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klparmley's review against another edition
3.0
This did not end as I expected it to and I REALLY like that.
buffyb's review against another edition
5.0
Memories streamed through him: blood and fire and the helpless shrieks of mortal suffering. "There is no love, Vidar," his father had said. "There is only fate."
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book! So far, I've only read two books that are based on or have Norse mythology incorporated into them and I've adored them both. The thing that has always intrigued me about any type of mythology is that not everyone gets a happy ending. I'd like to take a moment to say that I'm not against happy endings because, let's face it, sometimes we need them. Sometimes I like reading stories where everyone lives happily ever after except for the villain who has gotten his comeuppance in a very satisfying way. But most of the time I'm a sucker for a tragic character.
And boy, there are some tragic characters in this book.
Nutshell blurb: Vidar, the son of Odin, has been waiting a thousand years for the soul of his beloved to be reincarnated. Unfortunately, he has some daddy issues. Odin was the one who murdered her and would do so again if he found out that she had been reborn and that Vidar was anywhere near her.
This is a love story or perhaps a story about how powerful love is. 'Wait, Buffy,' you might be saying. 'I thought you didn't like romantic stories.' In which case I would have to clarify my definitions of love vs romance stories. In my mind (and it could be different for you) a romance story focuses on the two star-crossed characters. There's a lot of will they, won't they even though you totally know that they will. There's also a lot of sexy-time and something like 50 different words for a man's winkle. For me, a love story is part of a larger story and doesn't hinge on whether the two people get together. There might be some out and out sexy-time or it might be implied but it's part of a larger story. Perhaps that's a bit simplistic, but that's how it works in my brain.
So, let's start with Vidar. Could you imagine a man patient enough to wait 1000 years for you to be reincarnated? He's angry and disillusioned by his family, particularly his father and just wants to spend a lifetime with the love of his life, which isn't really a long time considering that he's from Asgard and she's a mortal from Midgard. So, what's the problem, Odin? The problem is that his entire family think that he's weak because he was an exceptional warrior who fell in love and decided not to kill people any more. They're the worst type of meddling family members. Vidar decides to go off into the forest and live in a cabin away from all of them just to get some peace and quiet from them. The thing that's so tragic about him is that he knows deep in his heart that even though she's been reincarnated they can never be together yet they both try to escape their fate.
Next up we've got Victoria the reincarnated lover. She's a meteorologist doing research on Othinsey aka Odin's Island. She's got a lot of first world problems. She views her mom as a bit of an nutcase who consults psychics and she frequently becomes frustrated with her because Victoria's a scientist who doesn't believe in superstition and other such things. She can't hold down a decent relationship and has gone to this Norwegian island in an effort to avoid relationships, yet she finds that she's the object of attraction/affection to a couple of people on the island. She just wants to be left alone. Then she meets Vidar and had to rethink everything that she believed.
I think that my favourite tragic character is Aud. She's a princess who is a bondmaid to the Aesir because she made a deal with the Norns who weave the fates of everyone. She must serve the Aesir for 1000 years. During her servitude, she falls in love with Vidar who obviously can't love her because he's in love with Victoria. I liked her the most because she wasn't bitchy or spiteful about her situation even though she couldn't have her way. She struggled through the entire book and it just seemed like she couldn't catch a break. I really felt for her and felt like I could relate to her. She wasn't perfect and she made some bad decisions but she accepted that she had to serve her 1000 years and just got on with it.
My one criticism of this story is that I felt that the ending was rushed. Or maybe I was rushed when I read it. You see, I usually leave books at home when I have 100 pages or less to read because the last 100 pages or so is when it all hits the fan and I don't want to be interrupted by things like getting off of trains and having to start work. I was so close to the end and I thought that I could finish it on the train. Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep the night before and I kept dozing off during my commute. I got off of the train with something like 15 pages left to read. I should have sat down on a bench at the station and finished it, but I didn't. (Don't worry, it wouldn't have made me late for work. I got there pretty early.) I ended up finishing it during my lunch hour which meant that I picked it up in the middle of an action scene.
First world problems, my friends.
Anyway, this is a book I'll reread one day and then I'll get a better sense of whether or not the ending was rushed or if it was just me.
I think that this book would have made me cry if I hadn't been interrupted. It certainly took my breath away.
