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

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What started as an interesting experiment turns out to be one of the most boring retellings of myths I have ever read. 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. By end of this story you will wish and hope and pray that the misunderstood, sometimes mis guided, (as he admits by his own foolishness) Loki, is on the winning side. But that reader, is your mystery to solve. I especially enjoyed Burgess’s take on Loki’s love with Angrboda, his fierce love for the strange kin he fathers with her, and the story of Baldr the beautiful and the fate of the same. I did shed a tear or two. I think there are different ways you can read that. As truth (whatever the male equivalent of a Mary Sue is, I guess?) and that he is incredible and yet was still taken down. Or as an exaggeration. Afterall, Loki calls himself a liar many times in the book. And why would he not buff his own reputation in a tale that ends with a plea to be released? I personally chose to read it the second way. That perspective is one I enjoy more, the sense of a narrator being unreliable but for reasons you can understand (needs to big himself up so someone frees him!)

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.”Give a dog a bad name they say, and never was there any dog with a name worse than mine. I am a bad person, I expect. You will begin with your suspicions about me and I don’t expect to convince you otherwise.“

Dates are 7th – 14th September. The area around the Rancho is just lovely at this time of year. With fields of cosmos and Mexican sunflowers in full flower, the wildflowers are stunning. There are some beautiful hummingbirds and butterflies – clouds of them in some cases – a great array of bird life and rides through some of the loveliest countryside you’ll have seen. The narrator’s voice (Loki) is an ass. “Nothing ever was my fault, everything that you have read about me was an Asgard propaganda!” - like, really, wtf? 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)! Burgess recounts Loki’s genius with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one beautifully lyrical masterwork.”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. In conversation with Juno Dawson – main stage event. I love Juno#’s work – very muchlooking forwrd to this one. 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. 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.

I'm not sure whether this is meant by Burgess to be a depiction of Loki as a being with a supreme ability to distort the truth, or as a genuinely wronged figure in the narrative that's presented. You will have to read the book and judge.

The relationships Loki has with his fellow gods and giants is the crux of the story. This is a story about the characters, rather than the plot, and their importance in Loki's life, whether positively or negatively. Especially his relationship with Odin. In recent years, thanks to marvel, Loki has been associated with Odin as his adopted son, and whilst that does make for a compelling dynamic, the relationship between them in the mythology is more like brothers, as shown in this book, being sworn brothers. Of course, in Loki’s tale he is always the hero, a Northern Prometheus and champion of humankind, while many of the Norse pantheon are portrayed as baddies or buffoons. However, Odin is treated more kindly as are the Norse goddesses. 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. That slipperiness makes Loki, for all the modern enjoyment of a morally grey character, hard, in the end, to actually like. We can empathise with him, yes, especially when some really awful things happen to him, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say he is morally conflicted - Loki is always guided at the time, when push comes to shove, by what's best for Loki, even if he expresses sadness after. Mistakes were made, he seems to be saying, but it wasn't, really, my choice. 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.

Alongside the politics of Asgard, the novel 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 a love that goes wrong. Pete, Tariq and myself were interviewed by A M Dassu in the Portico Library’s Pathways to Publishing, part of the Manchester City of Literature, Festival of Libraries. You can listen to it here. 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. Burgess frames his gleeful adult debut as Loki, Norse god of mischief, attempting to set his story straight. With a reputation and history to rewrite, the wily, defiant, and prideful Loki chronicles his many contributions to Asgard, home of the gods. Burgess's Loki turns classic Norse legend on its head and doles out heavy doses of sarcasm and contempt at not getting enough recognition for all he has done for Asgard. This will be a treat for any fan of remixed mythology." First off, I want to make it clear that this is very much a collection of retellings - don't take everything at face value. Loki isn't actually originally included in a lot of the stories he's telling throughout the book, but very fitting to his character, it also makes him come off as an unreliable narrator. Some were given a fun twist, others that aren't so thoroughly told originally were explained further (Norse mythology can be a bit "weird" which leaves a lot of room for interpretation) and overall it was nice to revisit a lot of the stories I've heard throughout my childhood/school years.Burgess recounts Loki’s genius . . . with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one sometimes beautifull lyrical masterwork.’ SFX MAGAZINE 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 It's always interesting to watch trends change in publishing. For a while, we have been in a big boom of Greek mythology retellings (one that doesn't look like it's going to end soon), but LOKI is a book that comes as the scope is widening to include other mythologies.