Thrilling stories of fire and ice, love and savagery, retold in an accessible, comprehensive package.
A collection of mythology focuses on the Norse gods’ comedies, tragedies, and bloody histories.
Norse mythology is vast, full of passionate and violent tales about gods, giants, and mortals. Assembled here, gleaned from the Eddas and research of scholars, are six cycles of this pantheon’s legends, battles, and heartbreaks. The first one features Odin, impatient yet dedicated to his quest for wisdom. It includes an old seeress recounting the dismemberment of Ymir and the use of his body in the creation of Earth and the heavens; the history of the nine worlds; and the foreshadowing of their end. Cycles 2 and 3 gather the trials of some of the greatest heroes, following Thor as he grows into a champion; the trickster Loki, whose cunning stands out in a world defined by strength; and the enslavement of Volund, the great Wonder Smith, by Nidud. Their legends range from the comical to the horrific—Volund’s revenge ends in the rape of Nidud’s daughter and the forging of his sons into jewelry and chalices. But there is great humor as well, often from sheer incredulity, from Frigg’s reacting to her husband’s impregnating her mother with Thor to Loki’s giving birth to his father’s eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, and Thor’s dressing as Freyja to retake his stolen hammer, Mjollnir, from the Jotun Thrym. Cycle 4 sets the stage for the apocalypse Ragnarök in Cycle 5, as Loki and his wolf-son are bound with a special ribbon, giants of fire and ice stir, and Odin gathers his undead heroes for the final, inevitable battle. Cycle 6 tells further stories of gods and mortals meeting, though these feel slightly outside of the overarching saga that dominates the book. Searfoss (Skulls and Bones, 1995, etc.) has assembled an approachable novel chronicling the sometimes impenetrable Norse myths. Using a style inspired by oral traditions, the author casts Odin, Freya, and other characters as both storytellers and protagonists. Their feats are recounted with an epic flair, replete with violent prophecies, clanging metal in battles, and even Odin’s crushing tears of loss. The work acknowledges the vast resources it draws from with an impressive glossary, albeit short on page numbers; a bibliography listing further readings in English; and a link to a helpful reference website.
Thrilling stories of fire and ice, love and savagery, retold in an accessible, comprehensive package.Pub Date: April 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78982-082-9
Page Count: 838
Publisher: Acorn Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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