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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
5 Stars. I battled on whether or not to read anything by this author but started with the prequel to this series. It was a good decision. I fell right into this world he has created. It’s like Rick Riordan mixed up for adults. Plus, the characters are clever and fun but they also bicker and make mistakes.
Spoiler
I thought maybe Danny and Wad would be the same person. It makes sense that they aren’t, but I thought it would be fun if they were.
This started out brilliant. This is not actually an apt comparison, but the book touches off memories of [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1258417001s/4407.jpg|1970226] in my head. Probably because there are only so many books I’ve read where gods walk the Earth. Plus, the Norse gods are apparently the most fun to write about, because they’re featured prominently in both. (who can resist Loki, seriously? Mercury/Hermes is just not as fun a trickster).
Anyway, I really liked the premise: Danny North is a child of gods born on Earth, whose family (along with all the other gods) were trapped long ago when Loki closed the Great Gate between Earth and their home world. The gods are no longer as powerful as they once were and some families, like the Norths (Norse gods), are forced into relative obscurity and poverty. Danny appears to be magic-less, but really he is a gatemage, like Loki. All gatemages are natural tricksters and linguists. Danny is the North family’s hope of creating a Great Gate to the homeworld. Unfortunately, ever since Loki closed the original Great Gate, identified gatemages are killed on sight according to a pact to keep the peace made by the god families.
So Danny comes from a truly fracked up family, Old World style. He’s secretly protected as a potential savior to his people at the same time that his family (including his parents!) are perfectly willing to murder him if his true talent becomes known to the other families. He’s left to be tormented by his seemingly more talented cousins, with naught a hint of parental love. It’s not a surprise that when he discovers what he’s capable of his immediate response is: Screw y’all. I’m never going to be your pet gatemage!. Maybe I have some trickster in me, too, but I liked his attitude.
Danny could be a lot of fun. The boy’s a born trickster. There were moments—like in the Library of Congress, when he was cruel to the kind librarian for no reason—that I didn’t like him. But that was part of his immaturity that he had to grow out of over the course of the book. Danny could be arrogant, impulsive, thoughtless, selfish and vindictive but he had a good heart that he just had to learn to use right (and even when his heart was in the right place, he tended to do use his powers without regard for consequences and maybe his big lesson has to be to think things through.).
There were places where the narrative should’ve been cleaned up. Danny’s thief life went on for a bit long. I know it was important for Danny to figure out who he DIDN’T want to be, but the story seemed to slow during that period. Plus, his accomplice pissed me off. While I applaud Danny’s sense of loyalty, I wished he had dumped the guy’s ass a lot faster.
The book was also unnecessarily crude. I don’t want to clutch my pearls and cry “won’t somebody think of the children?” because I know I read books when I was younger that would scandalize me now and I would want out of the hands of any hypothetical daughter. But this isn’t a Will Ferrell comedy and I’m annoyed when it descends to one. Poop jokes? Really? Danny getting essentially molested by a damaged, abused girl who honestly had NO point to the story OTHER than to sexually assault him? (that girl just ate up page space and my patience).
And then there was the parallel storyline, set in the gods’ homeworld of Westil. Reading the afterword, I discovered that this story was the seed of the idea for this book. Unfortunately, it was much less interesting than Danny’s story. The Westil stoyrline was very old school mythological. Everyone is ridiculously heartless and cruel and would fit right in to the ancient stories of the gods, up to and including creating bizarre, insane punishments for people who irk them/were inconvenient. It was an entirely different tone to Danny’s story and it kept throwing me off. It would’ve been useful if there had been some indication in the chapter header about which storyline was taking place in the chapter. Something like “Earth” or “Westil” below the chapter number. Frankly, I would’ve preferred if Westil had been cut altogether and more time had been spent on Danny. Especially developing his relationship with the “Greek Girl” and his time in high school (which I frankly found the most entertaining part of the book). Nothing in the Westil storyline was essential to the plot; it provided some insight into what was going on “back home” but frankly it could’ve been dropped and nothing big would’ve changed (I would argue its absence would increase the mystery in Danny’s storyline and would’ve been better dealt with in the sequel). It felt like Card had this story he really liked and then wrote another story from the same idea and shoehorned his pet story into the other (better) story.
