.