dhampyresa

What did you finish reading

Nothing.


What are you reading now

The Gospel of Loki, by Joanne Harris: I'm only about 5 chapters in (Svadilfari just cam on the scene, for those familiar), but it's great so far. I love the Loki voice between the humour ("I sat up and tried a winning smile. No one around me seemed to be won.") and the contrast between young!Loki the story is happening to and old!Loki telling it to us and the way old!Loki's venom occasionally peeks out from under young!Loki's:

Who needs friends when you can have the certitudes of hostiity? You know where you stand with an enemy. You know he won't betray you. it's the ones who claim to be your friends that you need to be aware of. Still, that was a lesson I was yet to learn.

I like Loki's "never trust X" rules, although they are sometimes heartbreaking: "So, until then, remember this: Never trust a friend." Oh, Loki. I like the insights into Norse mythology ("Still, you'll notice that history doesn't reveal what happened to Odin's other brothers, the legendary Vili and Ve.") and the clever way it gets played with ("My father was a lightning strike and my mother was a pile of dry twigs (no that's not a metaphor) which, to be fair to Yours Truly, made for pretty poor parenting."). I loved the beginning of the "Odin and Loki become bloodbrothers" scene

'It seems to me that someone like you could be a big hit in my camp.'
'I bet they could. What's in it for me?'
'Well, freedom, to begin with. Freedom and opportunity.'
'Freedom? Do me a favour. Do you think I'm not free?'
He shook his head. 'You think you are?'

but I hated the way it ended, because OMG NO WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? If there's one moment in all of Norse mythology where Odin and Loki are truly equals, it's that one. I mean, I know the myths don't give us the story, but I can't think of that moment as anything else. If Odin forces Loki into being his brother, like here, then their relationship looks completely different and makes them both look like idiots, frankly: Odin for placing even the smallest measure of trust in someone he has no reason to trust and Loki for just going with Odin on it. Take the rune and run, Loki, you'll save yourself a world of trouble.

Other than that, I still have my familiar problems with Harris' Runemarks series that this is a prequel too, but maybe that'll change by the end of this book.


What are you reading next

I don't know yet.

I have made sizeable progress on "Ragnarok: A Step-by-Step Guide" in that it goes beyond creating the world(s) and picking your character and into actual playable territory.

I'm planning on having 22 quests at minimum, in a semi-random fashion, which to say that the order would be random but you wouldn't get the same quest twice.

The quest I've been working on so far and have just finished debugging, is called PquestOdin. It's the quest where you get the option to up your wisdom stat. Obviously, this isn't without a price. There are several choices you can make and who you are (Odin vs everyone else) and your stats (your Persuasion stat, to be precise), determine your outcome. In order of YAY to NAY, the possible outcomes are: Knowledge+20, Knowledge+10, no stat change, Constitution-10.

I'm also quite proud of this, despite the relatively short time I wrote it in. (Saved from the meme, will de-anon on main comm when Nordics series is over)

Number 3: Norway

( Fimbulvetr )

I'm also quite proud of this, despite the relatively short time I wrote it in. (Saved from the meme, will de-anon to main comm when Nordics series is over)

Number 2: Sweden

( Du gamla, du fria )