The immortals are killed in battle and mortals take over the world. The world is dying again. It is up to the last remaining immortals to save the world.

It is beautifully written and told a great story of an interesting world. However it took me a while to get into the book, and some of the sections felt a bit long winded. ( )

Picked this up from my local library on a whim when I was collecting books for random reads. I'd passed over it a few times in the SciFi section, and decided to give it a shot. Bear weaves a very detailed world, a very creative blend of magic, mechanics, physics, and life, following the path of a lone angel, who ran from the last great battle. Or she thought she was alone, until she comes across a young fighter, who echoes of a brother angle of long ago. As the world dies, someone is using unscupulous methods to try to preserve a part of it for their own self glory, and corrupting others in the process. Muire, the lost angel, slowly unravels this conspiratorial mess finds a path of self-redemption for running thousands of years ago. Through multiple worlds/times with help of Kasmir she sets out to make the world healed, and whole once more. ( )

I just finished [All the Windracked Stars] and I must say, Elizabeth seems to have a bit of a thing for Bad Boys. Lucifer in the Stratford Man books and now Mingan in this one both end up having those redeeming qualities that make them so interesting and perhaps tempting in real life. Her characters reveal themselves bit by bit so that you come to understand them as the story goes on. You have to pay attention and look for clues as to why they act the way they do. I love complicated, eccentric people and maybe that's why her books appeal to me.

Ms. Bears books lead me to round out my education that had weighed heavily in Chemistry and Math. The Stratford Man books caused me to find some of Marlowe's plays to pursue, now I find myself needing to read up on Valkyries. Fun! ( )

My review can be found here: at my blog, fiction-theory@lj. ( )

Something like a cross between The Broken Sword, Hardwired, Dark Angel and Shadowrun.

This particular flavour of Ragnarok is only survived by Muire, one of the Valkryie analogues, the Serpent, the Wolf, and one of the outre steeds that the Valkyries/angels ride. Saving the horse makes him sort of a cyborg, too.

Norse angels of course possess magic swords, too.

The horse's Terry Pratchettesque style of talking in bold (not capitals) may also be annoying to some.

While stylish and managing to combine Norse poetry with a bit of the down and out cyberpunkish flavour the story does meander a bit in between the punchy starts and finishes.

Multiple cycles of Muire meets Wolf with aggro posturing, arm wrenching and sado suck face sessions get a little tediously predictable.

The same with the multiple declmations of 'me shortarse historian, not fighter, here's a quote to prove it', likewise.

Those are minor issues though, with an inventive book giving another look.

This particular city setting is kept from destruction by magic - and of a not nice kind, so Muire and friends decide to do something about it.

'Maybe it wasn't a very good plan, but it was the only one Muire had. Considering her resources--two magical swords that weren't much use for anything practical except cutting through anything in their path; a spell-casting, mechanically inclined rodent; a catgirl with a whip; a retired cyborg tavern-keeper; an animate steam engine; and a deeply depressed nineteen-year-old--she thought she had done as well as could be expected."

Or time to Ragnastop and roll.

Blending all this into something that makes sense is well done, and worth reading.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12... ( )