I Bring the Fire A Loki Story Book

I did not finish this book. The story was actually inventive and interesting but the way it was written with its short sentences drove me insane. The way it is written in present tense feels amateurish and unpolished. It almost felt like a first draft that was accidently published before the author went back and refined it or like English was not the author’s first language. Have you ever heard an elderly Native American tell a story? I love their stories but they do have a certain simplicity to them and there is a definite choppy rhythm which, of course, is one of the charms of the story because you know that the storyteller is authentic but it does not work when writing a paranormal romance book. In order to keep the reader’s attention…or at least my attention…the author needs to make me feel like I am there by writing complex sentences with gobs of adjectives, adverbs and action words that flow off the page instead of short sentences that feel jerky and impersonal.

The story is about Amy Lewis, a veterinary student who is on her way from Oklahoma to her home town in Chicago to see her grandparents during a school break. When she swerves to miss a deer on the long dark deserted highway she has been traveling and wrecks her car, she is relieved when a car pulls up behind her because she thinks they are there to help her but it turns out to be the creep from the gas station she stopped at hours ago. He grabs her and they struggle and she knows he will win so she sends out a silent pray for help even though she thinks it is futile.

Meanwhile, Loki is having a rough day up in where ever it is the Norse gods live. He wakes up in jail and his ex comes to tell him that his sons have been sentenced to be pushed into the Void (It sounds like a bad place where they will probably die) so Loki escapes and tries to reach his sons before Odin pushes them into the Void. He gets there just as Odin opens up the Void and it sucks his sons in but he jumps in after them and somehow ends up in the woods right next to where Amy is getting attacked.

He kills the man who turned out to be a serial killer and he and Amy end up at a police station, telling the police what happened.

I stopped there because I could no longer handle the short choppy sentences. It is weird because I have only seen one other book, besides children’s readers (the kind they learn to read with), whose author wrote like this but that book was self-published. I just read that one or tried to read it within the last month. I didn’t think a publisher would actually publish a book that was so amateurish but I guess I was wrong.

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Good twist on the Loki/Thor stories. I'd probably normally give it 3 stars but it gets an extra because it was free. :) ( )

These first 3.5 books in the series were a roller-coaster of action and emotions and did cost me a lot of sleep since I could not put it away.
Amy, a veterinarian student, meets Loki, God of Mischief, who is grieving for his lost sons and seeking revenge on Odin and his brother Thor.
Cera, an entity with endless magical power, is caught on Earth and Loki's way to revenge.
While fighting mystical creatures, FBI, Police and self doubts Amy and Loki build an unlikely team in a page turner that never has a dull moment.
Highly recommended!
This is an omnibus of the first three books (plus a novella) and I recommend to start with this, as Book 1 and 2 have somewhat of a cliffhanger, while book 3 and 3.5 can be put away without anxiety. ( )

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

I picked up the Urban Mythic Box Set a while ago because I enjoy the myths it springs from, but like most books, it ended up buried on my Kindle until this week. I happened upon it when needing a break from my planned reading list. Sometimes luck is with you, and a random choice brings you a new favorite author, as I seem to have found with C. Gockel.

This book is the beginning of a series focused around the Norse mythic character of Loki. Tricksters are complex creatures and it’s a tossup whether they are villains or something else. In this, Loki is definitely something else, though he has both bad moments and good.

The myths and stories often bug me. It’s not that I have a bad boy preference but more I can see the full character arc. I see both where Loki has the potential to be good and is good along with where that nature is twisted because of the actions of others. The supposed good guys often behave horribly, but no one calls them on it. It’s fine to bully Loki because he deserves it. There’s no recognition given to how his behavior is a response to mistreatment in the first place.

Yes, I have a soapbox, and Loki puts me right up there on it.

That said, this portrayal is well done because it provides a balanced view of the character, showing both what prompted his behavior and how his response can be out of proportion and brings chaos along with it. There are a lot of hints about things hidden from him as well, giving the character a sense of mystery and more to come.

Then there’s Amy. She gives a lovely human perspective to it all. She doesn’t have an easy life. Amy has to work and save every penny each summer to pay for her veterinary degree. She’s far from trusting, but she judges a person on their actions for the most part and revises that judgment when she learns more. As a vet in training, she has a soft spot for animals I can appreciate (along with a technical curiosity I found amusing), but it’s more than that. She’s a “roll with the punches” type of person who holds those around her to the same high standards while giving them a chance to improve instead of writing them off. She doesn’t sit back and accept, but tries to figure out what’s at the root of things even when the light it shines doesn’t show her own behavior off well. There were a couple of times when I thought the author had been caught up in the revised fairy tale, but Amy is the one to see behind the curtain.

I’m a sucker for books that make me want to share quotes, and even more when the moment is still strong when out of context. While there are definitely both deep and dark points in this story, the fun, and funny, times are just begging to be read aloud. This is especially true where Loki’s confusion with the modern world comes into view. His brushes with technology are infrequent enough and well chosen to be amusing even as they emphasize how out of place he is. A quick example is the perspectives of Amy and the standard SUV with remote versus Loki and “Car,” a living metal creature that understands politely worded requests like please open a window.

Even better, those tangles with technology are not just there for humor value but end up becoming relevant in the story.

I’ve focused a lot on the main characters (though Amy’s grandmother Beatrice and Fenrir, an ugly rat mutt of a dog, deserve not to be left out along with Loki’s caretakers), but the story is strong with as many serious as funny moments. The characters are definitely a strength, but this “part one” offers complex events that change the characters in many ways. It is an opening into a story world that is both familiar and unknown.

This is neither a Marvel nor a mythological recounting of the Norse tales. It has been influenced by both, and they’re mentioned in the story, but this tale is of its own telling. It’s strengthened by the solid foundation into a well-rounded story with characters I came to care about and mysteries still to come. The book offers a fitting series beginning with a satisfying, complete arc and introduces the next piece to come. The “cliffhanger” ending comes in what is more like an epilogue than part of the main story. As such, it did not bother me beyond making me want to continue to the next book.

P.S. Read as part of the Urban Mythic Box Set. ( )

Wolves (I Bring the Fire #1) by C. Gockel is a great Norse God story only Loki is more the good guy! I really got into this book so much I had to buy more of the series. Thor isn't a big jerk, but pretty big. Odin, a super jerk but he is also too powerful to mess with. Loki ends up on earth, again, and helps a gal in trouble. She kinda takes him in, thinks he needs help.... It is so funny, exciting, suspense filled at times, great fantasy, and I have had this book a while and why did I wait? Great book! ( )