Odin's Child

February 1, 2021
The first entry in an epic fantasy series from Norway. In the land of Ym, all are born with tails and are able to draw upon, or bind, the Might, the energy that flows through the world. All except for Hirka, a 15-year-old girl who cannot bind and whose tail was eaten by a wolf when she was small. As the time of the Rite--the coming-of-age ceremony when young people are given the Seer's protection--approaches, Hirka is told the unbelievable truth by her father. She is a child of Odin, a tailless creature who was brought from another world as a baby and whose mere presence threatens everyone in Ym, for Hirka is a bringer of the rot. Suddenly orphaned, unmoored, and afraid for her life, Hirka believes that only Rime--her 18-year-old childhood friend, a powerful binder and heir to one of the 12 families that govern Ym--can help. But Rime has a shadowy secret of his own. Repetitive internal monologue slows the action, and the content skews toward older readers with one of the viewpoint narrators being 30-year-old villain Urd, but overall, this is an intricate, engaging novel. The story examines and upends everything its characters believe in, including their world, their history, their faith, and themselves, while intertwining elements of politics and Norse mythology with a side of forbidden romance. Main characters are White; some secondary characters are brown-skinned. An uneven but promising trilogy opener. (glossary) (Fantasy. 16-adult)

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February 19, 2021
Grades 8-10 In Hirka's world, children come of age at 15, when they complete the Rite and receive the Seer's protection against frightening creatures, called the blind, that are feared by all. Hirka, who's just turned 15, finds she's unable to complete the Rite, which makes her an outcast. But being on the outside is nothing new: Hirka was born without a tail, which means she's always been bullied and despised by the children of her village. It's only when she discovers that her lack of a tail--which keeps her from accessing magical Might--marks her as an Odin's Child, from another world, that she begins to learn her true origin. But with this revelation comes another: she'll be hunted the rest of her life by her oldest friend, Rime, who is the Seer's assassin. While this debut, the first of a trilogy, plunges into the action almost immediately, it takes some determination to really get into the swing of the story. This Norwegian import is heavy, epic storytelling for dedicated readers, and is best for larger collections.

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