Customer Reviews

Loki

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Saying it's an epic fantasy would be the understatement of the century.

It's a novel that tears into the very flesh of mythology; paints a picture with its essence while adding the sharpened edge of the modern world. There's blood and gore enough to irrigate the fields of literature and with that, enough adrenaline to keep several dozen of your average people on edge for hours.

Loki. A book formed over the course of one and half years by local writer and English teacher Mike Vasich, it welds every aspect of literature that an avid reader could possibly hope for. Wielding the unique flavors of Norse mythology, Loki centers on the tale of the Viking's trickster god; the Sly One, the God of Mischief, the Father of Lies, and the Harbinger of Destruction, who, just as the book's title implies, is Loki. While the storyline of the book itself is a thrilling read (readers encounter several battles), the deeper story of Loki lies in the lifelike qualities Vasich instilled in his characters.

Sure, the guts spilling out and limbs flying off are fun to read about. Vasich writes the battle scenes in such a way readers might find themselves gripping the book so tightly their knuckles turn white. It's unsurprising that, as he admitted in an interview, the battle scenes were his favorite to pen. But the battles are simply one dimension of the multi-faceted jewel that Loki is.

The feelings of the characters are so realistically projected that readers will find themselves loathing characters, loving characters, or doing both simultaneously to a single character at any given time. The emotions entrenched in the main character himself are cause for readers to look deeper into the book. The pain Loki goes through as he's denied the simple human want for acceptance, the anger as his family and everything he cares about is thrown from his grasp: readers will be absorbed into the many layers of the story faster than they can say "Thor."

This brings me to the next face of Vasich's novel. Loki integrates dark humor within the book and readers will inevitably find themselves chuckling whilst their noses are buried within the pages. A good portion of the humor comes in the form of a big, bulky, stereotypically brainless, but ever-so-buff god that most readers would recognize from pop culture. Thor. The God of Thunder and the physically strongest of the Norse gods, it becomes apparent that Thor's brain is as shallow as his muscles are substantial. Contrast him to the black sheep of the Norse gods, Loki, whose is immensely cunning and is nothing short of mentally brilliant, and you can set yourself up for some good compare-and-contrast jokes. Add in smart remarks regarding a man giving birth to a horse and the rapid turnover of people growing senile and the story has the perfect amount of wit to keep readers engaged.

For those of you who are already turning away from my review to go read about something else due to your supposed hatred of fantasy novels, I assure you, this is one book you will not, under any circumstances whatsoever, want to miss. Fantasy lover, fantasy hater: Loki can please just about anybody. After reading it myself, I was mind blown. It remains one of the few books that, after having finished it, I've gotten the feeling that I'd just exited a rollercoaster. I won't lie; I found myself holding my breath on multiple occasions of during the book. And I can't wait to hold my breath again. And again. I look forward to another book from Vasich. And perhaps a Loki movie?

Do I sound like an obsessive Loki fan?

Good. Because I should.

Updates to this review will hopefully follow, but I'm eager to tell folks with tastes similar to mine to go ahead and buy this book. I'm only about one third of the way through the book, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a huge reader and usually in my hands is art theory, philosophy, home-brew techniques, or bad magazines. But what I want to read, what I enjoy the most is Norse mythology. I've dabbled in some historical fiction of the viking era which is fine, but doesn't quite do the job. Loki by Vasich fills the (ginnunga)gap for a nordic myth based novel.

If you find yourself in the same boat as me, searching for more Norse mythology to read then this book is for you. I've read Crossley-Holland a couple times, and Padraic Colum, Byock's Volsung sagas, and I also recently started Tolkein's the Legend of Sigurd and Gunrun, which is his masterful crafting of the Volsung saga plus more, and is starting off great!... anyway you get the picture. If those books are on your shelf and you're looking for a great page turner that does justice to the myths in a contemporary narrative way, you'll enjoy this. Hopefully we can look forward to more novels based in the same Nordic mythos from Mike Vasich and soon! - I'm not saying it's perfect. There have been a couple things that rubbed me the wrong way, but all in all, so far, it's a good one. - And perhaps I'll be able to edit this review once I've finished the book.

