Everyone across the United States of Asgard will be watching the ritual in Philadelphia as his priests spread the ashes from his death pyre into the roots of the giant New World Tree. Cameras will flash, the seethers will sing, and everyone will wait as—slowly, slowly—Baldur the Beautiful climbs hale and whole out of his own ashes: new, golden, and alive. [p. 29]
This novel, highly relevant to my interest in Norse mythology, was published in 2015: how have I been oblivious to its existence until now?!
The Lost Sun is first in the 'United States of Asgard' series, set in an alternate world where North America was colonised by Norse settlers instead of Europeans. Their gods came with them: Odin is involved with the House of Congress, Thor kills mountain trolls when they menace the human population, Loki drives an ice-cream van ... And every Asgardian vows allegiance to a god -- except for those like Soren Bearskin, whose father succumbed to berserker frenzy and killed thirteen people, and who has no choice but is pledged to Odin because of his own berserker nature. Soren (who's Black) is attracted to his schoolmate Astrid, daughter of a renowned prophetess: but he doesn't expect to take a road trip across the United States of Asgard with her, in search of Baldur, whose annual resurrection has not occurred.
The Norse-flavoured USA was splendid: Gratton has tweaked history and culture in both obvious and subtle ways, retaining older names for the states, or rather Kingstates (Laflorida, Mizizibi, Kansa, Nebrasge). There is a LEGO model of the Rainbow Bridge; kids choose a Hallowblot sacrifice from the martyr store; that famous band from England was called the Quarrymen; Biblists worship a god who was resurrected, and tend to pledge to Baldur; there are pygmy mammoths and hill trolls on the Great Plains, and we encounter the wolf Fenrir in a surprising form. The Asgardians have vowed to coexist with non-humans (though the original inhabitants of the North American continent seem to have fared rather less well, at least initially): their international diplomacy is surprisingly pacifist, though young men are still sent off to the desert to die.
I definitely want to read more about this world, but I didn't find Soren and Astrid's romance either credible or engaging. It's the only aspect of the novel that felt 'young adult' to me, and it is very much an instant, soulmate-style bond. I am pleased to report that it does not end predictably. Other plot strands (Fenrir, Idun, lady berserkers et cetera) were more satisfying, and I look forward to discovering how those stories develop.
No comments:
Post a Comment