Hello everyone!
It feels like I've planned this, reading so many books lately that take inspiration or are directly linked to our northern neighbours somehow, but I promise that's not the case.
I actually didn't even figure it out until I already had the books and was reading through them.
But it's definitely obvious I have a bit of a type, right?
All these books happen to be retellings, and this one tonight is no different either.
Remember that bit about the world ending, and each religion in the world having its own version?
Well, the Norse have one, too.
And Alexis L. Menard chose to interpret it her own way in her duology of books under the title The Last Daughter.
So come with us while we try to fight it off, in The Silent Son.
We first meet Ailsa in The Last Daughter where she's struggling to survive (literally, as she's deathly ill) until Vali, one of Odin's sons, plucks her from her home and takes her with him, since he suspects she's intrinsically linked to Ragnarök. This turns out to be more than true as Ailsa ends the book on a very high note, accepting the magic of her ancestors and becoming a powerful witch, but she equally becomes Vali's mate as well.
And The Silent Son picks up pretty much right where we let off, in Vanaheim where Vali has been training Ailsa (and just enjoying their time together).
And then Erik arrives.
Now, Erik is the guy who was with Ailsa first, until his father chose a marriage for him and he dumped her like yesterday's news, and she unfortunately miscarried their child. Since then, he's been like a dog with a bone, unable to let her go so that she could find happiness elsewhere, but also unable to offer her happiness himself.
This hasn't changed since either, except now he's made a blood pact with another witch (I think, if I remember right, she might be Vali's former lover) who's convinced him that Vali cast a spell on Ailsa, that she can't REALLY be in love with a Fae.
Vali takes big exception to Erik being there and it creates a rift between him and Ailsa, because she isn't willing to listen to him or his warnings that something's off with the guy, not even when her runes can't heal him which should have indicated there's another kind of magic going on. But she's so much of the mindset to have her cake and eat it too that she disregards everything, gets pissed off at Vali for being reasonable, and is in a huff until the point where things go to shit.
See, Erik slips a potion to her to drink which literally erases every memory she has of Vali, and which undoes their mating bond, releasing their life threads to exist separately once more, and then on top of that she doesn't stop Erik from stabbing Vali, either.
Tough luck for Erik though, because Ailsa's mind might not remember, but her heart and body are telling her she's missing something, and she doesn't trust him fully, particularly not as he starts throwing around words like 'taking care of her' and 'what's best for her' and 'she needs to listen and obey him' etc.
He takes her to Muspelheim where she meets Surtr who - if you know your Norse mythology - is fated to destroy Asgard, but to start that, he needs to break the seal on his primordial realm so his troops can march, and apparently, the mortals can help him somehow, since the light he needs is in Fafnir's hoard.
Ailsa becomes a glorified prisoner and Erik wants her in his bed so badly, but she's like nu-uh, how about no, so he's getting more and more impatient and bristly because he SAVED her and she NEEDS to be thankful and HAS to fall flat on her back just for him!
Truly, the man is a gem among men.
Anyway, he tries to get the thing from Fafnir first, ends up getting BBQ-ed, and Ailsa promises Surtr to go get that in exchange for healing the guy. She also makes friends with a silent person who's the other non-giant in the place, or at least seems to be, a guy who looks human but has golden eyes that seem strikingly familiar.
She forges a blood bond with him to be able to exchange thoughts, and he reveals he's Vidar, that his mother was a Jotun but his father a god who killed her and made sure his son would never be able to speak; however, he's loyal to Ailsa because she's the first person to be kind to him, so they go to kill the dragon, which they eventually succeed in doing (while Erik is having a panic attack about HOW DARE SHE JUST GO and the witch who bonded him is probably thinking to herself whether she might just incinerate him or something).
Then things go topsy-turvy as Vidar supposedly betrays Ailsa to help Surtr, and she's thrown into a dungeon, where, to her surprise, she finds none other than Vali.
To back up a little, Vali nearly dies from the wound Erik gives him, but he pulls through and then swears vengeance, and to find Ailsa no matter where she is. In doing so, Freya brings him the spirits of Ailsa's two warrior sisters he slew in battle, and they take a boat to sail it to Helheim, where they'll find Baldur, you know, the son fated to survive Ragnarök and all that jazz?
