Odd and the Frost Giants

Neil Gaiman’s newest children’s book, Odd and the Frost Giants, was actually first published over a year ago in the UK as a World Book Day selection. In “A Note from Neil,” the author explains:

In most of the world (but not America) they have World Book Day. On World Book Day, in the UK, schoolchildren are given book tokens to buy books with, and a selection of special World Book Day Books are written and published and put on sale. The authors are not paid; the publishers do it for nothing. The idea is to get children reading. […]

I was thrilled when the book became a UK bestseller. I was delighted when my American publishers, HarperChildrens, told me they wanted to publish it in the US, and elated when I learned it would be illustrated by Brett Helquist, whose art I had loved ever since I first picked up The Bad Beginning.

HarperCollins’ version of the book is a lovely collector’s edition. The hardcover is wrapped in dark blue fabric, and the front features art by Brett Helquist. Helquist, best known as the illustrator of Lemony Snicket‘s A Series of Unfortunate Events, does the interior black-and-white line drawings, as well. He’s the perfect choice to illustrate Odd and the Frost Giants, which shares with Lemony Snicket’s tale of the Baudelaire orphans a similar dark-edged humour that’s common to so many stories that chronicle the trials of childhood.

Odd and the Frost Giants is set in Midgard (ancient Norway), and revolves around the titular Odd, a twelve-year-old Viking boy with exceedingly bad luck. Within the first few pages of the book, his father dies at sea, his leg is broken in a tree-cutting accident, his mother remarries into a family that’s less than welcoming to a crippled stepson, and the village is trapped in an unnatural, endless winter. Despite all this, Odd wears an everpresent smile, an enigmatic expression that irritates all of the villagers, except his mother. One day, Odd decides to leave home in search of better fortune elsewhere, launching him on a classic hero’s journey straight out of the Norse sagas. Deep in the woods, he meets a fox, bear, and eagle that turn out to be the Nordic gods Loki, Thor, and Odin, trapped in animal form. Tricked by the Frost Giants, they’ve been stripped of their powers and cast down to the mortal realm, where they despair of ever regaining Asgard, the land of the gods, again. Odd promptly promises the trio that he’ll lead them on their return, and break the Frost Giants’ winter spell in the process. Against all odds, Odd inevitably bests the Frost Giants, reassuring children that being small doesn’t necessarily equate with being helpless or unimportant. Adults (yes, it’s a book aimed at children, but adults will enjoy it, too!) will appreciate that Odd accomplishes his quest not with trickery or blunt force, but with intelligence, wit, and empathy.

Neil Gaiman has frequently written about Norse mythology, most notably in The Sandman and American Gods, but Odd and the Frost Giants is his first foray into this territory for young readers. As such, the gods are considerably more family-friendly than Gaiman’s previous incarnations, which were true to the Nordic legends’ bawdy roots, but adult readers will still be able to detect undertones of the old characters that made the gods of Gaiman’s more mature works so fully realized and enjoyable.

If there’s one complaint to be made about the book, it’s its slim, 128-page length. A World Book Day is limited to 15,000 words, making Odd and the Frost Giants a novelette rather than a full novel. It can easily be read in one sitting, so it seems that just as you’re getting into the story, it’s over. The story is so engaging, though, that you’ll want to start right at the beginning again, drawing the reading experience out. Gaiman also hints that the book has a sequel to look forward to:

Sooner or later — probably sooner — I’ll write another astonishingly short novel about Odd. I want to send him to Jerusalem, where the Vikings went, and further than that. He’s an extraordinarily delightful character to write, after all…

Odd is an extraordinarily delightful character to read about, as well, so it will be interesting to follow him on his continued adventures, wherever they take him, and see if he eventually makes it home again, smile intact.

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