Friday, August 14, 2015

Germanic Gods and Goblins

In Gateway to Nifleheim, Glenn G. Thater delves into the Germanic world of gods and goblins that are related to Valhalla and Nifleheim, the powers of good and evil to spin her yarn. This is the first book in the Harbinger of Doom Series. I have to confess at the start, I skipped many a page to keep going. The story doesn't so much move as that it plods on, tediously.



Amazon offers the first three books in the Harbinger of Doom series as a free download to Kindle. That is how I got to read the first book, and I gave up after that one. I can't say how many chapters are filled with exclusively battle scenes, but it became quite taxing to read about every step, every swing, every punch, every thought, every breath each person took.


The progress of one of the evil creatures from one wall of a temple to another wall took up at least one chapter, possibly more. I suppose you get my drift. I can't even tell you with certainty if the story-line is moving anywhere, the whole thing felt so static and caught up in that one single moment.


There are other things that tested my patience, too. While I can buy into the concept that hoi polloi disapprove of magic in the author's world, why would a castellan with no less than two master wizards and a bevy of acolytes at his command not believe in it? The story for that is either missing or not developed sufficiently to make it believable.


The same castellan develops an unreasonable hatred against the hero of the book (at least I presume him to be the hero as he is mentioned in the prologue). Again, the story why that should be so is missing. And as the castellan is the only dwarf among humans, xenophobia can't be made to count. Puzzling behavior is the friendliest way I can find to express it.


If you still think you want to have a try as Germanic gods interest you, you can get the first three books for free as a download to Kindle on Amazon (at the time of publication of this review). The search for Harbinger of Doom will get you there easily.


Further reading
Hero, Sword, and Dragons
The Stolen Kingdom
The Thief Who Learned Magic

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