In summary:
The good: Danny, gods on Earth, tying ancient mythology and the supernatural into one fascinating, unique mythology, gods acting like gods and not just humans with superpowers, the Greek Girl, all of Danny’s mentors, Danny’s time in high school
The bad: Danny’s juvenile delinquent friend, the Westphilian storyline
The ugly: The toilet humor, the Hyper Sexual Nonessential To The Plot girl
Anyway, I really liked the premise: Danny North is a child of gods born on Earth, whose family (along with all the other gods) were trapped long ago when Loki closed the Great Gate between Earth and their home world. The gods are no longer as powerful as they once were and some families, like the Norths (Norse gods), are forced into relative obscurity and poverty. Danny appears to be magic-less, but really he is a gatemage, like Loki. All gatemages are natural tricksters and linguists. Danny is the North family’s hope of creating a Great Gate to the homeworld. Unfortunately, ever since Loki closed the original Great Gate, identified gatemages are killed on sight according to a pact to keep the peace made by the god families.
So Danny comes from a truly fracked up family, Old World style. He’s secretly protected as a potential savior to his people at the same time that his family (including his parents!) are perfectly willing to murder him if his true talent becomes known to the other families. He’s left to be tormented by his seemingly more talented cousins, with naught a hint of parental love. It’s not a surprise that when he discovers what he’s capable of his immediate response is: Screw y’all. I’m never going to be your pet gatemage!. Maybe I have some trickster in me, too, but I liked his attitude.
Danny could be a lot of fun. The boy’s a born trickster. There were moments—like in the Library of Congress, when he was cruel to the kind librarian for no reason—that I didn’t like him. But that was part of his immaturity that he had to grow out of over the course of the book. Danny could be arrogant, impulsive, thoughtless, selfish and vindictive but he had a good heart that he just had to learn to use right (and even when his heart was in the right place, he tended to do use his powers without regard for consequences and maybe his big lesson has to be to think things through.).
There were places where the narrative should’ve been cleaned up. Danny’s thief life went on for a bit long. I know it was important for Danny to figure out who he DIDN’T want to be, but the story seemed to slow during that period. Plus, his accomplice pissed me off. While I applaud Danny’s sense of loyalty, I wished he had dumped the guy’s ass a lot faster.
The book was also unnecessarily crude. I don’t want to clutch my pearls and cry “won’t somebody think of the children?” because I know I read books when I was younger that would scandalize me now and I would want out of the hands of any hypothetical daughter. But this isn’t a Will Ferrell comedy and I’m annoyed when it descends to one. Poop jokes? Really? Danny getting essentially molested by a damaged, abused girl who honestly had NO point to the story OTHER than to sexually assault him? (that girl just ate up page space and my patience).
And then there was the parallel storyline, set in the gods’ homeworld of Westil. Reading the afterword, I discovered that this story was the seed of the idea for this book. Unfortunately, it was much less interesting than Danny’s story. The Westil stoyrline was very old school mythological. Everyone is ridiculously heartless and cruel and would fit right in to the ancient stories of the gods, up to and including creating bizarre, insane punishments for people who irk them/were inconvenient. It was an entirely different tone to Danny’s story and it kept throwing me off. It would’ve been useful if there had been some indication in the chapter header about which storyline was taking place in the chapter. Something like “Earth” or “Westil” below the chapter number. Frankly, I would’ve preferred if Westil had been cut altogether and more time had been spent on Danny. Especially developing his relationship with the “Greek Girl” and his time in high school (which I frankly found the most entertaining part of the book). Nothing in the Westil storyline was essential to the plot; it provided some insight into what was going on “back home” but frankly it could’ve been dropped and nothing big would’ve changed (I would argue its absence would increase the mystery in Danny’s storyline and would’ve been better dealt with in the sequel). It felt like Card had this story he really liked and then wrote another story from the same idea and shoehorned his pet story into the other (better) story.
