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Reviews from June 2021 (22)

Ask The Old Grey Standing Stones

Odin’s Child  (Raven Rings, volume 1)

By Siri Pettersen  (Translated by Siân Mackie & Paul Russell Garrett)

2 Jun, 2021

Translation

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2013’s Odin’s Child is the first volume in Siri Pettersen’s Raven Rings trilogy. It was first published in Norway in 2013. The 2021 English translation is by Siân Mackie and Paul Russell Garrett.

Why cannot Hirka channel Might, the earth-magic that pervades her world? Why doesn’t she have a tail, as all proper Ymlings do? Why should she lack the Ymling tail and talents? She doesn’t know. 

Until her fifteenth year, she and her father Thorrald could conceal or explain away her deficiencies from the world. Now she faces the Ymling rite of passage, a rite that will reveal her lack of Might. It’s not clear how the authorities will react. 

Thorrald knows what she does not. Hirka is Thorrald’s adopted daughter, and she was born tailless because she is no Ymling. She comes from another world. She is an Odin’s Child. As far as most Ymlings are concerned, that would be enough to prove she is cursed. Hirka, once she learns from her father the truth, fears they might be correct. Which does not mean she doesn’t still want to live. 


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Do What You Gotta Do

Red Noise

By John P. Murphy  

1 Jun, 2021

Special Requests

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John P. Murphy’s 2020 Red Noise is a deep-space spaghetti Western. It is his debut novel.

The Miner (who has gone to great trouble to conceal her true name) arrives at Station 35 with a load of nickel-iron. Her plan is simple: sell the metal, restock, renew her asteroid claim, and head back out into space where she can be alone with her books and plants.

She soon discovers that Station 35’s central ethos is not customer satisfaction. 

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