A brilliant retelling of some of the major events in Norse mythology, and thus an ambitious and worthy--and ultimately significant--literary effort. Vasich brings to life things like the Norns, the gods, and ultimately Ragnarok. He brought to life the wolf Fenrir, the stonemason who offered to rebuild Asgard's wall, and Hel. Vasich has a special ability to imagine and write about mythic events, as you'll see in the final battles between Fenrir and Tyr, Thor and Jörmungandr, Heimdall and Loki.

Vasich successfully brought his major characters to life, mainly Loki and Odin. The secondary characters (such as Tyr, Balder, and Freya) weren't drawn as well, but the good news is that Loki and Odin always seem to carry the day whenever either of them were involved with a scene, and they seem to show up in at least half of the book. The book suffers a bit in the second half from Loki's relative absence, but I still enjoyed every new element introduced.

With Loki, we get to experience his ups and downs, his hopes and rejections, his realizations and transformations, and there is a pleasing element of sympathy for the devil here. With Odin, we experience his unique problem, knowing the future while possessing a profoundly passive acceptance of that future (or, at least, that's how he's presented here). This makes Odin a frustrating figure, but Odin's attitude is a perfect representation of the Norse outlook and what makes Norse mythology unique. I found myself wondering what would've happened if Odin hadn't believed so much in Ragnarok, and maybe the author wanted us to think about that, too. Because Odin's vision of the future became self-fulfilling in so many ways.

What didn't I like? The copyediting on a grammatical and sentence level was mostly very good, but also occasionally problematic. I think the author could benefit from a better copyeditor. The proofreading and formatting were great, though. I found very few typos, which is outstanding. The writing was excellent, although a bit distant with a somewhat omniscient style (the book is mostly written in a more current third person limited, though).

Having frequent point of view changes with no conventional protagonist made the reading a bit slow for me. I agree with what Hepius said in his review on this, as well as his comments about skipping the italicized parts (which function as spoilers for Vasich's rendition of the myths). However, I think Vasich still did the right thing here. To retell this mythology requires multiple points of view, and he wrote them well. It's just that this same technique distances the reader from the story a bit. Nonetheless, I'm glad he wrote it in the way that he did. I just read it in daily chunks rather than being swept through the entire story over a short period of time. Your mileage may vary. Even read in chunks, there's plenty to savor here.

My last complaint is that the reader often has to wait, to read about the same event multiple times through multiple points of views. At times this technique was used well; at other times I felt it slowed down the pace too much. The book is written in relatively short scenes, though, so you never have to wait for anything for too long, and it's nice to see things from different angles.

I came into this book knowing very little about Norse mythology, and I feel incredibly thankful to the author for writing these stories as he did. This book allowed me to explore the myths from a tight narrative perspective, to experience the major players and the events in a way that not only brought the tales to life, but which also feels like a modern continuation of the myth. Vasich takes some creative liberties with the mythology (and he favors Loki and Odin as he does so), but I feel this only keeps the stories fresh and alive. People who have read Norse mythology will enjoy his twists on the familiar, and people unfamiliar with Norse mythology will get to experience such a grand tale in a thrilling way. A brilliant effort, and one that deserves to be a classic resting on every bookshelf with space for works on Norse mythology.

Moses Siregar III, author of The Black God's War.

At the end of this book, in the "About the Author" section, it reads: "This book was inspired by the teachings of Norse mythology in his class, and is dedicated to all the students who have ever said. "Mr. V, you should write a book!"

I would like to add: Mr. V, please keep writing books.

Most of what I know about Norse mythology was deeply instilled by a childhood of engrossed in the Marvel Universe, so I was prepared for this book to pale by comparison to the comics (yes, I still read comics, shut up) or the movie (yes, I liked the movie, SHUT UP). The characters in this rendering were familiar, but Thor was never more threatening, and Loki never more... Loki. The nature of mainstream comics strips Asgardians of their status as battle gods, but that isn't the case here. Here, Odin, Thor, and Loki are the brutal, bloody, and vengeful immortals that you would expect.

Highly recommended, and if there is such a thing as a sequel to Ragnarok, I'm anxiously awaiting it.

I don't normally write reviews, but Loki, by Mike Vasich deserves all the praise in the world.
Its bloody fantastic. Literally, BLOODY and FANTASTIC.

Having never heard of Norse Mythology, it should come as no surprise that I found this book after watching the film THOR. Like many who enjoyed the movie, I wanted to take in as much Norse Mythology information as humanly possible and immerse myself in the world of the Norse Gods.

