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elfflame's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
7seasofrhye's review
5.0
Maybe one day I'll write a proper review for this book, but as for now: I'm so often disappointed by endings not living up to the build-up these days, but this one? This one was brilliant. (And obviously not exactly predictable, either.)
megandawn's review
5.0
I have so many feelings about this book that I barely know where to start, a problem compounded by the fact that I just did not see it coming. The first book of The Wyrd, Liesmith, was pretty good. But, you know, just pretty good. A fun read, but not exactly a keep you up all night who cares if you have toddlers and work and shit to get done tomorrow just one more page kind of book. A Stormbringer kind of book, in other words.
Holy shit guys. This book. So many feelings.
So you know how Loki has a wife, right? Actually, maybe you don't. My only knowledge of her prior to reading these books was from Neil Gaimains Sandman comics, wherein a gaunt and sad-looking woman eternally stands over her bound husband catching snake venom in a bowl, even though there are no chains making her stay and do this. I didn't even know her name.
And this is a point Stormbringer brings up again and again; I didn't even know her name. And not just that. It didn't even occur to me to ask. To wonder why I didn't know it. Who she was, how she came to be married to Loki, what her dreams and fears were, why she didn't just drop the bowl and walk away. What about Thor's wife? Or his daughter? Thanks to God of War I can name his sons but his daughter? Didn't even know he had one.
Stormbringer is a book about what stories leave out and more importantly, why. Men die in glorious battle and go to Valhalla, that's a story we all know. But what about their wives, who stay home and die humble deaths, what about the eternal afterlife they spend apart? Loki had sex with a horse and gave birth to a horse, that's a story a lot of us know. Except that Sliepnir's father wasn't actually a horse and neither is Sliepnir, it's just easier to tell the story that way, easier to put a bridle on him and not think about the part where he's actually a sentient creature.
What about Loki's wife? Her name was Sigyn, by the way. In Stormbringer it's also Sigmund. That might not be an accurate part of the myths, but one can't doubt that the author knows her way around the Norse mythological canon. I mentioned that Liesmith was a bit full on when it came to mythology, and much of Stormbringer is set in Asgard so believe me when I say it doubles down and can get overwhelming at times with words I haven't a hope in hell of pronouncing right.
It actually made for a very strange reading experience for me. Because this books other setting is modern day Australia. So on the one hand I was encountering some really confusing stuff, but on the other hand this book was one of the most intensely familiar things I've ever read, in a way that I think many American or English readers will take for granted but I have never experienced before for myself, not in a fantasy novel anyway. The cultural references were my cultural references. I didn't have to figure things out via context, because the context is my context. The climax of these book features a well-known Australian song with a particular quirk, and I knew about the quirk, and I knew what was about to happen, I didn't have to read between the lines or google it understand the significance, I just knew, in real-time. You should have seen the grin on my face, guys. For non-Australians this book will likely be doubly alien, but honestly I kind of love the idea of Australia coming across as otherworldly as the literally otherworldly Asgard.
I'm getting off track. This books takes myths that almost all of us know, stories we've heard over and over, and forces you to actually think about them. It makes real people of Gods. It searches for the truth behind the meme. And it does this without stripping any of the weirdness and the wonder from it all. Loki is a still a shapeshifter and an arsehole, a father and a mother, a monster and a friend. But in Stormbringer he's real in a way I've never encountered before. All the old myths are made real, for better or worse. And unlike stories, real things can change.
Liesmith was a pretty good book. It was fun, and you won't regret reading it. But Stormbringer is something special. Still fun, incredibly fun in fact, I hope my review hasn't made it out to be all serious and hard-work because it's quick and funny and so much fun, but I love it most for the questions it asked me and the things it made me think about and, above all, for all the nameless women whose names I now know.
Holy shit guys. This book. So many feelings.
So you know how Loki has a wife, right? Actually, maybe you don't. My only knowledge of her prior to reading these books was from Neil Gaimains Sandman comics, wherein a gaunt and sad-looking woman eternally stands over her bound husband catching snake venom in a bowl, even though there are no chains making her stay and do this. I didn't even know her name.
And this is a point Stormbringer brings up again and again; I didn't even know her name. And not just that. It didn't even occur to me to ask. To wonder why I didn't know it. Who she was, how she came to be married to Loki, what her dreams and fears were, why she didn't just drop the bowl and walk away. What about Thor's wife? Or his daughter? Thanks to God of War I can name his sons but his daughter? Didn't even know he had one.
Stormbringer is a book about what stories leave out and more importantly, why. Men die in glorious battle and go to Valhalla, that's a story we all know. But what about their wives, who stay home and die humble deaths, what about the eternal afterlife they spend apart? Loki had sex with a horse and gave birth to a horse, that's a story a lot of us know. Except that Sliepnir's father wasn't actually a horse and neither is Sliepnir, it's just easier to tell the story that way, easier to put a bridle on him and not think about the part where he's actually a sentient creature.
What about Loki's wife? Her name was Sigyn, by the way. In Stormbringer it's also Sigmund. That might not be an accurate part of the myths, but one can't doubt that the author knows her way around the Norse mythological canon. I mentioned that Liesmith was a bit full on when it came to mythology, and much of Stormbringer is set in Asgard so believe me when I say it doubles down and can get overwhelming at times with words I haven't a hope in hell of pronouncing right.
It actually made for a very strange reading experience for me. Because this books other setting is modern day Australia. So on the one hand I was encountering some really confusing stuff, but on the other hand this book was one of the most intensely familiar things I've ever read, in a way that I think many American or English readers will take for granted but I have never experienced before for myself, not in a fantasy novel anyway. The cultural references were my cultural references. I didn't have to figure things out via context, because the context is my context. The climax of these book features a well-known Australian song with a particular quirk, and I knew about the quirk, and I knew what was about to happen, I didn't have to read between the lines or google it understand the significance, I just knew, in real-time. You should have seen the grin on my face, guys. For non-Australians this book will likely be doubly alien, but honestly I kind of love the idea of Australia coming across as otherworldly as the literally otherworldly Asgard.
I'm getting off track. This books takes myths that almost all of us know, stories we've heard over and over, and forces you to actually think about them. It makes real people of Gods. It searches for the truth behind the meme. And it does this without stripping any of the weirdness and the wonder from it all. Loki is a still a shapeshifter and an arsehole, a father and a mother, a monster and a friend. But in Stormbringer he's real in a way I've never encountered before. All the old myths are made real, for better or worse. And unlike stories, real things can change.
Liesmith was a pretty good book. It was fun, and you won't regret reading it. But Stormbringer is something special. Still fun, incredibly fun in fact, I hope my review hasn't made it out to be all serious and hard-work because it's quick and funny and so much fun, but I love it most for the questions it asked me and the things it made me think about and, above all, for all the nameless women whose names I now know.
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