Full review at Storytime With Buffy
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book! So far, I've only read two books that are based on or have Norse mythology incorporated into them and I've adored them both. The thing that has always intrigued me about any type of mythology is that not everyone gets a happy ending. I'd like to take a moment to say that I'm not against happy endings because, let's face it, sometimes we need them. Sometimes I like reading stories where everyone lives happily ever after except for the villain who has gotten his comeuppance in a very satisfying way. But most of the time I'm a sucker for a tragic character.
And boy, there are some tragic characters in this book.
Nutshell blurb: Vidar, the son of Odin, has been waiting a thousand years for the soul of his beloved to be reincarnated. Unfortunately, he has some daddy issues. Odin was the one who murdered her and would do so again if he found out that she had been reborn and that Vidar was anywhere near her.
This is a love story or perhaps a story about how powerful love is. 'Wait, Buffy,' you might be saying. 'I thought you didn't like romantic stories.' In which case I would have to clarify my definitions of love vs romance stories. In my mind (and it could be different for you) a romance story focuses on the two star-crossed characters. There's a lot of will they, won't they even though you totally know that they will. There's also a lot of sexy-time and something like 50 different words for a man's winkle. For me, a love story is part of a larger story and doesn't hinge on whether the two people get together. There might be some out and out sexy-time or it might be implied but it's part of a larger story. Perhaps that's a bit simplistic, but that's how it works in my brain.
So, let's start with Vidar. Could you imagine a man patient enough to wait 1000 years for you to be reincarnated? He's angry and disillusioned by his family, particularly his father and just wants to spend a lifetime with the love of his life, which isn't really a long time considering that he's from Asgard and she's a mortal from Midgard. So, what's the problem, Odin? The problem is that his entire family think that he's weak because he was an exceptional warrior who fell in love and decided not to kill people any more. They're the worst type of meddling family members. Vidar decides to go off into the forest and live in a cabin away from all of them just to get some peace and quiet from them. The thing that's so tragic about him is that he knows deep in his heart that even though she's been reincarnated they can never be together yet they both try to escape their fate.
Next up we've got Victoria the reincarnated lover. She's a meteorologist doing research on Othinsey aka Odin's Island. She's got a lot of first world problems. She views her mom as a bit of an nutcase who consults psychics and she frequently becomes frustrated with her because Victoria's a scientist who doesn't believe in superstition and other such things. She can't hold down a decent relationship and has gone to this Norwegian island in an effort to avoid relationships, yet she finds that she's the object of attraction/affection to a couple of people on the island. She just wants to be left alone. Then she meets Vidar and had to rethink everything that she believed.
I think that my favourite tragic character is Aud. She's a princess who is a bondmaid to the Aesir because she made a deal with the Norns who weave the fates of everyone. She must serve the Aesir for 1000 years. During her servitude, she falls in love with Vidar who obviously can't love her because he's in love with Victoria. I liked her the most because she wasn't bitchy or spiteful about her situation even though she couldn't have her way. She struggled through the entire book and it just seemed like she couldn't catch a break. I really felt for her and felt like I could relate to her. She wasn't perfect and she made some bad decisions but she accepted that she had to serve her 1000 years and just got on with it.
My one criticism of this story is that I felt that the ending was rushed. Or maybe I was rushed when I read it. You see, I usually leave books at home when I have 100 pages or less to read because the last 100 pages or so is when it all hits the fan and I don't want to be interrupted by things like getting off of trains and having to start work. I was so close to the end and I thought that I could finish it on the train. Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep the night before and I kept dozing off during my commute. I got off of the train with something like 15 pages left to read. I should have sat down on a bench at the station and finished it, but I didn't. (Don't worry, it wouldn't have made me late for work. I got there pretty early.) I ended up finishing it during my lunch hour which meant that I picked it up in the middle of an action scene.
First world problems, my friends.
Anyway, this is a book I'll reread one day and then I'll get a better sense of whether or not the ending was rushed or if it was just me.
I think that this book would have made me cry if I hadn't been interrupted. It certainly took my breath away.
Full review at Storytime With Buffy
eris's review against another edition
3.0
This book was okay. The pacing was good, and the characters seemed realish most of the time.
It kept tantalizing me by hinting that it would be a sort of Norse ghost/horror story, and while there was a little of that; the dual love stories completely eclipsed the horror story. And I'm at a place where I just can't be bothered to care about straight people's love stories, even if one of the lovers is the son of Odin.