Well, Baldur is a classic narcissist and of no real use to them (even after a whole lot of trouble they go through, killing some keepers and injuring Garm), but he does eventually give Vali the arm ring that Odin buried with him, which seems to hold a broken oath or something, and they take off to try and get to Muspelheim, where Vali's discovered Ailsa is.
How? Hel let him contact her, and he appeared in her bedroom right before she went to do the dragon thing - and by the way, Erik totally lost it over that little ditty, too, hearing a male voice in her room and not seeing anyone after barging in, then threatening her that she better come to his bed or else, to which she just kicked him out so he could lock her in.
Anyway, after getting approval from Ailsa's mother and unfortunately losing her sisters in the chaos of fighting Nidhogg, Vali gets taken by none other than Ailsa's ancestor, the dude responsible for his women's short lifespans, so he takes his head AND his ship (the gross one made of fingernails and whatnot) and sails it to Muspelheim.
Of course that's where he runs into Vidar and gets knocked out, so that's how he's in chains when Ailsa's brought into the dungeon.
This Ailsa is different to the one who left Vali though, because she's spoken to Vidar who explained that, no, the Fae can't actually mind-control anyone the way she's talking about - the way Erik told her was supposedly what happened - but that they mate for life, to the people who hold the other part of their soul.
So now Ailsa knows that something went wrong, and she can see her life through Vali's memories, but she still can't recover her own, though this is enough for her to literally stab Erik to death because she's had enough of him lying and controlling her. Then she and Vali get the hell out of dodge on the ship since the seal on Muspelheim is breaking and Ragnarök is about to begin.
They're picked up by Odin's ravens and brought to Asgard, since Odin wants Vali by his side when Fenrir attacks, but after at the very least reaffirming that their relationship might be salvaged if they didn't have to worry about the end of the world, Ailsa tells Odin that he literally created a self-fulfilling prophecy by treating Fenrir like a criminal when nothing had happened yet, thus creating and festering the anger and resentment which is now prompting the big wolf to come kill him.
Oh and also, the Baldur will kill Fenrir thing? Odin made THAT one up, trying to drive the prophecy, but it kind of didn't work since Baldur was killed. So, you know, Ragnarök time.
But did we forget about some other key players? See, Vali's soldier-mate, whom he left as regent of Alfheim, has been trying to track down Ailsa since he left, only to find the Dwarves instead (and in this universe, they all seem to be a type of Fae, which makes it doubly confusing, in my opinion) and Angrboda.
Angrboda, who turns out to be not only the mother of Loki's children fated to bring about Ragnarök, but who was cursed by Mimir's well to always be reborn, and has been reborn three times already, each time with a new identity - the first one being none other than Gullveig, the witch responsible for literally all that's happened, including the powers that transferred themselves to Ailsa and her family.
And lest we forget, the crew has to go from Angrboda and follow their fate, which is to release Loki and help start Ragnarök, but Loki promises that in doing so, they'll actually help contain the destruction to within Asgard rather than the whole of the Nine Realms.
Which is where all paths collide, as Vali is almost killed by Fenrir, Fenrir does in fact kill Odin once Odin realizes the inevitable, and then Vidar, of all people, kills Fenrir and allows Ailsa to free him of the silent rune, revealing he's another of Odin's sons who hated his father.
Then they hightail it out of Asgard, and of the Alfheim troops only Vali's regent and her lover survive, after Ivor, the wolven who originally betrayed Ailsa in the first book, sacrifices herself, and the reason they survive is because this lady regent? She's part Valkyrie of all things! And she has wings!
Listen, if this isn't the coolest, I don't know what is.
Anyway, Freya sacrifices herself too, to take Surtr down with her as Ailsa seals Asgard and the primordial flames within, and the world wakes up into a quiet, peaceful morning. Because Odin's dead, all the seals he placed around to keep people under control fall, and Hel releases Baldur back into the land of the living; Vali, after having nearly died, and having Ailsa save him through their reinstated mating bond, is now human rather than Fae, and the two of them will leave Alfheim for Midgard to kind of kickstart the human race and all that.
