This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on December 23, 2023.

The Doom of Odin

By Scott Oden – St. Martin's Press – December 19, 2023

Review by Robin Marx

Third and final volume in the GRIMNIR SAGA, The Doom of Odin begins where many tales would end. The year is 1347, and Grimnir—the last skraelingr (i.e., orc)—has doggedly tracked his nemesis to Rome, a dying city decimated by the black plague. After nearly 130 years of pursuit, it is there that he plans to fulfill his oath to destroy the resurrected wyrm Níðhöggr, Odin’s chosen weapon and the ancient enemy of Grimnir’s people. As he’s closing in on Níðhöggr’s lair, however, Grimnir is felled by a crossbow bolt loosed by a terrified mercenary. Just like that, a legendary warrior seasoned by a thousand years of battle is snuffed out by a single lucky shot.

Grimnir awakens in Nástrond, a grim realm at the base of the World Tree Yggðrasil. A dark mirror of the humans’ Valhalla, Nástrond is where Grimnir’s extinct people feast, intrigue, and brawl. The family reunion is an acrimonious one, however, as his parents, cousins, and myriad half-brothers despise him as an upstart outsider. The contempt is mutual, as Grimnir feels his fellows have strayed from Loki’s path, more concerned with social jockeying and establishing petty kingdoms than honing each other through constant warfare in preparation for Ragnarök. A treacherous ambush cuts short Grimnir’s afterlife, but while “slain” souls in Nástrond are typically revived a few hours later, Grimnir instead finds himself unceremoniously shunted back into the world of the living. Subsequent deaths catapult Grimnir back and forth between Rome and the Worlds Below, where he doggedly pursues his goals in parallel. In the world of the living, he continues his quest to destroy Níðhöggr and thwart the wyrm’s master, Odin. When in the afterlife, Grimnir strives to discover the source of his mysterious resilience and the role he is destined to play in the final battle of Ragnarök.

Norse mythology figured heavily in both A Gathering of Ravens and Twilight of the Gods. But while the gods and creatures of Scandinavian folklore were marginalized by the encroachment of Christianity in the first two volumes of the GRIMNIR SAGA, having so much of the final book’s action take place in otherworldly realms allows Scott Oden to pull out all the stops, delivering a phantasmagorical epic packed with Scandinavian spirits and monsters. In The Doom of Odin humans are mostly anonymous rabble rather than the central characters they were previously. Instead, Grimnir finds himself struggling against the souls of his vanquished race, fey witches, undead draugar, winged murder-crones, giants, and Odin himself. While the story is consequently less grounded in our historical world than previous volumes, the cosmic elements feel like a natural escalation at this point in the narrative. Oden creates the sense that not only is Ragnarök nigh, it’s also just two steps away.

After following Grimnir’s exploits over two books as the sole surviving skraelingr, it was fascinating seeing him thrown in among his own people. Grimnir’s cocksure bravado and casual cruelty seem ubiquitous among his kind; they act like jackals, constantly circling each other, waiting for an opening to strike. While the skraelingar clearly share a certain base disposition, their personalities are given enough nuance to keep them from feeling one-dimensional. The fierce warrior woman Skaði is a special highlight, especially after seeing Grimnir mostly interact with smaller, more fragile human women in the previous books.

Even compared to the first two volumes, The Doom of Odin revels in vicious, graphic violence. Skulls are smashed and entrails are spilt, and it’s all rendered in vivid detail. Much like the story’s stakes had been raised, it felt like the brutality had been taken up a few notches as well. This wasn’t a negative point for me, if anything it created the sense that Grimnir was truly unchained for the first time, giving in to his empowering rage in a way most works of entertainment warn against. Sensitive readers might find themselves skimming some passages, however.

A minor issue I had with The Doom of Odin is that the cast of characters is considerably larger than before, and Old Norse mythological terms more frequently encountered. There were occasions when I had trouble keeping track of who some of the minor characters were, or what a given branch of the World Tree signified. It was only upon finishing the book that I discovered that a combination glossary/dramatis personae had been tucked away in the back. This appendix would have smoothed over the few rough patches in my reading journey if only the book had drawn my attention to it earlier, perhaps in a table of contents.

Packed with world-shaking events and operatic struggle, The Doom of Odin is an immensely satisfying conclusion to Grimnir’s saga. One of grimdark’s most compelling characters gets exactly the bloody send-off he deserves. Grimnir’s tale couldn’t have ended any other way.

