Book Review; Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Hi readers,

Here's my first book review of the year! When I read that a new Neil Gaiman book was coming out I knew I had to read it. He is one of my favourite authors and I've now read all but three of his books. Then I found out that this book wasn't going to be a normal fiction novel but Gaiman's re-telling of Norse myths. 

That made me more interested to read this book. I like myths and legends though the stories and characters don't often stick correctly with me! In addition to this, I'm into the Marvel superheroes movies and Thor and Loki are two of my favourite heroes. So, learning about their origin stories also applied to me.

Having never really read any Norse myths before and having just a basic knowledge of them means I can't compare this book to other collections. Though I do have another book called Viking Myths and Sagas; retold from ancient Norse texts which was recommended to me at a party, so as soon as I've read that I can look at seeing how good or bad Gaiman's take on Norse myths is. For now, though my feels about this book are pretty positive.

I found the myths easy to read, maybe because of Gaiman's style of writing, but maybe because these myths were originally written in a simplistic way so that they could be remembered and re-told? There wasn't much description of characters or backgrounds and I would have liked a bit more of both of these as I'm sure my little knowledge and imagination got some of the scenes I pictured wrong. The myths were easy to understand with basic plots, mostly the same characters and meaningful endings. Though there was a lot of repetition about magical items, animals, backgrounds of things which did slightly bug me.

The flow of the myths has this overall start, middle and ending feel and it reminded me of Bible stories. Firstly, there is the creation of all things and how things became like they are. Then there's the development of the Gods, other super beings and humans; they go on adventures and learn from their mistakes or get revenge over monsters and enemies. At the end, there is the death of the god Balder, the final punishment of Loki and Ragnarok - The End Of The World. 

The main characters who appear or are mentioned in each myth are Odin - The All Father, Thor - his son, God of Thunder and Loki - The Trickster. (Who is often mistaken for a God but it actual a giant). As I read the stories, I realised that Marvel's impressions of the characters were influencing my overall thoughts about them. Mostly, these characters have been well represented by the comics and movies, though I was surprise to learn that Thor isn't that intelligent and Loki committed a lot of bad things - including killing gods or causing the deaths of others through his 'tricks.'

Some of the myths are about other Gods, giants and dwarfs which helps to give a deeper understanding. Though according to Gaiman, most of the Norse myths have been lost. So though, lesser Gods and Goddess etc appear, we don't know of any of their deeds and adventures. Gaiman attributes this to the growth of Christianity and that fact that many Norse myths were not written down.           

One of the first reviews I saw about this book was questioning the audience because the reader found the text so simply written that they believed this was a children's book. However, the content is older teen and adult due to the violence, murders, sex and drinking that goes on. I don't think that children would enjoy or fully understand some of these myths. I believe this book is aimed at people coming to these myths for the first time and Gaiman does have a simplistic writing style. Also, he seems to have wanted to re-tell the myths as close as possible to their original format which was possibly kept basic.     

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Norse Mythology. I found this a good starting point to the world of the Norse Gods. I was worried that my dyslexic brain might find it too complicated but with Gaiman's simple style of writing, the myths were easy to understand. I'm looking forward to reading more now and learning about some of the other Gods.         

Thanks for reading!

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Links;

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30831912-norse-mythology

http://norse-mythology.net/

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Book Review: The Power of The Dark

Hi readers,

Today I'm reviewing the last book I read in December and the final one of 2016. My mum was given this book by a friend who likes to send her interesting novels. She gave it to me knowing that I was a fan of the author. Robin Jarvis wrote my favorite trilogy - Tales From The Wyrd Museum, which is about three sisters who own a museum of historical objects and some of them have supernatural powers. I've not read anything by Jarvis in awhile so I was excited to read his latest and first in a new series novel.   

The Power Of Dark is a children's book but it's similar to Darren Shan novels in that teens and adults will enjoy it too. The plot is a simple one of good verses evil, but aren't all the best stories themed around that? The story is set in the seaside town of Whitby which is one of my favorite places and famous for being the setting of Bram Stoker's Dracula. There's a lot more to Whitby then just that though. It's the home of the very well known Whitby Abbey, the only place to find Whitby jet stone and one of the oldest fishing and whaling industries in England. There's also a lot of myths and legends involving Whitby. So, it does seem the perfect setting for a book centered around the supernatural.    

The two main characters, Lil and Verne, are best friends growing up in Whitby. Lil's parents own a goth themed shop and Lil makes things to be bought in the shop. Lil's parents believe they are witches, However, Lil doesn't believe that, but she still goes along with it. Verne's parents are into Steampunk and are busy making costumes for the up and coming Goth Weekend. I was nicely surprised and pleased that steampunk got a look in here and actually fits in nicely with the finally events at the end of the book. Also, the Goth Weekend is a real event held in Whitby every year. 

One of the other main characters is actually a witch. Her name is Cherry and she the guardian witch of Whitby, of which there has been a long line of. The witch's job has always been to protect and guard the town and people from the myths and legends that surround Whitby, including the plot one of the novel.

This legend involved another witch called Scaur Annie who fell in love Melchior Pike. Tragically though they couldn't be happy together as Pike was working on magical device called the Nimius which needed the tears of a magical creature which Annie knew about. Annie breaks her witch agreement to get Pike the tears and thus comes to realise that Pike never loved her in the first place. Though it turns out they were both set up by Pike's male servant called Dark who wanted the Nimius for himself.

 Now though, they have all come back in ghost form to complete their missions as the Nimius has been found and they all want it. However, it means that Whitby is about to be torn apart by the supernatural forces and Lil, Verne and Cherry must help to stop it. Which of course they do as most good verse evil stories end.

I really enjoyed the plot and the characters, finding it easy to get into the story. The pacing and dialogue was good too, making you want to read on to the end. My favorite part of the story was when a really bad storm hits Whitby and the cliff top graveyard is torn part and comes crashing down into Lil's house. A skeleton flies into her bedroom and seems to attack her. This is actually Annie trying to posses Lil. It's wonderfully described and though it's scary, it's the kind of moment kids really enjoy reading.

Overall, this is a good book for young people and adults a like. The plot and characters are enjoyable and the supernatural elements have a refreshing edge to them. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series now.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week! 

  

(Image from Goodreads)