Oh yeah, she's pregnant alright.
And overall, throughout the Nine Realms, peace reigns with the deaths of Fenrir and the Allfather.
... in case you're wondering, I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not entirely sure why I didn't like the sequel as much as the first book, but here we are. Something felt off, maybe the fact that we're made to care for the Norse gods so quickly, all in all, without really getting to know them? I mean I'm partial to Freya but my partiality comes from God of War rather than the few times she pops up in here.
THAT ASIDE, I liked that the fight in Ailsa never left her. I loved how she told Erik where to shove it - especially as she finally figured out he just wanted her for the sake of not letting anyone else have her.
Of course if she hadn't been an idiot and listened to Vali in the first place ...
And you can't tell me she wasn't. Vali asks her point blank how she'd feel if he paraded one of his ex lovers in front of her and she practically caves in with the pain. But goes and keeps doing it to him anyway because in her logic it isn't the same thing.
I'll admit - I liked her way more without her memories and learning truths that way, because with the memories she was becoming too insufferable and a know-it-all.
But she and Vali DO have a love story for the ages, and I'm glad to have read through this interpretation of Ragnarök. Norse mythology has always captivated me so this duology was a no brainer, perhaps best read one directly after another.
As mentioned above, it's still a bit confusing since everyone seems to be Fae at points and then there's Elves and Dwarves and Giants and whatnot, which twists and turns until I at least wasn't sure where anyone belonged anymore.
Characters who deserved it bit it, characters who emerged as heroes got their happily ever afters. But I really need to read back on this life bonding thing because I can't remember what the first book said about it. This second might have retconned some stuff because, if Vali turned human through the bond, shouldn't Ailsa have been turning Fae through it originally? Or, how does this work exactly? I have to read the first book again to double check.
Overall, a solid read where no one is entirely good or bad (unless you're Erik, who somehow survives Ailsa's stabbing to be killed by Vali, thank the gods), characters discover new facets and depths of themselves, and the End of all Ends arrives. Absolutely recommend for any Norse mythos fan!
I'm not entirely sure why I didn't like the sequel as much as the first book, but here we are. Something felt off, maybe the fact that we're made to care for the Norse gods so quickly, all in all, without really getting to know them? I mean I'm partial to Freya but my partiality comes from God of War rather than the few times she pops up in here.
THAT ASIDE, I liked that the fight in Ailsa never left her. I loved how she told Erik where to shove it - especially as she finally figured out he just wanted her for the sake of not letting anyone else have her.
Of course if she hadn't been an idiot and listened to Vali in the first place ...
And you can't tell me she wasn't. Vali asks her point blank how she'd feel if he paraded one of his ex lovers in front of her and she practically caves in with the pain. But goes and keeps doing it to him anyway because in her logic it isn't the same thing.
I'll admit - I liked her way more without her memories and learning truths that way, because with the memories she was becoming too insufferable and a know-it-all.
But she and Vali DO have a love story for the ages, and I'm glad to have read through this interpretation of Ragnarök. Norse mythology has always captivated me so this duology was a no brainer, perhaps best read one directly after another.
As mentioned above, it's still a bit confusing since everyone seems to be Fae at points and then there's Elves and Dwarves and Giants and whatnot, which twists and turns until I at least wasn't sure where anyone belonged anymore.
Characters who deserved it bit it, characters who emerged as heroes got their happily ever afters. But I really need to read back on this life bonding thing because I can't remember what the first book said about it. This second might have retconned some stuff because, if Vali turned human through the bond, shouldn't Ailsa have been turning Fae through it originally? Or, how does this work exactly? I have to read the first book again to double check.
Overall, a solid read where no one is entirely good or bad (unless you're Erik, who somehow survives Ailsa's stabbing to be killed by Vali, thank the gods), characters discover new facets and depths of themselves, and the End of all Ends arrives. Absolutely recommend for any Norse mythos fan!
xx
*image not mine
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