Sarah's Reviews > A Gathering of Ravens

Wow. I'm knocked a little speechless by this one. There is so much fantasy in this book, and seemingly so much history. I'm always impressed by historical fiction in which the writer has done their research and included real events, real times and real places and written them to be entertaining on top of it all. This book starts heavily on the fantasy side, and ends heavily on the side of history. I suppose, even the fantasy aspect was part of history. The author researched his mythology and wrote it well.

The writing in general was excellent. Oden transports his readers to another time and place where magic roams the lands and the old gods do battle with the new "Nailed God". We were treated to sights like Yggdrasil, and standing stones. We meet Fae and sorceresses and familiars, daughters of Morrigan, and wights. It's dark and gritty, which is what I love from both fantasy and historical re-tellings.

This book is told from the point of view of what is supposed to be, or resemble, an orc. Unfortunately it took me reading the author's note at the end to realize this. The author meshed together mythology from a few different cultures, Irish, Celtic and Danish/Norse. While I couldn't recall the word skraellingr from my knowledge of Danish mythology, and know little of Celtic mythology (though admittedly, this was stupid on my part because the word is right there- ORCneas), I do know a little about the Fomoraig. They were giants that did battle with the Tuatha de Danaan (the Fae). So I registered more with that word and glazed over the Orc in Orcneas. Additionally, he's described as having a wolf like appearance and being descended from Fenrir (a giant wolf of Danish mythology) and so I just thought of him as a wolf man. (What can I say- I just don't have Orcs on the brain.) No harm done though, I just reflected on it in a different light afterwards and it made perfect sense, and gave me a different appreciation for the story in general.

That being said, the beginning was a little slow for me. It took me until about halfway through the story before I really became invested in the characters and their endings. I think it was due in large part, to Etain's preaching. It just got old really fast. She was one of those "monks" a certain Anglo Saxon Viking probably would have murdered for looking at him the wrong way. It got better as the story went on and she saw perhaps there was more to the world then was written in the teachings of the apostles.

Once I was introduced to Blind Maeve and her wolf hound Conan, and the witch of Dubhlinn, Kormalda, the story began to pick up. The melding of the mythology and the history came together seamlessly and sucks the reader in and doesn't let go. I was rooting for them all in the end, Etain, Grimnir, Njall, and even for Kormalda. I even found myself rooting for the minor characters, King Brian and Ospak.

Just a final note- this book is not very long, but takes concentration and is not what I would call an easy read. I don't mean it as a critique, more of a heads up for anyone considering reading this. It is a book steeped heavily in ancient mythology and uses and re-uses words that will not be familiar to most readers.

Overall it was excellent and the author hinted in the epilogue that the adventures of Grimnir were not over, so I will definitely be on the lookout for a sequel. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, ancient mythology and fantasy. Thank you to St. Martins Press and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC!