I just finished reading Odd And The Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (with illustrations by Mark Buckingham), a couple of days ago.
The short novel was written for World Book Day (a bit of a misnomer, really, since it’s exclusively a UK-Ireland thing as far as I’m aware).
Authors author for free, and publishers publish for free, and little kids get to buy the books on the cheap for 1 Pound Book Tokens.
Promotes childhood literacy, you see.
Guys like me over here stateside shell out the additional 7 Pounds for shipping to the U.S. and get to enjoy Neil’s contribution to World Book Day for something like $16 USD, not exactly cheap given the current exchange rate.
It’s 97 pages long (that’s with illustrations, I might add) so it’s a quick read to be sure. The story centers on a boy named Odd who finds himself rather unexpectedly on a heroic quest to save Asgard, the home of the Norse gods, from the Frost Giants, thereby bringing an end to the neverending winter that has settled upon his village.
I enjoyed it. I’m a big fan of Norse mythology, and Odd’s a terrific name for a protaganist, really. To be perfectly honest though, I don’t think it’s Neil Gaiman’s best work, but that’s alright; it’s for a good cause, and guys like me aren’t exactly the intended audience anyway.
Thankfully, there’s another Neil Gaiman book in the pipeline, The Graveyard Book, coming out this fall (September 30th to be exact) – rather appropriately, just a few short weeks before Halloween.
Looking forward to it. I love the concept. It’s like The Jungle Book, except instead of being brought up by animals, the hero is raised in a cemetary by a bunch of ghosts. Interesting premise. We’ll see if it works.
Hopefully, it’s at least as good as Coraline, my favorite of Neil’s short novels for (mostly) younger readers.
The cover’s rather nice as well, don’t you think?
Tags: Neil Gaiman, Odd And The Frost Giants, The Graveyard Book, World Book Day
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