Well, it took me almost four years to finish reading this delightful series by Shelly Laurenston, but I finally made it!
It’s not that I have to force myself to read these books by Laurenston, it’s just an issue of too many books and too little time. I listened to the second one on audio, but didn’t care for the narrator, so I had to put this one aside until I had time to read the hard copy I had sitting on my shelf. Despite the fact that it’s a fast, easy read, it’s also 400 pages, so it still takes time, especially when you’re trying to get through ancient Nordic names and trying to figure out who’s where in various battle scenes.
So when we last left our sister-Crows they had just banished Gullveig, but they knew that was only a temporary solution. Gullveig is just in hiding until she can get back to full strength, and the Crows need to find a way to kill her before that happens, which won’t be easy because the gods themselves have tried to kill her and even they couldn’t manage it, so things aren’t looking so good for the Crows.
Jace buries herself in research and comes up with a solution that might work, but it involves a long and dangerous trek through the Underworld to retrieve a giant flaming sword. Since Erin got an extra gift from Skuld that allows her to play with flame, it makes the most sense to send her to retrieve the flaming sword – if she can get past the giant dragon who hates humans and spends all day munching on them.
I loved that this book centered on Erin because she is by far the most fun. She is sassy and unflappable and delights in pissing everyone off, but she also truly loves her sister-Crows, and believe it or not, there are lines she won’t cross. She’s also really good at reading people when she wants to and tends to make them gorgeous tattoos that even they didn’t realize they wanted, but that manage to convey who they are on a deep level.
One of the things I appreciate about this book is that, in addition to the fact that it centers on very powerful women kicking ass, it’s also about a sisterhood. Erin refers to her fellow Crows as her sister-Crows and they are very much like sisters in that they tend to drive each other crazy, but they always have each other’s backs no matter what.
Jace is horrified by the idea that she might be sending Erin on a suicide mission (she blames herself because she’s the one who came up with the plan and because she’s Jace). No one likes the idea of sending Erin on this mission, but it’s their only shot at stopping Ragnarok from happening, so off she goes!
She was supposed to go alone, but Odin manages to manipulate things so that Steig Engstrom ends up going with her. Steig also happens to be the Raven that Erin has started screwing and falling in love with – although she would never admit to that last one. In any case, it’s a good thing he ends up going with her because she probably wouldn’t have made it back alive in time with the sword on her own.
The plan was for the rest of the Crows back on Earth to distract Gullveig by challenging her Carrion to a battle three days after Erin has already left to get the sword, giving Erin six days in Underworld Standard Time to retrieve the sword and giving them a chance to distract Gullveig while Erin is retrieving the sword and before Gullveig reaches her full power.
Steig manages to retrieve the sword while Erin is distracting the dragon because those two excel at teamwork, but when the dragon finds out what they’re up to, he (very civilly) points out that they don’t have enough power to get the most out of the sword. Erin solves that problem by luring the dragon up to Earth’s surface and pissing off him (and Gullveig) until he decides to help by funneling some of his power through Erin, thereby giving the flaming sword enough power for the flames to engulf Gullveig, thereby finally defeating her.
The very end of the book involves an appearance by none other than Loki himself, who sends his wolves charging after the Crows, who then launch into battle, but we don’t actually get to see any of the battle before the book ends. It makes me wish there were more to this series, even if it would take me another two years to get around to reading it.