Loki: WICKED, VISCERAL, TRANSGRESSIVE: Norse gods as you've never seen them before

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The story does play around with the original myth, taking the blame away from Loki in almost all of the stories, but keeps the stories as accurate to the original source material as possible, which makes it a really interesting read. Norse gods were already having quite a moment before Burgess came along, what with Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and the past decade of Marvel movies. “Norse myths are particularly suitable for the north of Europe, rather than [those Greek gods] and their soft paddling around in the Mediterranean!” Burgess says. “These are our gods; the gods that the days of our week are named after. They fit our psyche a little better, perhaps. They are more wild and hairy and slightly more uncivilised.” As a Norse (Dane) I've been wanting to read more books inspired by/retellings of Norse mythology, but they're not as easy to come by as certain other mythologies *cough* Greek *cough*, so I was excited when I came across this one - and it's also told by one of the best Norse gods, Loki (I'm not biased.. you are)!

Burgess recounts Loki’s genius . . . with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one sometimes beautifull lyrical masterwork.’ SFX MAGAZINE The narrator’s voice (Loki) is an ass. “Nothing ever was my fault, everything that you have read about me was an Asgard propaganda!” - like, really, wtf? What a great deal of fun this was! ‘Loki’ is Burgess’ first novel for adult readers having previously written for children and young adults. He is also a winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal. I will finish this book, purely out of my respect to Loki. But I’m also sorry that another piece of pop culture involving him as a main character is such a crap.

Burgess’s approach is different. He writes from Loki’s perspective, in the first person, which lends the book the air of a young adult novel. Loki, far from being a liar, wants to inform us that he’s been telling the truth all the time. It’s the other gods who have been defaming him.

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.Lucy and I will be on hand to read, discuss and advise you on your work in the mornings and early evenings. You can divide your time between writing, going on the morning, afternoon or day-long rides available at the Rancho, or else taking time out to go on one of the many trips on offer. How you spend your time will be entirely up to you. If you don't like swearing and crude humor, maybe reconsider this one as well. I personally thought it fit in just fine and was funny, but I see others saying it was a bit much. First off, I want to make it clear that this is very much a collection of retellings - don't take everything at face value. Loki isn't actually originally included in a lot of the stories he's telling throughout the book, but very fitting to his character, it also makes him come off as an unreliable narrator. Some were given a fun twist, others that aren't so thoroughly told originally were explained further (Norse mythology can be a bit "weird" which leaves a lot of room for interpretation) and overall it was nice to revisit a lot of the stories I've heard throughout my childhood/school years. My most overwhelming thought while reading this was, ‘this is bizarre!’. I mean myths and gods are always kinda weird but some of this was like what on earth!?? The story of human origins and the reader consequently being referred to as, ‘arse born’, was a particular highlight of weirdness.

Loki is keen to establish a new “Golden Age… if only the right people could get their hands on the wheels of power”. What does this novel have to say about the politics of power and those who are in charge? This was something where I’d done most of the research long before. When I was a boy, my dad used to work for Oxford University Press and he used to bring me home books of folk tales, myths and legends. My favourite by a long way was Tales of the Norse Gods and Heroes, by Barbara Leonie Picard. I loved that book, particularly the stories of the gods, and of course particularly the stories involving Loki. I knew them pretty well off by heart already. Also, some years ago, I wrote two books based on one of the Norse sagas, the Volsunga saga, called Bloodtide and Bloodsong, so I was already steeped in this mythology. I did go over the original sources as well – the Younger Edda, the Elder Edda and other bits and pieces. But most of the groundwork had already been done. I just had to let Loki tell the old tales from his point of view – which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be very different from the versions that were handed down to us from other sources. So we’ve listened and organised our next Retreat on those lines. MORE spare time to write … MORE 1-2-1’s with myself and Lucy, and still plenty of time to ride, to sit in the hot tub with a beer, a daiquiri, Margarita or pina colada. That reading was for me a fun and enthralling experience, the Norse myths being dismantled and reassembled with a very modern sensibility. Indeed some of the overtly "religiously" aspects are presented in what was for me, as a Christian, a very suggestive way - clearly, for all his confinement, Loki has a good knowledge of the modern work. Take for example Thor's passion, dying nailed to a tree before descending to the Underworld and arising again, bearing the scars of his experience. This was a very horrifying, but also moving, account, as much so for me as any Easter passion. Other elements touch on the modern understanding of gender fluidity, with one of the gods (I won't say who, because spoilers) challenging the rigid, patriarchal regime of Thor and Odin with their developing understanding of their own identity.In a recent interview Burgess spoke of how inspired he has been by the immediacy of recent first person narratives of Greek mythology and applied this style to his favourite, the Norse myths. Every living thing has a spirit and some people – some very special people – can see those spirits. Some can have relationships with them; some can even have powers over them. Step into the ancient fir-tree forests of Scandinavia and bear witness to legends as epic as those of the Greeks and the Romans. 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. I failed my 11-plus and there weren’t all that many books being passed around at my school, stuff like In Praise of Older Women [by Stephen Vizinczey], just dirty novels really! George Orwell interested me because of the clarity of his vision and the simplicity of his writing but at that point I really liked fantasy and I was very keen on Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast. It wasn’t until I left school and started coming across a richer world of ideas, when books like The Dice Man, Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-F ive came shining through, that I began to think there might be a way of telling stories connected with life itself.

People are always cautious about young readers. But children have to be educated, the poor things. It’s desperate, really. But everyone wants a slice of the future. And they think kids are that slice, so everyone wants to create their kids in their own image.” What I’m reading nowLoki also shares his experience of love in its many forms including shape-shifting into a mare to distract a stallion resulting in the birth of Odin's famous eight-legged horse, his marriages to Sigyn and Angrboda, his monstrous children by the latter, and his intense, doomed relationship with Baldr the Beautiful.