By the Mountain Bound

September 28, 2009
In this complex prequel to Hugo-winner Bear's All the Windwracked Stars
(2008), Ragnarok has already occurred, but the world must still be cleansed of the residue of the former realm. When immortal einherjar
war-leader Strifbjorn rescues a strange woman from drowning, she claims to be the Lady, a long-awaited deity, and defeats Strifbjorn's champion and lover, Mingan the Gray Wolf, to take command. The ensuing internal power struggles set the einherjar
at odds while the Lady attempts to rally the community against a supposedly imminent attack by giants. Numerous fantasy authors adopt the tropes of Norse mythology, but Bear actively pursues them, channeling those myths directly rather than overlaying them on more familiar ones. The result demands much from readers, but repays it in vivid, sensual imagery of a wholly different world.

November 15, 2009
After the fall of Midgard (the old world) the Children of Lighteinherjar and valkyrieshare the halls of Valdyrgard until a Lady who washed up onto the shore spreads discord, signaling the end of 500 years of peace. This prequel to "All the Windwracked Stars" tells of a doomed love between Strifbjorn, the Warrior, and Mingan, the Fenris Wolf in human form. VERDICT Bear's skill at evoking the gravity and grandeur of Norse mythology and her talent for world building and characterization make this solemn tale a solid choice for mature readers and lovers of Scandinavian myth.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2009
The prequel to All the Windwracked Stars (2008) details events leading up to that books opening, with the heroine, Muire, standing on a snowy field at Ragnarok, the end of the world. To backtrack: a mysterious woman washes ashore, and Strifbjorn brings her to his hall. No waelcyrge (Valkyrie) and no mortal, she will set the Children of the Light against one another until battle destroys them all. Bear weaves together the threads of a story of the old world and the three who came from it to the new one, of great loves requited and not, and of subtle battles of wits, sorcery, and swords. Employing three viewpoints, those of the wolf Mingan, the historian Muire, and the warrior Strifbjorn, the novel is a multifaceted, epical story of how the world ends, whose atmosphere is entirely different from that of All the Windwracked Stars but which shares with that book a similar depth of wonder and brilliant realization of the world both inhabit. Another beautiful, awe-inspiring, quite glorious read from Bear.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)