Review | Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Odd and the Frost Giants was released almost a year ago, and even before then I’d followed its inception and creation on Neil Gaiman’s blog. Needless to say, I rejoiced at its recent North American release. It’s always a pleasure delving into a Neil Gaiman book, and yet a pleasure tinged with a hint of trepidation. Can Gaiman live up to his superb track record, or will I for once come away disappointed. After reading, or rather listening to, Odd and the Frost Giants, I’m pleased to report that my faith in this master storyteller has remained intact.

Odd and the Frost Giants
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
Audible Download – 1 hour 46 mins [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2009
Print:  Hardcover, 128 pages

Odd is a young boy living in Viking-age Norway cursed with more than his fair share of bad luck. First his father dies on a Viking raid, not in the glory of combat but by ignominious hypothermia. Then Odd is crippled when a tree falls on his foot. Nevertheless, he wears a constant enigmatic smile that irks his fellow villagers to no end, all save his loving mother, a Scotswoman whom his father had captured on a previous raid. One day, Odd comes across an eagle, a bear, and a fox, who just so happen to be Odin, Thor, and Loki, exiled from Asgard and from their true forms by the Frost Giants. Lifting the deities out of despondency, Odd takes it upon himself to help them reclaim the Hall of the Gods.

In many ways, Odd and the Frost Giants reads a bit like American Gods for kids. Gaiman’s research and interpretation of Norse myth is both thorough and inventive, and Odd is the quintessential quirky Gaiman protagonist. The theme of humanity encountering the divine is also prominent. The book’s young reader label should by no means dissuade adult readers, either, as Gaiman’s charming, poetic language is a thing to be savored at any age.

Like most of his audiobooks, Gaiman narrates Odd and the Frost Giants himself, and once again does a fantastic job, showing himself to be not only a great author but a talented performer. From Thor’s deep rumblings to Loki’s mellifluous yet malicious banter, Gaiman’s characterizations are spot on. My one complaint is that for some reason the audiobook producers decided to add an echo effect to Gaiman’s voicing of the frost giants, which only has the effect of rendering his powerful narrative silly.

This is a short review, but then, Odd and the Frost Giants is a short book. Go read it. I keep wishing that Gaiman would return to the more mature milieu of Neverwhere or American Gods, but until he does so I’m enjoying the delightful wonders he’s churning out as children’s books.