Review: The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton

Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Holly Black's The Curse Workers will embrace this richly drawn, Norse-mythology-infused alternate world: the United States of Asgard. 

Seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin is trying to escape the past. His father, a famed warrior, lost himself to the battle-frenzy and killed thirteen innocent people. Soren cannot deny that berserking is in his blood--the fevers, insomnia, and occasional feelings of uncontrollable rage haunt him. So he tries to remain calm and detached from everyone at Sanctus Sigurd's Academy. But that's hard to do when a popular, beautiful girl like Astrid Glyn tells Soren she dreams of him. That's not all Astrid dreams of--the daughter of a renowned prophetess, Astrid is coming into her own inherited abilities.

When Baldur, son of Odin and one of the most popular gods in the country, goes missing, Astrid sees where he is and convinces Soren to join her on a road trip that will take them to find not only a lost god, but also who they are beyond the legacy of their parents and everything they've been told they have to be.

___________________________________

Tessa Gratton's The Lost Sun is a beautifully written and imagined introduction to The United States of Asgard series. This tale of two teens with interwoven destinies unfolds with an insistent pull from Gratton's steady hand and, before the reader realizes what's happened, they're completely under the spell of this alternate universe and the characters they've come to love.

The Lost Sun follows Soren, a born with the gift, or curse, of berserking in this blood, and Astrid, a gifted prophetess like her mother before her. The country is thrown in chaos when the Sun God, Baldur, goes missing. When Astrid tells Soren that she's believes she knows where to find Baldur, they set out on a cross-country road trip to save him. However, what begins as a simple recovery mission turns into something much more complex than either anticipated. Along the way, they discover truths about themselves, form bonds and relationships that can never be broken, and, ultimately, embrace destinies that will define the courses if their lives.

The alternate world in Gratton's novel incorporates many of the key players in Norse mythology. Though I know very little about Norse mythology, I recognized all of the borrowed characters and Gratton clearly defined the personalities and dominions of each so I never felt that I was missing any important details. In comparison to Roman and Greek mythology, there is a wildness and obvious danger to Norse mythological figures. I really, really loved what this brought to the otherwise contemporary setting in the novel. Having this mix of contemporary and aged, or, perhaps, ageless in the case of gods and goddesses, created a world that was both nostalgically familiar and entirely new. 

While I have heard complaints of an insta-romance in The Lost Sun, I have to say that I completely disagree with this claim. From the start, Soren has strong feelings toward Astrid, but he never once falls into being some type of lovesick, sappy character. Soren and Astrid's journeys are tied together and they both carry gifts from the gods, as a berserker and a prophetess, so they have a bond forged of unique understanding that adds a deeper layer to the relationship. 

I didn't expect to have the added pull of a roadtrip to contribute to the charm and magic of this novel, but that's exactly what I found. There's just something about a roadtrip that bonds characters (and readers to those characters) that simply can't be forged any by any other method. I am so thankful that The Lost Sun is the first in a series because I am entirely too attached to the four main characters in this novel; I'm just not ready to let them go.

Read The Lost Sun. Whether you loved, liked, disliked, or never read Gratton's first books is irrelevant: The Lost Sun will enchant you and leave you wanting more.

Support independent bookstores by shopping indie via the image below!

Random House, June 2013, Hardcover, ISBN:9780307977465, 368 pgs.

Review: Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. 

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. 

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. 

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

___________________________________

Antigoddess is unlike anything I've read before. A fresh, creative, and engaging take on mythological gods and goddesses in the modern world, this third novel from Kendare Blake is sure to both wow current fans and earn her many more.

It's normal and completely expected to see novels and films that feature mythology, gods, and goddesses set in places and time periods that fit the stories and legends on which they are assumed to have taken place. Blake departs from this expected and well-established pattern, instead putting the gods and goddesses of myth into the modern world. A world in which they clearly do not fit in and where their meddling and use of humans garners very different reactions than during the historical periods in which they flourished. In one passage, Hera wreaks destruction on Chicago. The attack is speculated to be terrorist related; there isn't even the smallest mention of the wrath of a goddess as a potential cause of leveled buildings and multiple deaths.

I've always had an interest in mythology, but, at the same time, gods and goddesses have always seemed rather one-dimensional. They were motivated by simple desires and their personalities were very straight forward. They didn't have the complexity of, for example, human heroes featured in their stories. In Antigoddess, Blake gives these characters more malleable shapes and complex personalities, in a way, humanizing them. They are still very much set apart from humans, having living countless years and experiencing the invincibility of eternal life, but Blake creates a situation in which they are brought down from the throne of godliness. Suddenly, these timeless beings are forced to face the possibility of an end... of death. Death not only humanizes them, it makes them feel small... vulnerable... emotional... accountable. Through this unique premise, Blake's novel says something very important about the nature of humanity.

Even a reader who knows very little about mythology will enjoy and be able to understand the importance of the gods and goddesses featured in Antigoddess. Blake weaves a significant amount of detail, leading the reader to bits of information and background deatil without becoming overwhelming or falling into the habit of dropping large amounts of overwhelming information on the reader.

I highly recommend this first installment in The Goddess War series. With Antigoddess, Blake sets the scene for the series to reach epic proportions and I can't wait to see where she takes readers next.

Support independent bookstores by shopping indie via the image below!

Tor Teen, September 2013, Hardcover, ISBN:9780765334435, 336 pgs.