The Edda of Burdens
Cover art by Jean-Sebastian Rossbach
In the beginning was the end of the world.
The children of the Light and the fallen Tarnished met at the edge of the great ice, and there they warred and died. Brother fought brother; lover slew lover. And when it was done, and the snow drifted over the blood, three were left: "the one who fled, the one who stood, and the one who walked away."
Muire is a waelcyrge, an immortal maiden of the shield, sworn to defend the Light and to hold a place in the world for the return of the All-Father. But the All-Father never came. And Muire was not like her sisters--she was a historian and a poet, a sculptor and a thinker, littlest and least of her kind. A sparrow among falcons. From afar and quietly, she loved the greatest and brightest of the einherjar, the chosen warriors: Strifbjorn. But her courage failed her, and on the Last Day she fled the armies of the Tarnished, and did not die with her love.
Kasimir is a valraven, war-steed of the choosers of the slain. Two-headed, great-hearted, winged and horned for battle. On the Last Day, his rider was killed, and he wounded unto death. But that great heart remains indomitable in defeat as it was in victory, even as it pumps his life-blood into the snow.
And Mingan--
Mingan is the Grey Wolf, last child of a dead god, grandson of giants. Mingan is old, older than the fallen children, older than the young and dying world. This is not his first apocalypse.
He would prefer it to be his last.
The Edda of Burdens is the story of these three, and of dead Strifbjorn, and how the end of the world transformed them and everything they touched. It's a dark and dreaming story of a steampunk alternate future, in which battered demigods roam the streets of ancient cities and heroes--mortal, immortal, and doomed--do what terrible things they must, in the hope of life and the face of the end of everything.
All the Windwracked Stars (October 2008)
Publishers Weekly reviews All the Windwracked Stars:
(Starred Review)
Hugo winner Bear (Undertow) perfectly captures the essence of faded hopes and exhausted melancholy in this postapocalyptic melodrama based loosely upon Norse mythology. On the Last Day, the historian Muire fled the battle, leaving her sibling Valkyries to die. More than 2,300 years later, only a single city, Eiledon, has survived as the dying world slowly turns into ice. Ashamed of her cowardice, Muire now vows to keep the last humans safe, but as she slowly pieces together the horrific truth behind the magic that has kept Eiledon standing, she must decide whether it's worth the price. Readers will be captivated by Bear's incredibly complex, broken characters; multilayered themes of redemption; and haunting, world-breaking decisions. While stilted prose slows the beginning of the tale, its finale is both rewarding and compelling. (Nov.)
And the Booklist review:
Bear creates a world with an astonishing depth of mythology in a tale that begins with Ragnarok. Though Muire was the least of her sisters, she is the only one who survived the battle between the Light and the Tarnished. One of the sisters' steeds also survived, in part because of the last miracle of the Light. Two thousand years later, it is nearly the end of the world again. This time, Muire stands to fight to the end. In the last city remaining on a dying planet, her enemies are old friends, one of whom was there the last time the world ended. The Technomancer, ruler of Eiledon, has gotten her power from a most unfortunate source, and the swords of Muire's lost siblings are reappearing, as are their spirits. In an epic battle for the survival of life, Muire must overcome her conviction that she is the least of the Valkyries and transform into someone who can take on ancient powers. Bear's world building echoes the best of Zelazny and pulls the reader into the story and the history until it's over. Muire is, despite a certain difficulty in the beginning, one of Bear's more interesting and likable characters, and the mythology Bear deploys promises further satisfying stories based in it.
And to complete the trifecta, Library Journal loved it too:
(Starred Review)
"Ragnarok has come and gone, and with it, the destruction of the world--except for the failed Valkyrie Muire and her valraven, Kasimir, the winged steed of the Valkyrie. Out of their survival arises a new world, in which magic and technology combine to create something new yet achingly familiar. Two thousand years pass, and the world is again dying, with one city remaining, ruled by the Technomancer. Muire dwells in the last city, awaiting her doom, for she has caught sight of Mingan the Wolf, on the hunt for the first time since the Last Battle. Bear's (A Companion to Wolves with Sarah Monette) ability to create breathtaking variations on ancient themes and make them new and brilliant is, perhaps, unparalleled in the genre. Her lyrical style and heroically flawed characters make this a priority purchase for most libraries. Highly recommended."
But don't fret, Kirkus hated it! (This one is spoilery as heck. be warned.):
Norse fantasy/cyberpunk/apocalyptic science fiction, from Bear (Hell and Earth, 2008, etc.).Following Ragnarok, the Norse Twilight of the Gods, the only survivors were the valkyrie (warrior-angel) Muire, Kasimir the valraven (two-headed flying steed) and Mingan, a dark-angel wolf. Civilization eventually rose again, developed advanced technology, and again destroyed itself in a futile war. Now, only one city, Eiledon, remains, surrounded by desolation, kept functioning by Thjierry Thorvaldsdottir, the Technomancer, using a combination of technology, magic and who-knows-what. Muire, though she has lost most of her angelic power, still patrols the streets; occasionally she talks with Kasimir, now a steam-powered, metallic cyborg. Together they note the reappearance of Mingan, who attempts to intercept the delivery of a mysterious object of power to Selene, one of the Technomancer's powerful slave-mages. Muire vows to avenge the messenger, who dies in her arms, but she's no match for Mingan, who can travel in and out of other dimensions, until - for reasons that only gradually become apparent - the wolf kisses her and thereby transfers to her some of his power. Muire slowly realizes that most, if not all, of the heroes who died at Ragnarok have been reincarnated. Moreover, far from preserving what's left of creation, the Technomancer is consuming it, so that no renascence will be possible. And the sources of her power are the 400 swords of power once wielded by Muire's fellow valkyries. Add to this a slow-motion, barely discernable power struggle, a mountain or two of soul-searching, streaks of vampire-ish sex and what-all besides.A gnarled, overstuffed, heavyweight yarn from the farthest fringes of the speculative genre - in those terms, a howling success.
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