As the Black Death rampages across Europe, two creatures of the Elder World clash over the rotting corpse of Christendom ...
Sicily, 1347 AD. A ghost ship from the east washes ashore at Messina. A ship of dead men, and hidden in its belly is a doom like no other: the dragon Niðhöggr, the Malice-Striker, an ancient vessel of destruction from the Elder Days. And while it is no longer the mighty wyrm of Ragnarök, the beast’s breath still bears upon it a pestilence, a plague that will echo through the ages as the Black Death.
But the world of Men has a strange champion – another creature of the Elder World: a snarling, spitting knot of hatred, profane and blasphemous, whose ancestors were the goblins of myth and legend; he is a monster in truth, though nevertheless he stands as the last bastion between humanity’s future and the cold silence of oblivion. He is Grimnir, and he has hunted the Malice-Striker for more than a century, from the cold wastes of the Baltic to the dank cisterns beneath Constantinople.
Now, as the plague stalks through Western Europe – and as the dread wyrm slithers through Italy, bound for Rome on its mission to devour the head of Christendom – Grimnir must contend not only with the beast’s insidious cunning, but with the iron fist of the Papal Inquisition, and the army of a vengeful Sicilian nobleman.
But, it is in the empty halls of the Vatican, in the shadow of St. Peter’s throne, where the Doom of Odin will fall . . . and the Elder World will finally meet its bloody end. Only one question remains: will Miðgarðr and the world of Men survive this deadly clash of titans?
This was an interesting book to read. I enjoyed that it heavily featured Norse mythology and used Norse gods and goddesses. The Doom of Odin was a bloody, violent book. While it wasn't a put-off to me, it might be to some other people. The storyline was interesting but could be a bit hard to follow. But overall, this was a good, interesting book to read.
