Odd and the Frost Giants (Neil Gaiman)

Odd and the Frost Giants
Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins
Fiction, CH Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Odd was a small boy even before his leg was crippled. Now, he's that much less of a proper Viking, that much more of an embarrassment to his oafish stepfather and stepbrothers (for all that his mother still loves him, and his late father always adored him). One March, when the long winter refuses to break into proper spring and the bullying becomes too much, Odd heads out to an old cabin in the woods, determined never to return... only for a strange fox to lead him into a most magnificent adventure, far away from his little Viking village and into the realm of the gods.

REVIEW: This is a fun little story drawing on Norse mythology (if somewhat toned down for the audience, though there are references to the wilder, darker original tales around the edges), with a decently brave little hero in Odd. He only wanted to be a good son and a woodsman like his true father, and make his mother proud, until the accident shattered his leg and left him with essentially no prospects in his town, where a man who can't man a ship or go on raids or carry his weight is hardly a man at all. Fate has other plans for him, though, when he encounters a fox, a bear, and an eagle who are more than they seem, and learns that a cruel frost giant has tricked the gods of Asgard out of their proper forms and proper home. But what can one scrawny, limping mortal boy hope to do, when Odin, Thor, Loki, and the entire Norse pantheon can't free themselves? Odd isn't sure himself, but darned if he isn't going to try, even when the gods are ready to give in. The tale moves fast, with several amusing moments and some great images, coming to a satisfactory conclusion.

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