Hooray, it’s Loki! Everyone’s favourite cad of chaos is back in Joanne Harris’s follow-up to The Gospel of Loki, which forms part of her Runes series of reimagined Norse mythologies. By the end of the first book, it had all gone a little bit Ragnarok for Loki. But of course, you can’t keep a good trickster god down for long.
Harris again uses first person point of view, with Loki explaining how he ended up sort of, well, corporeal. Escaping Dream into a different realm – at first an amusing World of Warcraft-esque computer game and then manifesting in human form – Loki is ready for some hijinks (those familiar with the mythologies, and with Harris’s previous works, will know that Loki is pretty adept at shape-shifting). Except, this time, Loki manifests in the body of Jumps, a teenage girl who has low self-esteem yet an adept line in witty comebacks. Loki has not, however, returned alone from the Netherworld; some other Norse legends have made it into the realm of the Folk and have manifested in Jumps’ friend Evan, frenemy Stella, and Evan’s little pooch Twinkle (no spoilers as to which god gets this dubious honour!).
At times, it is a little bit ‘Gods in the bodies of teenagers’ and a bit ‘so far, so Freaky Friday’, and yet it’s such fun that the kids really are all right. Harris’s creation of Loki is almost loveable; the sort of character who you would (reluctantly) allow to drag you to ‘Hel’ – or other places – and back again. The only criticism is that, though Loki is a fully realised, boisterous character with quips and nifty catchphrases, some other characters are not quite fully realised, even with the help of the character list provided before the novel commences.
You could, if you wanted to, read this book as a stand-alone adventure, even though it follows on directly from where The Gospel of Loki left off. It would appeal to you if you love Norse mythos, the big daft Marvel re-imaginings and, of course, Neil Gaiman’s playful retellings in his collection Norse Mythology. You can tell that Harris is well-versed in Norse mythology, the love for which shines through, and she seems to have a lot of fun subverting those massive characters that many have come to expect from the Edda. If the climax of this novel is followed up, it will be great to see what Loki gets up to next. . . Skål!
THE TESTAMENT OF LOKI / AUTHOR: JOANNE M. HARRIS / PUBLISHER: ORION / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
