I bought this not knowing quite what to expect. I backed the Iron Edda Kickstarter, so I knew there would be bound bones of giants, but that’s about it.
Iron Edda: Sveidsdottir primarily follows a young-woman born with the power of a Valkyrie who then gains the power of having the bones and spirit of a centuries-dead giant bound to her of course, with great power comes great responsibility and it is this lesson our protagonist must learn as she sets out to prevent Ragnarok.
The descriptions are evocative and the action moves along at a good clip. The characters are interesting and well-developed with ambitions, dreams, and flaws we can relate to. It’s a good, quick read set in an interesting fantasy world that is at once new and original yet not unfamiliar.
My only issue with Iron Edda: Sveidsdottir is something I think is a personal hang up. It’s written in a shifting viewpoint 1st person present tense. The only other time I’ve tried to read a shifting viewpoint first person, I found it extremely difficult because it would take me several sentences to figure out which character’s eyes I was looking through. Tracy Barnett helpfully labels each chapter with the name of the viewpoint character, so that helped. It’s a narrative style I’m not used to and I’m not sure I particularly like, but some quick research shows it seems to be a fairly common, modern style for this type of fiction. Like I said, it’s a personal hang up, and if it doesn’t bother you, then you’ll zip right through this story.
Iron Edda: Sveidsdottir is an excellent freshman effort from Tracy Barnett and I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.