Odin's Ravens: Book 2 (Blackwell Pages, #2)

by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

Seven kids, Thor's hammer and a whole lot of Valkyries are the only things standing against the end of the world . . .

When thirteen-year-olds Matt Thorsen and Fen and Laurie Brekke - modern descendents of Thor and Loki - discovered they were destined to take the places of the Norse gods in an epic battle against the apocalypse, they thought they knew how things would play out. Gather the other descendents, defeat a giant serpent and save the world. No problem, right?

But their journey grinds to a halt when their friend Baldwin is poisoned. Matt, Fen and Laurie must travel to the murky Underworld to try and save him before they can continue with their quest to find Thor's hammer.

Ahead lie colossal monsters and legendary battles . . . Will Matt and the other descendents do enough to become heroes in their own right?

Authors K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr return to Blackwell in the epic sequel to Loki's Wolves with more explosive action, adventure and larger-than-life Norse legends.

• ISBN10: 1907411313
• ISBN13: 9781907411311
• Publish Date: 13 May 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 June 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

So the teens have to use their wits to survive and go to Hel to find their friend and to try to do things differently from the past to stave off Ragnorok. They also start to accumulate allies and the tools to help them, often they have no way of knowing if the people helping them are allies or enemies.

I'm liking this series.

[Melanie]

3.5 stars

Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

As a general rule, I’m not a huge fan of young adult books, so I was really surprised when I decided to pick up Loki’s Wolves back in 2013. I’m a huge Kelley Armstrong fan, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve never read Melissa Marr, who is the other author on this series. I also liked the idea of the Norse mythology. While it is written for younger children, I still found the story interesting. We have a group of thirteen year old kids from South Dakota who are standing in for the Norse gods, Thor, Loki, Balder, Odin, Frey and Freya. They are all working together to stop Ragnarok. They are even getting powers of the gods.

In Odin’s Ravens, we pick up basically where Loki’s Wolves left off. Baldwin, the descendant of Balder, has been poisoned and Matt Thorsen, descendant of Thor, along with Fen and Laurie, who are cousins and descendants of Loki all make a trip to Hel to bring Baldwin back from the dead. While there, they must face monsters and convenience Fen and Laurie’s “Aunt Helen” the guardian of Hel, to let them leave with Baldwin. After that, they meet with the Valkyries (I so wish these Valkyries were more like Kresley Cole’s, but then I guess this wouldn’t be a middle grade book anymore then would it?) and are put on a quest to find Mjölnir, Thor’s hammer.

The characters in this story are well written, as if with Kelley Armstrong there was ever any doubt. The kids make mistakes that kids their age would make. They get upset with themselves for making the mistakes when they figure out what happened. There is a lot on these kids shoulders, but overall they do handle things really well, while still being young teenagers.

This story is a typical quest type story. As soon as they complete one task, they are set up another. The mythology is great. I don’t know a lot about Norse mythology (outside of the comic books), but it seems to researched extremely well. It is also told in a way that explains the stories really well, especially for the age group for which it is written.

I think the storyline is really good, if you can get over the idea of thirteen-year-old kids as stand-ins for gods and are forced to fight to stop the apocalypse. It is a book written for middle school kids and they want to read about kids their age, so it makes sense. I believe that this is a trilogy and that the last book, Thor’s Serpents will wrap of the story. I can’t wait to see how it ends. I would highly recommend this book for kids, boys and girls alike. I do recommend that you start at the beginning of the series with Loki’s Wolves.

[Chelsea]

Initial Thoughts

I read everything Kelley Amrstrong writes so my expectations of her are always high. This one didn’t disappoint.

My New BFF

I still really like Laurie. I’d take her and Matt as my bff’s easy. They grew a little bit in this book while still being the same characters I loved in the first book. I like how they both are very similar to the Gods they represent.

My Crush

I will never stop loving Fen. He’s very interesting and that’s what keeps my entertained. Odin was another character that really started to grow on me the more we saw him. He’s like the quiet, smart one that sits back and lets everyone else work things out. He seems the oldest of all the characters. He knows exactly what he needs to do and he does it.

Writing Style

Lots and lots of action and adventure! My favourite! There was never a boring moment and I could hardly put the book down. You feel like all the characters are your best friends but they still surprise you sometimes. That’s what happens when you stick two great authors together.

Closing Thoughts

This is one of the only middle grade series that still keeps me interested. I think it’s funny how Thor’s and Loki’s descendants have to get along and it gives them a hard time throughout their adventures. There;s just a lot of humour in general in this book. You can tell it’s for a younger audience which bothers me a little but I have to read all of Kelley’s books. There’s a pretty high possibility that the descendants will complete their mission and save the world. I can’t wait to see what happens next! Some crazy plot twists are going to happen I can feel it!