RHINEGOLD

Rating:
Summary: Looks like ya either love it or hate it....and I love it!
Review: I've read all the reviews here thus far and now figure that you either love it or hate it. I loved it as well as the sequal Atillas treasure. I can see how the charachters can get tiresome as some of the reviews have said, but Grundy is also working from the Nebeilungelied here and has made a good atempt to stick to Myth.

You may also be intererrested to know that this author has writen other books about Asatru(norse religion) under another penname.....the books are Teutonic Religion and Teutonic Magic. I reccomend both of those although his style is a bit flowery on the rituals for my taste.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book, Just a bit disjointed
Review: I've read this story so many times and in so many forms since I was a child, it gets hard to tell which is my favorite. This book has a really good atmosphere, and the imagery it conjures up can't be beaten. BUT, as much as I would have liked to give it a full five stars, I believe four is more fitting. The book tends to divide its self into sections. I understand that this essentially a three-in-one book, and that the source material (the Volsunga Saga, the Nibelungenleid, the Eddas and to a lesser extent Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle) also shares this tendancy of "sectionism", I would have given it a five if this were three seperate books forming a trilogy. I really did enjoy it from start to finish, the portrayal of the heroes that I grew up with was PERFECT. I cannot say the same for Paxson's Wodan's Children trilogy. The supernatural events in the story are described in a very well thought out and believable manner which does justice to the original Norse and German sources. I enjoyed the first part of the book the most and I wish that the rest of the book as carefully woven into a whole, but the imagery and heroic spirit are consistent through out. Maybe one day I'll change my mind and adjust the rating.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book, Just a bit disjointed
Review: I've read this story so many times and in so many forms since I was a child, it gets hard to tell which is my favorite. This book has a really good atmosphere, and the imagery it conjures up can't be beaten. BUT, as much as I would have liked to give it a full five stars, I believe four is more fitting. The book tends to divide its self into sections. I understand that this essentially a three-in-one book, and that the source material (the Volsunga Saga, the Nibelungenleid, the Eddas and to a lesser extent Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle) also shares this tendancy of "sectionism", I would have given it a five if this were three seperate books forming a trilogy. I really did enjoy it from start to finish, the portrayal of the heroes that I grew up with was PERFECT. I cannot say the same for Paxson's Wodan's Children trilogy. The supernatural events in the story are described in a very well thought out and believable manner which does justice to the original Norse and German sources. I enjoyed the first part of the book the most and I wish that the rest of the book as carefully woven into a whole, but the imagery and heroic spirit are consistent through out. Maybe one day I'll change my mind and adjust the rating.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy? Yeah right
Review: If I could give this book no stars I would. I'd rather give the author a good hard spanking.

This isn't fiction, it's a horrible retelling of the Saga of Sigurd the Volsung, but overextended and with a tremendous amount of unnecessary references to Christianity.

Do yourself a favor and read a book on the Norse myths, it'll be easier to understand than this crude attempt at "Fantasy"

Rating:
Summary: Great Viking Book
Review: If you like to read about vikings, this one's for you. I was swept away by it, Grundy made me feel like I was there.

Rating:
Summary: I recommend this book to any who liked the mists of Avalon.
Review: It has been a couple of years so I don't remember the specifics. I enjoyed it. I mostly write this to balance out some of the lesser ratings. I do appreciate that it recieved such a large variance in it's star rating. I thought it was top notch.

Rating:
Summary: Nice try but, regrettably, no cigar!
Review: Much as I love this stuff and thought that Grundy has done a more than credible job in creating modern text to retell this ancient Nordic myth cycle, I had to admit, after reading about three quarters of the way through, that the material just doesn't lend itself to the novelistic form which Grundy utilized. Perhaps it's not entirely the author's fault -- others have taken similar challenges on with no better results -- but in the end this book flops. In 816 pages of quite respectable prose, the tale of the gold which Odin and Loki stole from the dwarves, and the curse placed upon it (which wreaks havoc on generations of Germanic men, culminating in the destruction of the hero Sigfried the Dragon Slayer by his Burgundian allies) unfolds before the reader. It has some very good sections, particularly at the start, but Grundy's characters grow tiresome after a time, perhaps because they are not his at all but rather his versions of figures best left to the myths they came from. Difficult dwarves, sneaky gods, grasping sorcerers and the heroes they engage may do better, in the end, in their own milieu. A tighter plot line would also have been preferable -- though it would not have been true to the myth cycle either. Perhaps that's why Homer only recounted events surrounding a single incident toward the end of the siege of Troy when he worked with that legendary cycle (yes it was even legendary in his time) rather than attempting to capture it all in a single work of fiction. Well perhaps the sequel, Attila's Treasure (or something like that) is better than this book. But I'm not about to shell out the cash to find out. By Stuart W. Mirsky ([e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: An in depth recreation of ancient Germanic culture
Review: The book drew me in with its descriptions and dramatisations of ancient Germanic culture. The mixture of mundane politics and the otherworld inhabited by gods and dragons reflected, for me, the mind set of the ancient Germans. For a person wanting to know what it felt like to live in the 5th Century CE, this is a good historical fiction novel. The hardback edition is a beautiful book, worth searching for.

Rating:
Summary: What a bore ..........zzzzzz
Review: The first time I attempted to read this book I got so bored I gave up. After leaving Rhinegold on my bookshelf for about a year and a half I picked it up again determined to finish it. I did manage to complete it this time but it was a chore, there was no pleasure in reading this novel.

Rating:
Summary: An Instant Classic
Review: The single best Novel based on the Volsung Saga I have ever read. A very literate style [perhaps dry to some readers] and a brisk pace make this an instant classic. Compare this to other lame "modernized" retellings and it becomes clear that Grundy is more akin to Walter De LaMare and Robert Graves than any modern author. HIGHLY recommended, as well as it's sequel.