
The following text is not a complete summary, but contains ALL the spoilers for Children you might need before reading Land. So, ALL the spoilers. 440 pages or one? Choose wisely.
Proceed at your own peril…
Maya, a skilled sorceress with the ability to shapeshift and manipulate the power called mana, serves King Thrymr of Jötunheim, the land of the jötnar. The City of Light she has largely built herself is the only place safe from Thor’s attacks, as the Gods believe the jötnar want to destroy Ásgard. Tasked with acquiring Thor’s powerful hammer, she succeeds, but faces unexpected consequences – her own potential death.
Magni, a half jötunn himself and Thor’s neglected and forgotten son, flees alongside Maya, warned by his mother and Thor’s concubine, Járnsaxa. King Thrymr demands to marry Freya, Maya’s foster mother and the Goddess of love, able to become any woman she wants to be. In her place arrives Thor, disguised as a bride. When Magni accidentally reunites him with the hammer, Thor loses control and the destruction the City has previously avoided ensues as he no longer thinks of either his lover or his son’s safety. Offered to join the Gods in their world, Ásgard, Magni is so disgusted he chooses to live with the terrifying humans of Midgard.
Maya returns to the realm of the gods, Ásgard, but finds herself disillusioned with their indifference to mortals. Driven by search for purpose, she decides to venture back to Midgard in search of Thor, who has never returned after destroying the jötnar city. The journey leads her to Bard, known to the chosen few as Harbard; a man who can manipulate her body and get information out of her. His cryptic note reveals that Freya and her twin brother Freyr are not her foster parents, but real ones; Maya is not a magic-wielding human, but a daughter of divine siblings.
Magni, now an outlaw, struggles to survive among humans, tormented by cold, hunger, and his love for a cruel and manipulative man, Herjólf. In order to survive himself, he is forced to kill, something he has sworn he’d never do. When he fails, a strange disfigured creature appears; its face is soothing and promises peace, its murderous acts are bloody and incredibly brutal. Magni is now haunted by the creature he sometimes sees and names Boy, and the question whether it’s really better to let Boy kill people for him in horrid ways, so that he doesn’t have to do it himself.
His life is saved by Maya, who believes she found who she was searching for – a red-haired, red-bearded giant – not knowing that instead of the God of thunder she discovered his son. Saving his life requires taking him to Ásgard, something Magni agrees to very fast. There is another complication as she struggles with the decision. Leaving him in Midgard is a death sentence, as Magni remains an outlaw. But there seems to be another side to Magni, someone called Módi, a dark, mysterious persona with a plan he won’t reveal. With her loyalties torn, Maya chooses to save Magni, even if it means harm to Ásgard.
Upon their arrival, Magni – or Módi – reveals the plan: in exchange for Freya, whom he wants to own and ‘sell to the highest bidder’ he will build a wall around Ásgard to protect it. What he doesn’t mention is that, in fact, he wants to protect Jötunheim from the Gods he loathes. Loki, the shapeshifting trickster, interferes with their plans, causing Magni to become addicted to Idunn’s fruit to the point where he will either die from consuming it or from withdrawing from it. In the shape of a stallion Loki also impregnates Maya, who shifted into a mare to use her magic to help Magni with the wall. She will give birth to an eight-legged horse Sleipnir while Magni recovers under the care of powerful healer Gróa.
Magni’s mission fails when Thor suddenly returns before he and Maya can reinforce the wall in the last vulnerable spot. Maya’s magic causes Thor a near-fatal wound. Thor is sent to Gróa to recover and the two await their trial for either attempting to, or killing the God of thunder. Freya, unaware that Maya knows her true parentage, reveals that she has discovered a way to cross into another Universe, one that mirrors the Nine Worlds, including a place she believes to be the new Ásgard – filled with power and magic she wants to harness. If Magni and Maya help her get there and take over the other Universe, also known as the Tenth world, she will save their lives.
2020 Stabby Nominee – Best Self-Published/Independent Novel
2022 Queer Indie Lit Award
The book includes strong language, depictions of sexual, physical, and emotional violence. For full list of triggers, which may contain spoilers, see: https://www.bjornlarssen.com/children-tw