The Book Plank

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris Loki, that’s me. Loki, the Light-Bringer, the misunderstood, the elusive, the handsome and modest hero of this particular tissue of lies. Take it with a pinch of salt, but it’s at least as true as the official version, and, dare I say it, more entertaining. So far, history, such as it is, has cast me in a rather unflattering role. Now it’s my turn to take the stage. With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other. Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his revenge. From his recruitment by Odin from the realm of Chaos, through his years as the go-to man of Asgard, to his fall from grace in the build-up to Ragnarok, this is the unofficial history of the world’s ultimate trickster.   Joan Harris is well known for her bestseller boo...

Maddy Smith has always been an outsider. Born with a rusty-coloured rune on her hand – what the villagers call a ruinmark – she is scarred by this symbol of the old gods, a sign of magic. And everyone known that magic is dangerous. Except for Maddy who thinks it’s rather fun. Until now. For suddenly her friend One-Eye, a rascally Outlander, want her to open Red Horse Hill and descend into World Below – a world filled with goblins and far worse – to retrieve a relic of the old gods… So far I have read about vampires, werewolves, heavenly angels, hells demons, the Greek Pantheon and many other pantheons created by authors themselves. But I haven’t read anything about Norse mythology and the accompanying pantheon. I found this one of the most appealing aspects of Runemarks. I did have some reservations about the Norse mythology, where all the other themes have been proven to work in the majority of the cases. Introducing this whole new theme could have backfired since not many ...