Groa's Other Eye (Twilight of the Gods Book II)

Rating:
Summary: Voden continues in his mystical journey to manhood.
Review: Schmidt continues his saga by adding Egyptian and Chinese mythology in with the Norse. Voden, continuing his journey for Groa's other eye first must journey to the lands of ancient Egypt (or is it Africa, it's hard to tell) where he learns of the legend of Horus (his parallel) and picks up a few new friends. Finding Groa's other eye is only the first terrible part of his journey. He must also face the lands of the Jotun (Native American legends?) and the tree. A worthy continuation of the trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: TOOK ME BY SURPRISE
Review: There is a Playstation RPG that I've yet to play called Valkyrie Profile. From what I gather, the storyline has to do with gathering warriors for Odin prior to the Norse judgement day, Ragnarok. Now, how about something similar to that storyline, except as a book, though? I've read lots of popular fantasy, but not once have I heard of an author weaving a novel around Norse mythology. I've always believed that such a book would be a thrill to read. And believe me, Groa's Other Eye IS a thrill to read. This is every mythology-buff's dream. Voden (Odin), Osiris, Enuma Elish, Humbaba, Tror (Thor), Freyja (Freya), Tiamat and Marduk are just some of the mythological figures and names that appear in this work. And when I say "appear" I don't mean that the author just mentions the name once or twice. No, when you come to Tiamat, for example, expect a battle on a god-grand scale. My, but I wish more fantasy novels were like this one! The reader of this story will follow the adventures of three characters: Voden (Odin), Freyja (Freya), and an evil wizard named Surt. Strangely enough, I actually found the bad guys rather likeable in this book. For example, there is the evil Khamuas who is always cursing this mouse that he saw on the twelfth day of the first month of winter, as he strongly believes that it brought him bad luck. In short, this book has an extraordinary cast of characters. But even books that I rate 5 stars are not perfect. If we stretched the 5 stars out to 10, I'd have to give this a 9 or so. For one, there is a terrible lack of descriptive detail in regard to the land. I really would like to know what the city of Asgard looks like (and other places, too), but Dennis Schmidt offers the reader almost no way of visualizing it. Secondly, there were times I felt that Mr. Schmidt was giving his characters easy solutions to difficult problems. Oh, it just so happens that you have a special cloth and that I can use this to defeat Adad, Ta-Dah! Finally, this book will take some time getting used to. When you're constantly being barraged with mythological names, you'll find yourself going back to the glossary in order to get your bearings. But those three things are VERY small complaints. I honestly CAN NOT name ANY fantasy novel that is as DIFFERENT and ORIGINAL as this one. The bottom line is this: If you're a mythology/fantasy buff, you'll LOVE this book. Even if mythology isn't your cup of tea, you probably still love it, since it veers so far away from most formula-fantasy. Finally, the books in this series are very hard to find. For those of you wondering, the first book in the series is called "The First Name", the second we all should know is called "Groa's Other Eye", and the final book in the trilogy is called "Three Trumps Sounding".