By the Mountain Bound
By Elizabeth Bear
In this story, the prequel to Hugo winner All the Windwracked
Stars, the Children of the Light sang the world into existence.
That was more than five hundred years ago. Since then, these immortal
beings have walked through the world, healing humans where they
could, avenging the innocent victims of crime. They protected this
world by fighting wars with invaders. In return, they could take
humans, called thralls, as servants.
When Light’s children married, they took no human mate; einherjar,
male, wed waelcyrge, female. There was no taboo on sex, but they
were forbidden to share the kiss of Light with any but their life
mate. They married so they could bear children. It was difficult
for waelcyrge to conceive inside a marriage, impossible outside
of it. And though Light’s children seemed immortal, they could
die in battle, thus the need for children to replace those who were
lost. In the last war, there were four warriors killed, a telling
blow to an army of less than a thousand.
War-leader Strifbjorn has not taken a wife, though he has been war-leader
from the beginning. He does not intend to marry, for his love belongs
to another einherjar, with whom he has shared the forbidden kiss.
His sin could very well spell the end of both the world and the
Children of the Light.
The story is steeped in Norse mythology. It is very well written.
It grabs your attention at the beginning and never lets you go.
The characters are not all human, though they exhibit a lot of human
behavior. I could have done without the detailed depiction of homosexual
intercourse. Beyond that, the story was quite intriguing. Read By
the Mountain Bound and enter a different world from any you’ve
ever seen.
|
The
Book |
Tor Books |
October 27, 2009 |
Hardcover |
0765318830 / 978-0765318831 |
Fantasy |
More
at Amazon.com |
Excerpt |
NOTE: Contains Violence, sex
|
The
Reviewer |
Jo Rogers |
Reviewed
2010 |
NOTE:
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