So, it’s official. After mere three years of delays, Land will be with you on November 5 (unless life starts happening again, which is why you didn’t get it on November 5, 2021…)
I got so used to saying ‘the sequel to Children‘ that I nearly forgot that The Ten Worlds is a series. (Updating the website will be a bit of a pain.) Some of what follows are spoilers for Children, so in case you haven’t read that one yet and intend to, close this page and don’t read further…
Where do I begin?
Land starts one night after Children ends. (Nobody submitted any good Magni/Heimdall fanfic. This might have to do with me never announcing I was looking for it. But that’s what’s missing.) The war is brewing. Freya made certain promises to Odin. Which she is about to break, because Freya does not forget or forgive, and a plague she believes Odin has unleashed wiped out the entire race of vanir. Goddesses don’t simply shake things off and move on. And Freya’s list of those who need punishment also has Magni on it…
Maya is stewing in her disgust at knowing she’s a child of twin deities, neither of whom is willing to recognise her as their own or show her any love – except her father’s habit of rubbing his ever-present erection over her. She has to accept another thing: as a child of two Gods, she is a Goddess herself. Of what, though? How does one learn how to God properly? (As I mentioned here and there, the Why Odin Drinks series is a prequel to The Ten Worlds.)
The Nine Worlds, connected by Yggdrasil, hide a passage that leads towards the tenth world, known by those who live on it as…Midgard. To the Northmen, as we Earthlings know them, they’re humans living in Midgard, as Thor battles ice giants somewhere far away. The stories tell of Gods mingling with the people, but Earth has not seen any of those Gods around for so long a new deity threatens: a god named God, conveniently invisible and present everywhere. Freya is not going to stand for that, and once Magni finds out that this God’s followers drink his son’s blood and eat his flesh he, too, vows to stop that from happening. How do you fight someone who’s invisible, though, or convince people that you either are or aren’t a God and a Goddess, depending on circumstances?
In order to defeat the god named God, Freya wants to reach the new Ásgard, free from Odin and Loki, hers to find – not conquer, as it’s empty – and rule. Once she gets there, which she has been meticulously planned for centuries, she’ll unleash what the followers of the god named God call ‘hell’ – but with Maya around, plans tend not to go according to, um, plan…
Any Norse myth retellings?
Not this time. Land is a retelling of the discovery of Iceland by Raven-Flóki (Hrafnaflóki) – if you’ve seen the series Vikings, you’ve seen a version of this story. There are actual Vikings in the book, although you’ll have to wait for the third instalment to see more of them. Nevertheless, those are Gods heading for Iceland; the brave Viking Flóki carries a black raven on his shoulder, whether he wants to or not; and Iceland is not as empty as Freya would like it to be.
Where Children retells a few myths at length and some of them are disposed with over a sentence or two (you have to know the myth to notice), Land is mostly lore-free. Mostly. Because, to ensure that the Nine’s Gods don’t truly become the Old Gods, Freya has enlisted Bragi’s help to keep spreading their stories on Earth. Bragi, an artist, has never been able to resist a good story just because there is truth standing in the way.
Do you have a book description and stuff like that?
I absolutely do not.
The problem with working on something for so long is that at some point it no longer is just a book. I don’t actually know whether Land is even structured like a novel. (No, I am not being an Experimental Artisté, although I am definitely a proper mad artist, just ask my psych team…) It’s about people and what happens to those people.
I’ve been obsessed with documentaries for a long time; documentaries that show good people who turn out to be bad, or good people who slowly become bad. Where Children is an examination of consent and classism, Land looks at the relationship between war and peace… and love and freedom. War and love definitely exist. Do peace and freedom, though, outside hippie songs that won’t be written for another thousand years?
As the editor of Land, Marian L Thorpe, the author of the Empire series said – “[Land is a book about] [s]omeone to love; a place to call your own; freedom. How those fundamental desires are understood and expressed differs for each individual. Love is seen as protection, guidance, control, communion, support or sacrifice; land is a source of shelter, power, safety, riches, sustenance. Freedom for some is life lived entirely for oneself, for others, it is a life lived for the good of the community. Shaping those understandings are life experiences, both as children and as adults. Beliefs are mutable; they evolve, and the greatest expression of freedom is learning this, and forgiving (without forgetting) the circumstances that shape us.”
So, I guess, that.
The planned release date is November 5.
(With extra emphasis on ‘planned’.) For my Ko‑fi supporters – October 5, unless the proofreading takes a few days longer than expected. And, same as with Children, there will be a bonus story available only in the hardcover edition.