Released!
Not, alas, from his imprisonment deep in the world’s bowels, where he has been trapped by the other gods, but his voice, his book – in which I had a small part to play in writing it down – is available to buy.
Loki feels that his time has come. The old gods – Odin, Thor, Tyr – have got away with it for long enough. It’s time to tell his version of the events, long ago, which led to his unjust imprisonment. Waterstones
Read all about it! Out today – Loki
Signed copies available from Waterstones here
‘Burgess recounts Loki’s genius . . . with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one sometimes beautifull lyrical masterwork.’ SFX MAGAZINE
Melvin Burgess revolutionised children’s literature with the infamous cult novels Junk and Doing It. In his first adult novel, Loki, he breathes new life into Norse myths.
Starting with the Norse creation myths, the trickster god Loki takes the reader on a wild ride through Norse mythology, from the time the gods – the founders of Asgard – defeated races of monsters, and hurtling through famous stories, including Odin hanging himself on the World Tree, the theft of the corrupting gold ring and the murder of Baldr, the god of love and the Sun. This narrative may seem familiar enough at first, but the reader should beware.
Born within the heart of a fire in the hollow of a tree-trunk, Loki arrives in Asgard as an outsider. He is a trickster, an unreliable narrator, the god of intelligence and politics. In spite of his cleverness and sparkling wit (or, perhaps, because of this…) Loki struggles to find his place among the old patriarchal gods of supernatural power and is constantly at odds with the god of thunder – Thor.
Alongside the politics of Asgard, it charts the course of Loki’s many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin’s famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually, fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful – a tender and moving story of love that goes wrong, jealousy and a transitioning that is forbidden by society.
This is a retelling that is contemporary in tone, at once amusing and relatable. It is a heartfelt plea to overthrow the old gods of power and authority and instigate a new era ruled by love and intelligence.
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