I finished it and if something else by Kim Wilkins finds it's way to me, I may read it as long as there's an absence of sappy love story.
It kept tantalizing me by hinting that it would be a sort of Norse ghost/horror story, and while there was a little of that; the dual love stories completely eclipsed the horror story. And I'm at a place where I just can't be bothered to care about straight people's love stories, even if one of the lovers is the son of Odin.
I finished it and if something else by Kim Wilkins finds it's way to me, I may read it as long as there's an absence of sappy love story.
hilarysk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
squishies's review against another edition
Nordic mythology interesting, but the love story? Iffy
readinginthegarden's review against another edition
2.0
2/5 stars! DNF
I honestly couldn’t get through this just because of the writing. I found the inner dialogue just put me off massively. Trying to concentrate on this was book was so difficult but I’m so disappointed it’s so hard to come by a good Viking book!
I honestly couldn’t get through this just because of the writing. I found the inner dialogue just put me off massively. Trying to concentrate on this was book was so difficult but I’m so disappointed it’s so hard to come by a good Viking book!
annasirius's review against another edition
4.0
This was a light, enjoyable read.
The book's Midgard sections were filled with the little details that make a text appear realistic; the Asgard section were kept in a different story telling style befitting old legends without too stark a contrast between the two parts. Still, I could relate to Victoria much more than to the Asgardians. Loki could win me quickly because of his sly charme, Aud took a little longer to grow on me but did so eventually. Vidar and the antagonists, however, all remained too two-dimensional for my taste. I also struggled with the idealisation of love throughout the book and would have wished Victoria's and Vidar's feelings had been based on truly getting to know one another. Still, whether 'true love' exists and how it is formed is a matter of opinion and I choose to not rate the book down for differing with mine.
The book's Midgard sections were filled with the little details that make a text appear realistic; the Asgard section were kept in a different story telling style befitting old legends without too stark a contrast between the two parts. Still, I could relate to Victoria much more than to the Asgardians. Loki could win me quickly because of his sly charme, Aud took a little longer to grow on me but did so eventually. Vidar and the antagonists, however, all remained too two-dimensional for my taste. I also struggled with the idealisation of love throughout the book and would have wished Victoria's and Vidar's feelings had been based on truly getting to know one another. Still, whether 'true love' exists and how it is formed is a matter of opinion and I choose to not rate the book down for differing with mine.
christythelibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
As with the other two novels in Wilkins' Europa trilogy, Giants of the Frost‘s narrative alternates between present-day Earth and a parallel mythological world. Victoria Scott is a young, insomniac British scientist who has just arrived at a research station on Othinsey, an island off the the coast of Norway. She is soon informed that the island is haunted, to which she reacts with steadfast skepticism. But Victoria is wrong in her disbelief: Othinsey – otherwise known as Odin’s island – is the other side of a bridge to Asgard, land of the Norse gods, who still carry on with their lives. Several creatures of that world inhabit Othinsey. On particular Norse god, Vidar, is very interested in Victoria’s arrival at Othinsey, knowing her to be the reincarnation of his lost mortal love, Halla, who was murdered by Vidar’s father, Odin.
In Giants of the Frost, the creepiest things arrive just when someone is on the brink of sleep. Several scientists have taken to setting a 30-minute alarm clock in the watch station, so they won’t have to endure the vision of a hag who comes to steal their breath. They try to pass off the vision as an incident of “isolated sleep paralysis” but after one such incident leaves Victoria with bruises, her default position of skepticism begins to falter. Wilkins is very good at evoking the more unsavory folkloric creatures and in creating an atmosphere of dread. There is a part in the book where Victoria and another scientist read a 10th century description of a strange weather event on the island, and it’s more chilling than one would expect.
Meanwhile in Asgard, Vidar seeks to travel to Victoria’s world (called Midgard by the Norse gods) without alerting Odin to her reincarnated return. With few allies among his family, Vidar reluctantly enlists the help of Loki, the trickster god.
