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

Product Information

In conversation with Juno Dawson – main stage event. I love Juno#’s work – very muchlooking forwrd to this one. The truth is a slippery customer. We all have our secrets; it is our right to have secrets, don’t you agree? I have no intention of telling you everything but even so, I think you’ll find me worth listening to. I can recall your first breath, your first heartbeat. I can affirm, if you’re interested, that without me there would be neither. I have saved the gods, the giants, and even humanity more than once. I may be tempted to do it again, if I feel like it – which I might not. Where there is light, there is also darkness; where there is life, there is also death. That’s how it is. I am the movement between the two. I am the act of one thing becoming another. It’s the same for you, surely.

On this night, this wonderful and magical night, the moon, perhaps, is high and full. I like to think so. Well, I didn’t win – that honour goes to Paola Zannoner her book, L’Ultimo Faro – The Last Lighthouse. But I did have a lovely time. I love Italy; my publishers there are fabulous and of course it was a delight to be up for a big prize. 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. Book signing, Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London; WC2H 8JR. 4pm Sunday 29th July YALC @ Kensington Olympia This take on Loki is very much a "Loki is amazing and brought all good things to the world because he is so clever, and everyone else is either stupid, jealous, spiteful , or horny - or all four at once." It is absolutely scathing of the major gods - Thor is a bigoted brute, for example.Compelling and funny – truly hilarious – at times. His Loki doesn’t feel like a powerful god, but rather like a flawed being trying to make the most out of the situations and life he has in front of him. Burgess leans into the queer elements present in the traditional stories and expands on them, makes them a focus of his retelling. Loki charms his way into readers’ hearts again and again, whether they want him to or not."

Engrossing and fascinating, Loki's portrayal is excellently captured with his unfiltered, vulgar tone and sarcasm perfectly emulating the likeable, humorous yet boastful God of Mischief we adore. 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. What a great deal of fun this was! ‘Loki’ is Burgess’ first novel for adult readers having previously written for children and young adults. He is also a winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal. i finished the book regardless of my misgivings and i won't say that i regretted it but neither can i recommend it in good conscience. a little harsh maybe, after all it was an easy read and relatively entertaining in its own way gradually getting better and better with each chapter after a slightly dull start, entering enjoyable territory by book three and reaching its zenith by book four, my favourite part by far that felt almost out of place – a touchingly earnest recounting of loki's relationship with angrboda and the birth of his children hel, jörmungandr and fenrir, and one nowhere near as juvenile, crass, or sardonic in tone as the rest of the book. As a Norse (Dane) I've been wanting to read more books inspired by/retellings of Norse mythology, but they're not as easy to come by as certain other mythologies cough Greek cough, so I was excited when I came across this one - and it's also told by one of the best Norse gods, Loki ( I'm not biased.. you are)!Loki also shares his experience of love in its many forms including shape-shifting into a mare to distract a stallion resulting in the birth of Odin's famous eight-legged horse, his marriages to Sigyn and Angrboda, his monstrous children by the latter, and his intense, doomed relationship with Baldr the Beautiful. There’s a lot of lying bastards about, politically, and Loki seemed a way to explore the nature of lying 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.

Now listen and attend closely, I shall tell you the story of my downfall– the truth, not the propaganda, not the Asgard spin. You will see that I am your friend after all.”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. 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