Despite the first instalment not having grabbed my attention as I hoped, I decided to take a chance and pick up the second book in the Midgard series by Susan Krinard, Black Ice.
Set in the streets of San Francisco, Valkyrie Mist and her crew are back on the hunt for the relics of the gods, having already secured three of them. Her nemesis, Loki, the trickster god, is still at large and threatens to take over Midgard (Earth) if he can reach the relics first. With Mist’s crew growing ever larger and now including a biker gang, she looks to stand a good chance, but there is the added difficulty of her mother, goddess Freya, who continues to keep her secrets closely guarded.
Added to Mist’s list of worries is her companion, the Alfar, Dainn, who seems unable to control his beastly side. His curse of the beast is becoming stronger and more difficult to control, especially with his instincts to protect Mist. He knows she is unlikely to return his affections for her, but stays loyally at her side to do her bidding and protect her from Loki. Regardless of this, he always seems to be keeping some kind of secret from her, or failing to inform her when Loki visits him alone.
Loki’s secret weapon this time around is his son, Danny, a quiet boy whose powers are yet to be explored. All we know is that he will be strong, but the identity of his other parent is kept secret until the end of the book (although it is very easy to predict who it is). As well as Loki’s secrets, there is the appearance of Anna, a woman descended from one of Mist’s old lovers and in possession of one of Odin’s ravens. The raven seems to have an important message to bestow, but no-one can get him to talk besides Anna.
With a whole host of mysteries set to be uncovered in this book, I was hoping that the plot would shape up to be an exciting tale full of action and intrigue. However, I felt disappointed that the plot didn’t pick up until after the first hundred pages so. Until this point, I had completely forgotten about the search for the god’s special relics and for Mist’s Valkyrie sisters, as the focus is purely upon the relationship between Mist and Dainn and the battle with Loki. Albeit, the plot does pick up after this, but it just didn’t have enough at the beginning to hook me into the action.
Once again, I had problems with Mist as the protagonist, as we are given very little insight into her personal feelings about what’s going on. To some extent we are told what she is feeling rather than being made to feel it ourselves, which just didn’t work in the same way to build up a relationship with the character. She always seems distant from those around her, not exactly letting anyone in or trusting completely. Admittedly, with the number of times she has been betrayed this is understandable, but at the same time she expects others to trust her completely and doesn’t grasp that this is not a one-way street.
I felt very much the same about Dainn, as he keeps secrets from Mist throughout the entire book, and is very rarely honest with her about his encounters with Loki. He uses the excuse of ‘she’d never believe me’, but he never gives her a chance despite claiming to love her. What I did appreciate is that we got more of an insight into his struggles with his inner beast, as he is scared of himself and what he could be capable of. This resulted in a lot of angst from his character, as he does repeatedly ask Mist to kill him rather than let the beast thrive.
Unfortunately for me, this series did not pick up in book two as I had so hoped it would. It was still an enjoyable read, and the action scenes are written well, but my issues with the characters were too large to ignore. I feel that there are a lot of unanswered questions and characters with loose ends that are yet to be tied up, so the sequel could have a lot of work to do to bring all this together. I admire Krinard’s research into Norse mythology and the dedication to bringing out Loki’s trickster nature in all its glory, as Loki is what makes these books interesting for me. His character is probably the most explored and detailed of them all, so I’m hoping to see a lot more of him in the sequel – preferably at his despicable best.
Verdict
Once again, this series failed to grab my attention in the way I hoped it would. On paper it has everything – the mythology, action, romantic tension – but it is still missing that crucial spark. It seems like the plot to regain the god’s relics is strong, as is Loki’s character development, but Mist and Dainn are falling by the wayside as protagonists. This series has a great premise, but I’m just looking for a little bit more in terms of character engagement.
Rating: 3 Stars
Black Ice by Susan Krinard
(Midgard #2)
Urban Fantasy
Tor Books (12 Aug 2014)
Ebook: 400 pages
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