Norse Code
Ratings5
Average rating2.6
Is this Ragnarok, or just California? The NorseCODE genome project was designed to identify descendants of Odin. What it found was Kathy Castillo, a murdered MBA student brought back from the dead to serve as a valkyrie in the Norse god’s army. Given a sword and a new name, Mist’s job is to recruit soldiers for the war between the gods at the end of the world—and to kill those who refuse to fight. But as the twilight of the gods descends, Mist makes other plans. Journeying across a chaotic American landscape already degenerating into violence and madness, Mist hopes to find her way to Helheim, the land of the dead, to rescue her murdered sister from death’s clutches. To do so, she’ll need the help of Hermod, a Norse god bumming around Los Angeles with troubles of his own. Together they find themselves drafted into a higher cause, trying to do what fate long ago deemed could not be done: save the world of man. For even if myths aren’t made to be broken, it can’t hurt to go down fighting…can it?
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I bought this one a couple years ago when it first came out and figured it would be a good one to read since I'm currently in Sweden and Norse mythology takes a big role in this story. I have a passing familiarity with Norse mythology (which I enjoy more than Greek) since I've read D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Gods and Giants several times to my kids and I've also started a grown-up book about Norse mythology. So I actually recognized some of the lesser known Norse gods' names. (Beyond Thor, Odin, and Loki, can you name some?) Anyway, this story uses a murdered woman who becomes a Valkyrie as its protagonist as she joins forces with some of the gods to prevent Ragnarok (a Norse end-of-the-world scenario featuring deaths of gods, natural disasters, and rebirth). But I didn't get a good sense of the main character (christened Mist) and couldn't figure out which gods were on which side of the fighting. I was also frequently lost as to many of the characters motives and didn't really understand what was happening. Perhaps you can tell where this review is heading? Either I'm not that smart, wasn't paying close enough attention, or things were clear as mud. But at only 292 pages, I finished it anyway.
