Odd and the Frost Giants- Neil Gaiman

Fresh of his Newbery Award winning performance in The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman returns with the delightful and slightly more suitable for my current reading audience Odd and the Frost Giants.

Playing to one of his many and considerable strengths, Gaiman sets this story within the world of Norse mythology. Odd is a young boy living in a Viking village in Norway. His father perished on a raiding expedition, and his mother (a captive from Scotland) has remarried Fat Elfred, the village oaf. To make matters worse, a tree fell on his leg when he was younger, crushing his bones, and leaving him with a debilitating limp. To Vikings, a boy who can not handle himself physically, does not have much worth at all.

One day, Odd decides to run away from home. (Given his home life, we can imagine how he might long for something different.) While walking in the woods, Odd encounters three very special animals: an eagle, a bear, and a fox. He comes to recognize that they are in fact Odin, Thor, and Loki, three of the mightiest gods from the Norse Pantheon.

They have been banished from Asgard, the city of the gods, by a particularly surly Frost Giant thanks to the arrogance of Loki. In being banished, they have lost their human forms and been trapped as considerably less powerful (although not powerless) animals. Their banishment has lead to an extra long and brutal winter in Midgard, the realm of humans.

It seems that only Odd can help the gods regain their rightful place, and end the horrible winter. Although physically impaired, Odd is cheerful, clever, and, perhaps most importantly of all, infuriating. Will he have what it takes to defeat the mightiest of all the Frost Giants? Will he succeed where the the steely will of Odin, the unfathomable might of Thor, and the devious machinations of Loki have all failed? What does he possibly have to offer that these gods do not?

Odd and the Frost Giants is a slim volume, coming in at just over 100 pages including wonderful illustrations by award-winning artist Brett Helquist, and it's over almost before it's begun. I guess Gaiman is abiding by the old show business maxim: always leave your audience wanting more. In his author biography, Gaiman says that there are more Odd stories he'd like to tell, and I for one would be happy to read them.

Neil Gaiman's most excellent website for young people:

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