⇒ Libro Gratis Gospel of Loki Joanne Harris 8601200601558 Books

Gospel of Loki Joanne Harris 8601200601558 Books

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Gospel of Loki Joanne Harris 8601200601558 Books

Harris is apparently one (along with certain Norwegian musicians) of not a lot of people who actually understand things. Stories are stories whether they were written by Harris, Snorri Sturluson, or long-dead annonymous poets. What is important is using one's literary interpretation skills that one should have learned in school to understand the meaning. Harris uses Loki as a means to add both lost real meaning and modern rationality to the Norse Myths. For example, Loki is the offspring of two Jotuns. What does that mean, the son of two literal "giants," as in really big people? No. Jotuns are forces of nature. Thus, (p. 18-19 of the hardback) "My father was a lightning-strike and my mother was a pile of dry twigs." (Farbauti=cruel striker, therefore, lightning strike meets Laufey=leafy sprig, a.k.a. nal=needle, therefore, evergreen needles, resulting in Wildfire). Of course, even if you hit some people over the head with a book, they are still going to insist on things like literal versions of the English word giant or the whole monotheistic/poltical religion view of good vs. evil, seeing everything as a straight line rather than a circle... Anyway, Harris's combination of understanding, excellent writing, and her own creativity keep me drawn to this book. I did not want to put it down and did not want it to end. The only things I didn't really care for are Fenris (Fenrir) as a werewolf instead of a wolf and the intent in "Ransom." This Sigyn is so awful, I actually feel sorry for Loki; one understands why Loki is "not naturally monogamous." Trying not to give too much away, I like the whole theory behind this book and Runemarks and Runelight regarding a certain disembodied head; it works logically and adds a new perspective to the old stories. The humor of this book gets mentioned a lot in reviews, but what's even better to me are lines like "And just for a moment, I almost believed that neither of us was lying."


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Gospel of Loki Joanne Harris 8601200601558 Books Reviews

I really enjoyed this book that is written from a rare perspective. One thing I love about Norse mythology is that it was originally handed down by word-of-mouth (no written language at the time) and the tales are never exactly the same. Loki is one of my favorite mythological characters, so the stories told from his point-of-view were very entertaining.

Some of the other characters were written a bit one-dimensional, but it doesn't really distract from the read. After all, Loki is the star of the show here and his character is written very well.
I’ve read a lot of book based on different myths ( mostly Greek myths). I think Norse mythology has to be my favorite. Like most people I like Loki’s sarcasm and pranks he pulls. I also enjoy Tom Hiddleston’s portrays of Loki in the movies. But as far as where he came from and the rest of the background to his stories and pranks I knew little about. ( I’m a bigger fan of Odin and Freya out of all the Norse Gods)

That all being said. I LOVED this book. I thought it was funny and a great read. It brought some wonderfully funny and intriguing incite to why Loki acted the way he did and told stories from his side of things. I’m not sure how all this compares to the actual Norse myths but it did make me want to read more of the actual myths just to compare them to Loki’s versions.

You got your wonderful mythology, humor, crazy antics and of course Loki’s poor me attitude ( He really does try to make it seem like everything his did wasn’t all his fault) I found this to be a fun entertaining read. It was rather long and wasn’t one of the books I could sit and read all night but I would enjoy two to four chapters a day. When I get a chance to read all the Norse Myths I plan on revisiting this story again.
I should preface this by saying that I'm a huge fan of Norse mythology; I've read and discussed many of the sagas and myths, and I'm very familiar with the runes and rune poems as well. So I was really excited to read this book, even though that meant ordering from out of the country and paying the extra shipping, as it's not available on . I had never heard of this author, though apparently she's well known and highly regarded in the UK. Also, given the amount of attention the character of Loki has gotten due to the Marvel movies, and how well Tom Hiddleston portrayed the complexity and vigor of that character, I had some pretty high expectations for the book. (And, the title--"The Gospel of Loki"? I appreciate the allusion to the Bible's Gospels, but that's setting up some pretty big shoes to fill, IMHO. This book needed to be an engaging, rock-solid satire to live up to a title like that.)

