marcusgipps (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} marcusgipps) wrote,@ 2008-04-20 18:55:00 |
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Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman
This was what reminded me that I had never written about Absolute Sandman (the review below). It is Gaiman's contribution to World Book Day 2008, which is the scheme in which authors write a (usually very small) book for free, publishers print it for free, booksellers buy it for 10p and children buy it for a pound. Which sounds a bit like a bookseller-evil-scheme, apart from the fact that every kid in the UK should get a £1 voucher from their school, which they can use on anything, and us booksellers swallow the cost of that. If they buy a World Book Day book, we lose 10p. If they use it towards another book, it costs us 50-60p. But if someone pays actual money for a WBD book, we make 90p, and pretty much everything balances out nicely. And the vouchers are printed and distributed by the Bookseller's Association, who are partly funded by booksellers. See, we're not so bad. Kids get to read a cool little book, which they might not have picked up otherwise (the point, of course, being to get the ones who would never pick up any book to do so), and discover the Joys of Reading (tm). It's a really good scheme.
Anyway, lesson over. We're here to talk about the book. Gaiman has produced an all-new 100-ish page novella (novelette?), introducing new characters and telling a complete story, with illustrations by Mark Buckingham. Makes Dav Pilkey's reprint of the first book in his Captain Underpants series look a little unimpressive, really. Guess which one we've sold more of? Ah well, such is life. If I really understood bookselling I wouldn't be working in it. And Pilkey didn't have to donate anything at all, so I'll stop being mean and cynical now.
Digressing again. Odd (the book) is a fun little thing, but Odd (the Character) is an unhappy little thing. Crippled, orphaned, with an overbearing stepfather - no wonder he runs away into the snow of Norway, hiding in the abandoned shed of his wood-carving father, killed whilst on a Viking raid (but not killed in a glamorous obvious Viking way, oh no). He does OK for himself, for a while, but then he meets a rather odd (ha!) trio of animals - a bear, a fox, an eagle - who help him, move in with him, talk to (or rather, around) him. Not normal behaviour, really. Turns out they're Gods (of course they're Gods, this is a Neil Gaiman book). Thrown out of Asgard by the Frost Giants (well, a Frost Giant, anyway), weakened and feeling rather irritable and foolish, but completely unaware of the tropes of myth and Young Adult fiction. Do we think Odd (the boy) can possibly solve their problems, get rid of the Frost Giant(s) and return home? I bet he can...
...but the point, of course, is not that this is a retelling/revisioning of innumerable myths and legends and stories. The point is that Gaiman does it his way. No great battle, no plucky sidekicks, no cliched motives. The way in which Odd (the boy) solves the problems facing him and his new friends - which I won't spoil - is wise, gentle and brilliant. And all of his problems aren't instantly solved by the end - he isn't healed, his father doesn't return, he may well still not fit in back at the village. But at least now he knows himself (although, to be fair, he was really quite self-confident already), and what he can do (likewise, he starts off with a greater opinion of his ability to solve problems and survive than anyone around him), and a bit more about the world (still, probably not most of the really important stuff, like girls). In other words, it may be a fairly straight-forward little story, but, being a Gaiman book, is much more interesting than that. That sounds a little obsequious, reading it back, but I stand by it.
So, in summary: Odd (the book) is very good. And it only costs a pound. And it's for Charity. Go on, what are you waiting for?
I read this a day or two after it came out in early March (on World Book Day, obviously). There are probably still some copies knocking about around the UK (we've got lots! Ready for the next signing...), but it may be a bit harder to find internationally. ISBN: 0747595380.
This was what reminded me that I had never written about Absolute Sandman (the review below). It is Gaiman's contribution to World Book Day 2008, which is the scheme in which authors write a (usually very small) book for free, publishers print it for free, booksellers buy it for 10p and children buy it for a pound. Which sounds a bit like a bookseller-evil-scheme, apart from the fact that every kid in the UK should get a £1 voucher from their school, which they can use on anything, and us booksellers swallow the cost of that. If they buy a World Book Day book, we lose 10p. If they use it towards another book, it costs us 50-60p. But if someone pays actual money for a WBD book, we make 90p, and pretty much everything balances out nicely. And the vouchers are printed and distributed by the Bookseller's Association, who are partly funded by booksellers. See, we're not so bad. Kids get to read a cool little book, which they might not have picked up otherwise (the point, of course, being to get the ones who would never pick up any book to do so), and discover the Joys of Reading (tm). It's a really good scheme.
Anyway, lesson over. We're here to talk about the book. Gaiman has produced an all-new 100-ish page novella (novelette?), introducing new characters and telling a complete story, with illustrations by Mark Buckingham. Makes Dav Pilkey's reprint of the first book in his Captain Underpants series look a little unimpressive, really. Guess which one we've sold more of? Ah well, such is life. If I really understood bookselling I wouldn't be working in it. And Pilkey didn't have to donate anything at all, so I'll stop being mean and cynical now.
Digressing again. Odd (the book) is a fun little thing, but Odd (the Character) is an unhappy little thing. Crippled, orphaned, with an overbearing stepfather - no wonder he runs away into the snow of Norway, hiding in the abandoned shed of his wood-carving father, killed whilst on a Viking raid (but not killed in a glamorous obvious Viking way, oh no). He does OK for himself, for a while, but then he meets a rather odd (ha!) trio of animals - a bear, a fox, an eagle - who help him, move in with him, talk to (or rather, around) him. Not normal behaviour, really. Turns out they're Gods (of course they're Gods, this is a Neil Gaiman book). Thrown out of Asgard by the Frost Giants (well, a Frost Giant, anyway), weakened and feeling rather irritable and foolish, but completely unaware of the tropes of myth and Young Adult fiction. Do we think Odd (the boy) can possibly solve their problems, get rid of the Frost Giant(s) and return home? I bet he can...
...but the point, of course, is not that this is a retelling/revisioning of innumerable myths and legends and stories. The point is that Gaiman does it his way. No great battle, no plucky sidekicks, no cliched motives. The way in which Odd (the boy) solves the problems facing him and his new friends - which I won't spoil - is wise, gentle and brilliant. And all of his problems aren't instantly solved by the end - he isn't healed, his father doesn't return, he may well still not fit in back at the village. But at least now he knows himself (although, to be fair, he was really quite self-confident already), and what he can do (likewise, he starts off with a greater opinion of his ability to solve problems and survive than anyone around him), and a bit more about the world (still, probably not most of the really important stuff, like girls). In other words, it may be a fairly straight-forward little story, but, being a Gaiman book, is much more interesting than that. That sounds a little obsequious, reading it back, but I stand by it.
So, in summary: Odd (the book) is very good. And it only costs a pound. And it's for Charity. Go on, what are you waiting for?
I read this a day or two after it came out in early March (on World Book Day, obviously). There are probably still some copies knocking about around the UK (we've got lots! Ready for the next signing...), but it may be a bit harder to find internationally. ISBN: 0747595380.
