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

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It is also a book that does not gloss over the queerness of Norse mythology. Loki is a shapeshifter and spends time as a man and as a woman, and loves both - and that takes centre stage in this retelling. It also looks at how the body of Norse mythology includes both queerness and homophobia, and I really liked that it didn't try to erase one to make the other fit. 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. 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!) 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. 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.

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. 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.What started as an interesting experiment turns out to be one of the most boring retellings of myths I have ever read. 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. Waterstones Manchester Deansgate event with Mark Illis. It’s a double launch!– Mark’s launching his book, The Impossible; on the Run. I’ll be talking about The Lost Witch. JULY 21st 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. 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.

Step into the ancient fir-tree forests of Scandinavia and bear witness to legends as epic as those of the Greeks and the Romans. 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. 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.I’m doing a Fane event about the 25th anniversary of Junk and the launch of Three Bullets – details in the panel on the right. While the language is crude at times, Burgess’ writing is also very funny, lyrical, thought provoking, and atmospheric. 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 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)! The story does play around with the original myth, taking the blame away from Loki in almost all of the stories, but keeps the stories as accurate to the original source material as possible, which makes it a really interesting read.

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. In conversation with Juno Dawson – main stage event. I love Juno#’s work – very muchlooking forwrd to this one. 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.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 am fascinated by mythology. The stories of ancient gods and heroes seem to have a staying power that has outlasted belief in them. Endlessly invented and reinvented, they clearly remain relevant today, immensely popular and indeed seem to be having a bit of a moment now, especially through feminist versions and as here, those which re-evaluate the villains of the pantheons. 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." 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. Burgess recounts Loki’s genius . . . with great gusto, pulling together many tales into one sometimes beautifully lyrical masterwork.’ SFX MAGAZINE