It's been five hundred years since the end of the world and society has rebuilt itself anew. The old Norse gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned. Magic is outlawed, and a new religion - the Order - has taken its place.
In a remote valley in the north, fourteen-year-old Maddy Smith is shunned for the ruinmark on her hand - a sign associated with the Bad Old Days. But what the villagers don't know is that Maddy has skills. According to One-Eye, the secretive Outlander who is Maddy's only real friend, her ruinmark - or runemark, as he calls it - is a sign of Chaos blood, magical powers and gods know what else...
Now, as the Order moves further north, threatening all the Worlds with conquest and Cleansing, Maddy must finally learn the truth to some unanswered questions about herself, her parentage, and her powers.
From the bestselling author of CHOCOLAT and THE GOSPEL OF LOKI comes a fantastical tale of magic, adventure and Norse mythology.
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781473217065
Number of pages: 528
Weight: 374 g
Dimensions: 196 x 130 x 34 mm
Especially enjoyable are Harris' aphorisms, her satire of joyless piety and the comically irreverant vernacular spoken by a dissolute goblin and the trickster god Loki - THE SUNDAY TIMESHarris creates a glorious and complex world replete with rune-based magical spells, bickering gods, exciting adventures and difficult moral issues - PUBLISHERS WEEKLYHer dramatic story rollocks along for 536 pages with magical transformations, nets of blue fire and a spunky heroine - THE TIMESGoblins, glams, ancient gods and subterranean adventure - SUNDAY TELEGRAPHJoanne Harris deploys a big cast in relentless action across a cosmic panorama. This is a mighty feat of storytelling and a fascination re-envisionment of Norse mythology - BOOKS FOR KEEPSA fantastic romp through the world of ancient magic, which should appeal to all adventure lovers - INISRich, comic, dark and brilliantly conceived - READING TIME
An engaging story set in the world reborn after Ragnarök and the fall of the Nordic Gods.
Each character is memorable and the writing is smooth and uncluttered, and humour is peppered throughout, in just the right...
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When it comes to apocalypses I think we can agree that Ragnarök is probably the daddy of them all. All the gods killed, all the worlds drowned and then reborn to be repopulated by just two human survivors.... More
This was one of the first books I can remember reading and falling in love with. When it first came out, I had no knowledge of Norse mythology, the Aesir, the Vanir, Odin, Loki, Ragnarok, it was all new to me, but... More
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