In Tobin’s second novel, after Bone House, she takes on the world of Iceland in the year A.D. 1000, setting the stage with research details of Viking and medieval Iceland, combining it with a host of characters from Norse mythology. The main character, Freya – one of the Aesir (gods) – has her own problems to deal with in life and love, while many other characters, including Odin, an unusual dwarf, and a group of giants deal with their own subplots.
The voice and pacing are quite different from most books and will in some cases turn off the reader at first, the key is to stick with it, get used to it, and then sit back and enjoy the story. Ice Land is a well research novel about a time about some but not all is known, and Tobin has done a great job of filling in the details with her descriptive and colorful fiction.
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Originally written on September 9th, 2009 ©Alex C. Telander.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
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