In the other Europa Cycle books, there was always at least one character who I adored; in Veil of Gold it was Em Hayward and in The Autumn Castle it was Christine Starlight and Eisengrimm. Here, my favorite characters were Loki and Vidar’s bondservant Aud. Aud is a Vanir princess who made a bargain with fate at the cost of her freedom. She also suffers from unrequited love for her master, Vidar. In this state of vulnerability, she enters into partial servitude to Loki, whose capricious nature is both a comfort and a danger to her. The interactions between Loki and Aud were my favorite parts of the book, perhaps because I found their storyline fresher than that of Vidar and Victoria’s story.
Indeed, I was not strongly invested in Vidar and Victoria/Halla’s romantic fate. I liked Victoria, but I found Vidar to be mostly one-note and boring. There’s a draggy section in the book where Vidar recounts his relationship with Halla, her death, and his quest to bring her back to life. The instalove elements to this romantic plotline didn’t help either.
The ending surprised me, in that it was “happier” than I thought the novel was going to deliver. To my indignation, I found out that this ending was provided only in the American edition of Giants of the Frost. (Kim Wilkins is an Australian author.) The original ending was quite different, and from reading online discussions of that ending, it appears to be the ending that I wanted, because it was the one that fit the book.
Though my least favorite of the Europa Cycle, I’m still glad I read Giants of the Frost (thanks Loki and Aud!), and who knows, maybe my opinion of the book will improve once I read the original ending. I know I’ll still be reading from Wilkins’ backlist.
In Giants of the Frost, the creepiest things arrive just when someone is on the brink of sleep. Several scientists have taken to setting a 30-minute alarm clock in the watch station, so they won’t have to endure the vision of a hag who comes to steal their breath. They try to pass off the vision as an incident of “isolated sleep paralysis” but after one such incident leaves Victoria with bruises, her default position of skepticism begins to falter. Wilkins is very good at evoking the more unsavory folkloric creatures and in creating an atmosphere of dread. There is a part in the book where Victoria and another scientist read a 10th century description of a strange weather event on the island, and it’s more chilling than one would expect.
Meanwhile in Asgard, Vidar seeks to travel to Victoria’s world (called Midgard by the Norse gods) without alerting Odin to her reincarnated return. With few allies among his family, Vidar reluctantly enlists the help of Loki, the trickster god.
In the other Europa Cycle books, there was always at least one character who I adored; in Veil of Gold it was Em Hayward and in The Autumn Castle it was Christine Starlight and Eisengrimm. Here, my favorite characters were Loki and Vidar’s bondservant Aud. Aud is a Vanir princess who made a bargain with fate at the cost of her freedom. She also suffers from unrequited love for her master, Vidar. In this state of vulnerability, she enters into partial servitude to Loki, whose capricious nature is both a comfort and a danger to her. The interactions between Loki and Aud were my favorite parts of the book, perhaps because I found their storyline fresher than that of Vidar and Victoria’s story.
Indeed, I was not strongly invested in Vidar and Victoria/Halla’s romantic fate. I liked Victoria, but I found Vidar to be mostly one-note and boring. There’s a draggy section in the book where Vidar recounts his relationship with Halla, her death, and his quest to bring her back to life. The instalove elements to this romantic plotline didn’t help either.
The ending surprised me, in that it was “happier” than I thought the novel was going to deliver. To my indignation, I found out that this ending was provided only in the American edition of Giants of the Frost. (Kim Wilkins is an Australian author.) The original ending was quite different, and from reading online discussions of that ending, it appears to be the ending that I wanted, because it was the one that fit the book.
Though my least favorite of the Europa Cycle, I’m still glad I read Giants of the Frost (thanks Loki and Aud!), and who knows, maybe my opinion of the book will improve once I read the original ending. I know I’ll still be reading from Wilkins’ backlist.
ercamcll's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
ofthorondof's review against another edition
1.0
I got as far as the middle and just had to say no and mark as dnf.
The premise was good, the characters were compelling at first but the more I read the less I enjoyed it. and to be honest I didn't expect it to get so frustrating to deal with, not just the characters, but plot wise some things were not well executed.
I got so tired of waiting for Victoria and Vidar to meet and when they did it turned out to be really disappointing.
The switching point of views didn't help the matter either.
The premise was good, the characters were compelling at first but the more I read the less I enjoyed it. and to be honest I didn't expect it to get so frustrating to deal with, not just the characters, but plot wise some things were not well executed.
I got so tired of waiting for Victoria and Vidar to meet and when they did it turned out to be really disappointing.
The switching point of views didn't help the matter either.