So new-release, illustrated short stories are the only form of Neil Gaiman text that I have had justification to read.Īnd thus far I haven’t been driven to much in the way of feeling by any of them.īut Odd and the Frost Giants has broken the ice, so to speak! But, due to a time crunch brought on by release dates, I have never found the time to go back and delve into his novels. He’s a brilliant man, there’s no denying that, and I have always thought that I was bound to love his work. It finally happened I came across a Neil Gaiman short work that I felt more than “meh” about! Odd sets out to win back Thor’s hammer, return the gods to their kingdom and their humanoid forms, end the winter that has gone on far longer than normal thanks to the frost giants, and prove that strength doesn’t trump brains. ‘Because we can’t talk.’ Then it said, ‘Oops.’ If they did not actually say ‘Who? Us?’, it was there in their expressions, in the way they held themselves. The animals looked at Odd and at each other. Odd follows the fox to a bear, which he helps free from under a fallen tree, and he soon discovers that this bear and fox, plus the eagle that has been watching from the skies, are actually gods, forced from their kingdom by frost giants. And it was not every day that you got to follow a fox. He had no plans, other than a general determination never to return to the village. It was, Odd concluded, an animal with a plan. It was red-orange, like flame, and it took a dancing step or two towards Odd, and turned away, then looked back at Odd as if it were inviting him to follow. When it saw that Odd was watching, it jumped into the air, as if it were trying to show off, and retreated a little way, and then stopped.
Its muzzle was narrow, its ears were pricked and sharp, and its expression was calculating and sly. He flees to the woods, to his father’s old cabin, and soon comes across a fox that seems to be trying to tell him something. Unable to walk properly with his crushed foot, and certainly unable to step into a proper viking role, Odd is ridiculed by the people of the town, and by his new step-father. Odd loses his father and, in stepping up to take over his father’s duties, is injured.
BOOK REVIEW: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
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