Siri Pettersen’s ‘Odin’s Child’ is book thirty-one of the year (I made a counting error in my last review!).
I recently joined a book club here in Innsbruck. We first met in August to discuss some short stories, and ‘Odin’s Child’ was the first full-length novel we read. We will meet later in September, and I look forward to discussing it with the group.
Seeing as fantasy generally isn’t my cup of tea—with obvious exceptions, such as ‘Lord of the Rings’—I was dubious. But, as it turned out, I enjoyed ‘Odin’s Child’. I didn’t love or hate it (as I sometimes do with fantasy). Pettersen sidesteps some fantasy errors whilst succumbing to others.
The story follows Hirka, a tailless girl in a world where having a tail is the norm. She also can’t “bind”—the codeword for magic in this universe—whereas everyone else can. The usual fare of the “orphaned special one” begins, and worldbuilding clogs up the story. But once Pettersen gets most of that out of her system, the story is fun and fast-paced. I didn’t feel that the novel dragged with extraneous details once we got rolling. Except for a rather unnecessary attempted sexual assault, the tale was entertaining.
So, for someone who dislikes most fantasy, I had a good time with ‘Odin’s Child’. I am still determining whether I will read books two and three in the series. It’s not Pettersen’s fault that this genre isn’t for me, but I must be honest about how much I liked it. I may pick them up to see where Pettersen takes the story from here.
If you dig fantasy, you may love ‘Odin’s Child’; if you dislike the genre, you might like it anyway, like me.
Over 20 short sci-fi and fantasy stories to warm the soul. Includes three Reedsy Writing Contest winners and several other shortlisted works.
joshuainsole.com 