Loki: WICKED, VISCERAL, TRANSGRESSIVE: Norse gods as you've never seen them before

Product Information

There were some interesting elements in here which I felt were discussed well but I don’t want to risk spoiling the book by listing them out. Finally, this book is so incredibly nastily misogynistic in its portrayal of women almost exclusively as hysterical sex-crazed harpies. It super grossed me out, as did the completely unnecessary aside about Thor raping Angrboda before murdering her. Burgess recounts Loki’s genius . . . with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one sometimes beautifull lyrical masterwork.’ SFX MAGAZINE

There was no question of it being something I was aiming at young people. When you write for young people, it’s not that you’re censoring yourself, it’s that you’re writing about being that age. Loki isn’t about being that age; there isn’t anyone of that age in it. I’ve made a career out of remembering being a teenager and trying to relate to that time, but it was bloody long ago! I don’t really have much more to say about it. Adult stuff is where I’m looking now. I’ve got more Norse gods bubbling away – I want to get grips with Odin at some point – as well as a long-term project around the childhood of Bill Sikes [from Oliver Twist]. Lucy and I will be on hand to read, discuss and advise you on your work in the mornings and early evenings. You can divide your time between writing, going on the morning, afternoon or day-long rides available at the Rancho, or else taking time out to go on one of the many trips on offer. How you spend your time will be entirely up to you. I failed my 11-plus and there weren’t all that many books being passed around at my school, stuff like In Praise of Older Women [by Stephen Vizinczey], just dirty novels really! George Orwell interested me because of the clarity of his vision and the simplicity of his writing but at that point I really liked fantasy and I was very keen on Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast. It wasn’t until I left school and started coming across a richer world of ideas, when books like The Dice Man, Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-F ive came shining through, that I began to think there might be a way of telling stories connected with life itself. In conversation with Juno Dawson – main stage event. I love Juno#’s work – very muchlooking forwrd to this one.Loki feels that his time has come. The old gods – Odin, Thor, Tyr – have got away with it for long enough. It’s time to tell his version of the events, long ago, which led to his unjust imprisonment. Waterstones

I kept changing my mind about this one, it started strong and finished really strong but some of the middle didn’t keep me as hooked. On the whole it’s a compelling and clever read, even more so the longer I reflect upon it.

Table of Contents

Melvin Burgess revolutionised children’s literature with the infamous cult novels Junk and Doing It. In his first adult novel, Loki, he breathes new life into Norse myths. He recounts the Norse creation myths and tales both familiar and unfamiliar. Yet it is clear that despite his inclination towards rebelliousness he still seeks a place among the old guard and willingly negotiating the turbulent politics of Asgard.

Have a listen to the opening, when Bea first discovers her powers. http://melvinburgess.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Lost-Witch-Chapter-1.m4a Alongside the politics of Asgard, it charts the course of Loki’s many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin’s famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually, fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful – a tender and moving story of love that goes wrong, jealousy and a transitioning that is forbidden by society. That reading was for me a fun and enthralling experience, the Norse myths being dismantled and reassembled with a very modern sensibility. Indeed some of the overtly "religiously" aspects are presented in what was for me, as a Christian, a very suggestive way - clearly, for all his confinement, Loki has a good knowledge of the modern work. Take for example Thor's passion, dying nailed to a tree before descending to the Underworld and arising again, bearing the scars of his experience. This was a very horrifying, but also moving, account, as much so for me as any Easter passion. Other elements touch on the modern understanding of gender fluidity, with one of the gods (I won't say who, because spoilers) challenging the rigid, patriarchal regime of Thor and Odin with their developing understanding of their own identity.

Featured Reviews

Book signing, Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London; WC2H 8JR. 4pm Sunday 29th July YALC @ Kensington Olympia Not, alas, from his imprisonment deep in the world’s bowels, where he has been trapped by the other gods, but his voice, his book – in which I had a small part to play in writing it down – is available to buy.

Alongside the politics of Asgard, it charts the course of Loki's many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin's famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually, fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful - a tender and moving story of love that goes wrong, jealousy and a transitioning that is forbidden by society. Also, turning the “let’s throw things at Baldr” game into an orgy of transphobic violence is absolutely nutso to me. So too is all the fixation on Baldr’s penis, which really seems to reinforce some super transphobic tropes. There are anachronisms, which work. Canapes are served at Asgard’s many drinks parties. Odin starts to go insane because he has peered into the multiverse, while the traditionally male god Baldr turns out to be a hermaphrodite, with Loki taking Baldr’s “second virginity” in soft-porn fashion on a bearskin rug. One of Loki’s wives, Angrboda, gives birth to enormous monsters, and Burgess gruesomely details their arrivals as if on a contemporary maternity ward. Here’s some places and dates where I’ll be reading from and talking about the new book. See if I’m coming anywhere near you. More detail to follow as I get it myself. If you don't like swearing and crude humor, maybe reconsider this one as well. I personally thought it fit in just fine and was funny, but I see others saying it was a bit much.

Read Loki by Melvin Burgess

England has been taken over by the Bloods, a far right Christian sect, white supremicists propped up by a fanatical new government in the USA. Marti, a mixed race trans girl, represents everything they hate in one person. All she wants to do is leave the country, even if it means dumping her baby brother Michael and her best friend Maude. But there she discovers that her dad might still be alive, and has had his mind re-written by the Bloods in the ERAC, the Evangelical Rehabilitation Centre in Huntingdon, she has no choice but to go down south into Blood’s territory, in the very slight hope that she can rescue him. What started as an interesting experiment turns out to be one of the most boring retellings of myths I have ever read.