LOKI does not disappoint.

From the very first page I was addicted to the Trickster's narrative. Each passing chapter was more engrossing than the last--with Vasich illustrating the world of the Norse Gods with his brilliant writing, technique and character development. Loki, filled with gory battles and raw emotions from the start, will have you hooked.

And while my crush on Tom Hiddleston (Loki in THOR) may have brought me to this book, it was Mr. Vasich's writing that made me LOVE it.

If you're a fan of fiction, Norse Mythology, great characters or just a fan of reading in general, then do yourself a favor and pick up LOKI. You won't regret it.

Mike Vasich's novel, Loki, was frustratingly close to being excellent. The writing was terrific. The research and world building were first class. The action scenes were well choreographed and truly exciting. So what's not to like?

Loki is the story of the Norse gods, their battles with the giants, and the coming battle of Ragnorak. Reading the cover, I was expecting the god Loki to be the protagonist of the novel. I thought I was going to get a retelling of Norse mythology from Loki's perspective. That quickly proved not to be the case. The story is told from many points of view. The positive aspect of this is that the reader gets the whole story - you are always where you need to be in order to learn about what is going on. Unfortunately, I never became attached to one particular character. I had nobody to root for in this dramatic battle between Loki, the Norse gods, and the giants. I found myself not caring about who would win. I never had a reason to root for one side or the other. Instead of reading like a novel, it was more a narrative retelling of Norse mythology.

As such, it was terrific. The gods are distinct characters, each with their own personalities, powers, likes, and dislikes. I know a little bit about Norse mythology. It was great to see the stories I knew from my youth come alive in a fully realized way. If you have any interest in Norse mythology, Loki is a must-read.

I have one major recommendation if you want to read the novel as a novel and not as a retelling of Norse mythology. Every so often in the book the author has written out Norse prophesy. (You can identify these sections because they are in italics. They also make up a small percentage of the book's length.) The prophesy sections are then followed by a chapter or two of narrative. Do not read the prophesies! They give away all of the major events of the following chapters. Seriously, my recommendation is to skip the italicized sections. They destroy all of the tension in the following chapters. The book is far more exciting without them! Rant over.

If you read Loki without reading the italicized sections it will read much more like a novel. An exciting novel with an impossible-to-beat climax.

Mike Vasich is a talented writer. I highly enjoyed Loki and look forward to reading more of the author's work.

I give Loki four stars (if you skip the italicized sections).

There's not much I can really say about this book without giving it away completely. All I can tell you is that it's now sitting on my shelf with a piece of my heart in it's pages.

Usually I dont write reviews, English is my second language and my reading skills are much better than my writing. But I made an exception for this book, well, because it deserves a lot more five stars that it has. It's very well written story with unexpected twists and interesting interpretations of Norse Myths. And I must say that it was absolutely impossible for me to put this book down, so I just had to read it in one day. Amazing plot, colorful world, fascinating main character and brilliantly depicted pantheon of gods. And what especially important for me - it's really captivating story. I hope that the next books by Mr. Vasich will be as good as this one.

So I rarely ever read nonfiction, let alone anything like this. However, I heard it was good so I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did. Vasich takes a different perspective on Norse mythology, telling it more from "evil" instead of the "good" side. I found that refreshing. I've seen so many movies and read so many books where the good guys always win and its always told from their view. Honestly, I found myself rooting for the giants during some of the battles (they're supposed to be the "bad" guys). It's not at all the typical good guys face obstacle, overcome obstacle novel.

I would recommend this book to everyone, even people who don't read mythology at all. I normally read nonfiction and science-y books, but I still thought this book was amazing. It also has a handy guide to the world of Norse Mythology so you don't get lost in all the strange words.

Basically, you should buy it. You'll like it.

I'll keep my review short, lest it turn into a wal of text and be completely skipped over.

This book is perhaps the best peice of literature i have read in a very long time. It beats out very many of the classics i have read over time. It has everything anyone would ever want in a book, and was a great read. The book was well worth my time, and perhaps the only work of fiction i think well of.

I would reccomend this book to anyone. Even if they had little to no knowledge of mythology. The book is very easy to understand.

Overall, buying this book was a great value and anyone that gets their hands on it will surely enjoy it.