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This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on December 5, 2023.

Twilight of the Gods

By Scott Oden – St. Martin's Press – February 18, 2020

Review by Robin Marx

It is the year 1218, and deep in the wilds of Scandinavia there is a sense that Fimbulvetr, the final winter presaging Ragnarök, is at hand. While the Norse, Danes, and Swedes neighboring them have adopted Christianity, the isolated Raven-Geat tribe reject the so-called “Nailed God” and cling to the old ways. Though surrounded by enemies, the Raven-Geats have a protector known as the Hooded One, immortal herald of the Tangled God Loki. As Twilight of the Gods opens, hot-blooded teenage girl Dísa Dagrúnsdottir has just been chosen by the Fates to serve as the Hooded One’s new priestess. She is shocked to learn that the truculent and mercurial guardian of her people is a literal monster: Grimnir, last of the kaunr, what we would call an orc. As Dísa attempts to survive her new master’s cruel ordeals, a greater threat looms just out of sight. A haunted and deranged zealot fresh from the sack of Constantinople plots a new personal Crusade, one to exterminate the heathen Raven-Geats and unite the Scandinavian peninsula under the White Christ.

Set two centuries after the events of A Gathering of Ravens, Twilight of the Gods is the second volume in Scott Oden’s GRIMNIR SAGA. Twilight of the Gods manages to be both more intimate and more epic than its predecessor. Where A Gathering of Ravens spans more than a decade, roaming from Denmark to England and then Ireland, Twilight of the Gods mostly confines itself to the wilderness of what is now Sweden. The cast of characters is smaller, but the stakes are much higher. While the first book primarily dealt with a personal vendetta, this time a reluctant Grimnir finds himself called upon both to defend the humans he’s been parasitically lording over for generations and fulfill his role in a prophesized religious war threatening to spark the end of the world.

Twilight of the Gods is a book drenched in both grim Norse fatalism and blood & thunder heroics. The novels in the Grimnir Saga depict a North where the Old Gods are in decline. Grimnir is the last of his kind, and other once respected and feared supernatural creatures have likewise become relegated to the margins of the world or gone extinct entirely. The influence of Odin and the old pantheon wanes, displaced by the encroaching Christian faith. For Grimnir and many of the other characters in this book, there’s a pervading feeling that the war has already been lost, yet for various reasons they still gear up to fight one last glorious battle. And readers familiar with Oden’s other work, from the previous Grimnir novel to historical adventures like Men of Bronze and The Lion of Cairo, know that Oden can deliver that final battle with gusto. Simultaneously rousing and horrifying, the combats in this novel blend cinematic action with gory, gritty, down-in-the-mud struggle.

As with A Gathering of Ravens, appealing characters are another strong point in Twilight of the Gods. Oden treads a delicate line with his hero Grimnir; he must appear monstrous enough to feel like an “authentic” orc and not just a brutish costumed human, but not so repellent that the reader finds themselves unable to relate to the character or enjoy his exploits. Grimnir is bellicose, capricious, spiteful, and arrogant. He’s casually brutal and an unrepentant murderer. But he’s also an orc of his word, and never fails to repay a debt. In his dealings with humans, who Grimnir views as little more than animals, Oden also imbues him with a mischievous, amused paternalism. Grimnir may not have a heart of gold, but he’s not an outright villain, either. To preserve Grimnir’s mystique, Oden wisely provides primary viewpoint character Dísa as a counterbalance and foil. Imperfect and impetuous, and sharing more than a little of Grimnir’s arrogance, Dísa is an entertaining heroine to follow. Her undying determination is admirable, and it’s interesting to watch her learn when to push back against Grimnir and when to (grudgingly) accept his brusque guidance.

Despite the exceptional quality of the book, Twilight of the Gods had the misfortune of launching in February 2020, roughly simultaneously with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With all the societal upheaval, store closures, cancelled events, and supply chain issues that followed, I suspect unlucky timing and curtailed promotions prevented this volume from attracting the audience it deserved. Now is an ideal time to read Twilight of the Gods, however. Its conclusion will leave readers wanting more, just as more is about to arrive: The Doom of Odin, book 3 in THE GRIMNIR SAGA, is scheduled to be released on December 19, 2023.

Wholeheartedly recommended for fans of Vikings, orcs, Viking orcs, tough heroines, Scandinavian metal, and doomed battles against incredible odds.

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