Current Reading: Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess
Tuesday, November 12th, 2002 22:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeBloodtide is a is a retelling of the first part of the Saga of the Volsungs, the story of the twins Sigmund (here called Siggy) and Signy. It is set in a futuristic London, abandoned to gangsters when the government moved out to Ragnor and cut-off from the rest of the country, by a no-man's land populated by halfmen (human/animal hybrids).
The story of the twins takes up less than 20 pages in my copy of the saga, and this has given the novelist a lot of scope for fleshing out the story and the characters, without losing any of the savagery, brutality or passion of the original.
Whereas the saga has Odin thrusting his knife into the tree that grows up through the great hall of the Volsung's palace, this book has him thrust it into the diamond-hard glass elevator shaft full of the hanged bodies of human sacrifices, that rises up to the broken tip of a skyscraper.
Even the fact that he has the old Norse gods appearing in the city leaving death and destruction in their wake (gods are wont to do) works, as the gang lords and citizens of London only half believe in the gods, suspecting that they may be cyborgs sent from Ragnor.
I'm only just over half-way through it, but so far I'd give it 10/10. Supposedly it's for teenagers (which is quite surprising considering how dark and violent it is), but it's an exciting read for adults too!
The story of the twins takes up less than 20 pages in my copy of the saga, and this has given the novelist a lot of scope for fleshing out the story and the characters, without losing any of the savagery, brutality or passion of the original.
Whereas the saga has Odin thrusting his knife into the tree that grows up through the great hall of the Volsung's palace, this book has him thrust it into the diamond-hard glass elevator shaft full of the hanged bodies of human sacrifices, that rises up to the broken tip of a skyscraper.
Even the fact that he has the old Norse gods appearing in the city leaving death and destruction in their wake (gods are wont to do) works, as the gang lords and citizens of London only half believe in the gods, suspecting that they may be cyborgs sent from Ragnor.
I'm only just over half-way through it, but so far I'd give it 10/10. Supposedly it's for teenagers (which is quite surprising considering how dark and violent it is), but it's an exciting read for adults too!
