A GATHERING OF RAVENS

released OUT NOW! 326 pages | Hardback/ebook

Author scott Oden Publisher Bantam Press It was only a matter of time before someone decided to Tolkien-up Beowulf. Unfortunately, author Scott Oden appears to have more of an affinity with JRR’s linguistic scholarship than with his storytelling acumen. A Gathering Of Ravens often feels more like an exercise in etymological willy waving: “I know where my ð glyph is and I’m going to use it!”

Set at the turn of the first millennium AD, Ravens is a Dark Ages American Gods, set at a time when Christianity is snuffing out older gods. A fantasy road trip, it follows female-pretending-to-be-male monk Étaín, who’s forced to accompany a vile monster from Norse myth – a skraelingr called Grimnir – from Europe to Ireland in search of bloody revenge. Étaín spends most of the novel getting knocked unconscious. Grimnir spends it killing things and cursing “cross-worshippers”.

The novel has some fun cross-referencing folklore, and Grimnir himself is appealingly loathsome. But the prose is stodgy, hampered further by truly irritating poems, songs and dream sequences. The plot lurches along at the pace of a snail on Mogadon. Action sequences are strangled by over-description. Character viewpoints change midchapter. A lot of research is poured into this book, but it’s barely dramatised.