Saturday, August 3, 2013

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Mist


Susan Krinard has been writing paranormal romance and fantasy since 1993, when a published author friend read a short story she’d written and advised her to try writing a novel. She sold her first novel to Bantam Dell, and has since written for Bantam, Penguin, Harlequin/ Silhouette, Harper Collins, St. Martin’s Press., and Tor Books. Her output includes twenty-three novels and twelve novellas and short stories. 

Susan’s love for Science Fiction and Fantasy began when her fourth grade teacher read Madeleine L’Engle’s’ A Wrinkle In Time to the class. She attended her first Star Trek convention at the age of 14. Since then she’s continued to read voraciously and has attended numerous local and World Science Fiction conventions. Her first major urban fantasy series is the MIDGARD series, beginning with Mist, a July 2013 release from Tor Books.

Susan lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband Serge Mailloux—whom she met because of a mutual love of the works of writer C. J. Cherryh—dogs Cagney, Nahla and Freya, and cats Agatha and Rocky.

You can keep up with Susan online at her Website, on Facebook, and on GoodReads!

Mist, book #1 of the MIST series
by Susan Krinard

Synopsis:
Centuries ago, all was lost in the Last Battle when the Norse gods and goddesses went to war. The elves, the giants, and the gods and goddesses themselves were all destroyed, leaving the Valkyrie Mist one of the only survivors.

Or so she thought.

When a snowy winter descends upon modern-day San Francisco in June, Mist’s quiet existence starts to feel all too familiar. In quick succession, Mist is attacked by a frost giant in a public park and runs into an elf disguised as a homeless person on the streets…and then the man Mist believed was her mortal boyfriend reveals himself to be the trickster god, Loki, alive and well after all these years.

Loki has big plans for the modern world, and he’s been hanging around Mist for access to a staff that once belonged to the great god Odin. Mist is certain of one thing: Loki must be stopped if there is to be any hope for Earth. But the fight is even bigger than she knows….

Because Loki wasn’t the only god to survive.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Pack Alpha - Michelle L. Olson:
*eARC received from Netgalley via Tor in exchange for an honest review
-Actual rating - 3.5 Skulls

This review is going to be a bit hard for me to write, because while there were things that I loved about this book, there were things that are stopping me from giving it a higher rating as well. I'll try to break it down the best I can though...

Overall, Mist was a really cool concept - Valkyrie sent to earth with her sisters and several powerful & mystical artifacts during Ragnarok (the battle of good vs. evil between the Norse Gods), then forced into living a 'normal' life after she loses her sisters and assumes Ragnarok was lost by her side and everyone but she and a few others were locked away in another dimension. The problem... Ragnarok really never ended, the end is still coming, and Mist's 'normal' life is completely turned upside down when she finds this out the hard way by being attacked by a creature she never thought she'd see again, and learning that everything she believed in recently had been a lie. Unfortunately, to properly set all of that up in a debut novel, there was a significant amount of set up involved, so it started a bit slow for me honestly. The book also requires a decent amount of Norse Mythology knowledge and/or research for pronunciation and proper understanding of several things, so that slowed me down a little as well and didn't allow me to get lost in the story as I wanted to.

The characters and story were strongly developed though, and like any good series debut, their introductions were both positive and negative allowing for further growth and development and the building of the reader/character relationship. The action also had major potential - Mist is a strong heroine, her newfound allies are also strong and interesting, and the action sequences both grabbed your attention and surprised with secrets being revealed in the middle of a battle and then later established upon.

Basically, I feel that this series has a lot of potential once readers establish themselves in the mythology that the book is based on, develop relationships with the characters, and obtain a better grasp on where things are headed. I'm personally excited to see where Susan can take things because I think it could be a real treat to follow Mist and her crew through a few books in their struggles, triumphs, etc.

I definitely recommend this book to Urban Fantasy readers who have a love for Norse mythology; the book is steeped in it, and it's quite fascinating. Overall, I'm looking forward to future books of the series now that the baseline is established. :)

Mist



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