Positives
--She really knows her mythology (apparently she is studying ancient Norse at the moment), and almost every major myth is included (though of course from Loki's perspective).
--Her take on the Vanir/Aesir war and Gullvieg-Heide was one I hadn't seen before, and brought up some interesting possibilities for my understanding the deities and politics involved.
--It was great to see the myths from Loki's point of view, a la "Wicked" and "Maleficent". (However, it's not actually that great of an example of that genre.)
--To be fair, the book did start out strong, portraying Loki as vivid rebel about to take on Asgard; and the snappy chapter titles were entertaining.

Negatives
--Loki, the star of the show, was for the most part boring and whiny. He's arguably one of the most interesting characters of *any* mythology, anywhere; how anyone could make such an interesting god this bland and one-sided, I'll never know.
--By about a third of the way through the book, the chapter titles started feeling a schtick, and Loki started to lose his panache.
--I know the runes and rune poems, but even so, I didn't understand why she assigned which runes to which god; it was not very intuitive and I didn't get the logic behind these choices at all. This component actually worked against her, because it really undermined my suspension of disbelief every time one was mentioned.
--Though I strongly approve of someone researching the actual myths and presenting them in a palatable way to a larger audience, I think she did so at the cost of a more engaging, realistic story. I feel kind of sacrilegious in saying this, but I think I would have preferred that she *not* include a myth or two, or that she had created more of her own storyline to fill in the blanks. I love these myths, but it was stretch trying to wrap them up into one coherent narrative, and the book suffered for it.
--Finally, Loki isn't the *only* interesting and complex character in Norse mythology; the myths are rife with them, both deities and other mythological entities. However, only Odin, Mimir, and Gullvieg were portrayed as anything more than bland caricatures. A good leading man needs some equally strong characters to butt up against, or the story gets boring. While a few characters ended up being more solid than they appeared, I think it was too little too late to save the story.

So overall, the story had a few good points, but a lot of drawbacks as well. I kept starting and stoppping this book several times because I kept losing interest in it, and is not my usual M.O. when reading fiction. In my opinion, interested readers should borrow the book from the library.
Harris is apparently one (along with certain Norwegian musicians) of not a lot of people who actually understand things. Stories are stories whether they were written by Harris, Snorri Sturluson, or long-dead annonymous poets. What is important is using one's literary interpretation skills that one should have learned in school to understand the meaning. Harris uses Loki as a means to add both lost real meaning and modern rationality to the Norse Myths. For example, Loki is the offspring of two Jotuns. What does that mean, the son of two literal "giants," as in really big people? No. Jotuns are forces of nature. Thus, (p. 18-19 of the hardback) "My father was a lightning-strike and my mother was a pile of dry twigs." (Farbauti=cruel striker, therefore, lightning strike meets Laufey=leafy sprig, a.k.a. nal=needle, therefore, evergreen needles, resulting in Wildfire). Of course, even if you hit some people over the head with a book, they are still going to insist on things like literal versions of the English word giant or the whole monotheistic/poltical religion view of good vs. evil, seeing everything as a straight line rather than a circle... Anyway, Harris's combination of understanding, excellent writing, and her own creativity keep me drawn to this book. I did not want to put it down and did not want it to end. The only things I didn't really care for are Fenris (Fenrir) as a werewolf instead of a wolf and the intent in "Ransom." This Sigyn is so awful, I actually feel sorry for Loki; one understands why Loki is "not naturally monogamous." Trying not to give too much away, I like the whole theory behind this book and Runemarks and Runelight regarding a certain disembodied head; it works logically and adds a new perspective to the old stories. The humor of this book gets mentioned a lot in reviews, but what's even better to me are lines like "And just for a moment, I almost believed that neither of us was lying."