In summary:
The good: Danny, gods on Earth, tying ancient mythology and the supernatural into one fascinating, unique mythology, gods acting like gods and not just humans with superpowers, the Greek Girl, all of Danny’s mentors, Danny’s time in high school
The bad: Danny’s juvenile delinquent friend, the Westphilian storyline
The ugly: The toilet humor, the Hyper Sexual Nonessential To The Plot girl
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Oh my god, I thought this book would never END. I almost DNF this one because it reads like HORRIBLE fan fiction. “I’m so powerful. Im so mighty. I’m so clever. But look how humble I am!!” The SOLE reason I finished this book was for #ReindeerReadathon and nothing else. The premise for this series is amazing, the world building is definitely lacking, as are the character depths and development. I would love to see another author take this idea and do something beautiful with it.
I’m heavily disappointed in this book, because I enjoyed the Ender’s Game series. Even though, looking back, there are definitely parallels.
I wish I could get back all the time I wasted on this book. -108 stars tbh.
Premise? Amazing.
Characters? Flat.
Misogyny? Hard core.
I was really looking forward to this book based on the magic system, but I don't think I'll be able to read another book by this author. He clearly has some super warped ideas about women.
Characters? Flat.
Misogyny? Hard core.
I was really looking forward to this book based on the magic system, but I don't think I'll be able to read another book by this author. He clearly has some super warped ideas about women.
The book has good potential and interesting ideas of explaining certain historical aspects and mythology. The overall writing is not to the standard I feel Card can and has written at and the characters tend to be annoying, especially Danny, the main character. It wasn't a bad book per se, but I think most hold Card on such a high standard and this one just doesn't quite make it.
A great fantasy book by Orson Scott Card (although I wish I had known it was the first in a series & none of the others are published yet!). Unlike the rest/majority of his other work, this is set in current times. The gods are real (not immortal, but their lineages are still here). Their magic is the reason for ghost stories, legends of werewolves, pixies, fairies, etc. They keep themselves hidden because their gateway to Westil (another planet) was closed nearly 1400 years ago by Loki. While able to still do some magic, it was travel between the other world & this one that magnified their powers & made them god-like. The story starts with Danny, the child of two of the most powerful mages from the North family, but whom exhibits no ability to do magic. We also learn what's been going on in Westil, too.
It's a good read & I enjoyed it, although the plot felt a little clunky & forced toward the end. A great piece of magic needs to be worked, and it feels like something that the characters would work up to, but instead they decide to do it all of a sudden with practically no preparation.
I'm anxious to read the next in the series.
It's a good read & I enjoyed it, although the plot felt a little clunky & forced toward the end. A great piece of magic needs to be worked, and it feels like something that the characters would work up to, but instead they decide to do it all of a sudden with practically no preparation.
I'm anxious to read the next in the series.
I quite enjoyed this novel from Orson Scott Card. From the beginning, I loved the take on the old gods and the alternate history and secondary world. That interest and familiar knowledge helped keep me interested through the middle and predictable sections. I will be looking to read the rest of this series.
I only started this one because I finished The Library Book one hour into a five hour flight and had forgotten to load anything else on my kindle. My husband had this on his kindle. I enjoyed it. I've started the next one. It has some of the vaguely misogynistic threads that have bothered me in other OSC books - e.g. Lana's character is awful and dealt with in a rather hamfisted manner.
I'm also conflicted about Danny's characterization. Sometimes he's sweet and courageous and sometimes he's an asshole. That's a relatively accurate portrayal of a thirteen year old, but made him hard to connect with as a protagonist.
Per usual, the world building is amazing and the storyline suspenseful and interested.
I'm also conflicted about Danny's characterization. Sometimes he's sweet and courageous and sometimes he's an asshole. That's a relatively accurate portrayal of a thirteen year old, but made him hard to connect with as a protagonist.
Per usual, the world building is amazing and the storyline suspenseful and interested.