Thief Eyes, by Janni Lee Simner
May. 14th, 2010 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaThief Eyes, by Janni Lee Simner
(Disclaimer: I know the author and consider her to be a friend.)
After Haley's mother disappears during a trip to Iceland, Haley and her father return, and Haley seeks to figure out what happened. But it turns out that "what happened" is a more complicated question than Haley could possibly know, involving her many-times-great grandmother Hallgerd, an equally ancient spell, the fire spirits that dwell beneath the surface of Iceland, and Odin's own servants. Together with Ari (whose presence is, in itself, another problem: Ari is both sweet and attractive, but Haley already has a boyfriend), Haley must figure out what her ancestor wrought, what she herself has done, and how to resolve it before it tears apart Iceland, and the world.
I have to confess: my first response to hearing about this book was delight that a YA novel had been written about one of the Icelandic Sagas. I first read Njal's Saga (the story that is central to this book, and one of the greatest and most famous of the Sagas) when I was in college, and then reread it a couple of years ago. It's a story of both grand scope and intimate detail, and I'd recommend it to anyone. (Don't go with the free Gutenberg translation, as that's a thoroughly expurgated Victorian one; get a modern translation.)
But anyway! Thief Eyes! As I said, I was delighted (after years of Greco-Roman and Celtoid fantasy) to see a fantasy based on the Icelandic Sagas and Norse mythology. Freki and Muninn, both familiar figures from Norse myth, are distinctive and well-rounded characters... but even more so are the characters from the Sagas: Svan the sorcerer, ancient and amoral, and Hallgerd, who reaches across the generations to avoid a fate she doesn't want.
But the star of the show was Haley, an Arizona teenager who happened to be one of Hallgerd's descendants, who came in search of her mother and accidentally fell afoul of ancient magic, and who then had to find a way to turn back that magic. She was tough and determined, but realistically sheltered and sensitive, and I liked that. I also really liked her relationship with Ari, an Icelandic boy who was sweet and shy and charming, a total geek (he kept making Star Wars references, and I loved him a great deal just for that), and attractive to Haley. But Haley also had a boyfriend in the States, Jordan, and while she was undeniably attracted to Ari, she also felt loyalty to her boyfriend, which I found pretty admirable.
The way that Haley's conflicted friendship-and-proto-romance with Ari reflected her love-hate relationship with Iceland and her ancestry seemed to me to be particularly well-done.
I was particularly pleased with the treatment of Hallgerd. Hallgerd is a complicated figure: a woman with a great deal of agency, who has the protection of both an extremely physical foster-father and a magic-wielding uncle, who is perhaps best known for her refusal to give two locks of her hair to her third and last husband to use as a bowstring. I really liked the way Thief Eyes neither attempted to rehabilitate her by making her nicey-nice nor presented her as a one-dimensional demanding bitch. Hallgerd was as she is in the sagas: complex, human, tough, and a little bit of a cipher.
Similarly, I loved the way that Haley's romantic conundrum was addressed, by not giving an easy answer: it wasn't that she was no longer in love with Jordan, it was that she was young, and too young to pledge eternally to anyone. Very realistic.
Finally: Freki. Oh, Freki. Even though I knew that he was not a "real" fox, and would survive and reappear in one form or another, his sacrifice really touched me.
Recommended. And I also recommend Njal's Saga: find it in a recent-ish translation, and enjoy.
(Disclaimer: I know the author and consider her to be a friend.)
After Haley's mother disappears during a trip to Iceland, Haley and her father return, and Haley seeks to figure out what happened. But it turns out that "what happened" is a more complicated question than Haley could possibly know, involving her many-times-great grandmother Hallgerd, an equally ancient spell, the fire spirits that dwell beneath the surface of Iceland, and Odin's own servants. Together with Ari (whose presence is, in itself, another problem: Ari is both sweet and attractive, but Haley already has a boyfriend), Haley must figure out what her ancestor wrought, what she herself has done, and how to resolve it before it tears apart Iceland, and the world.
I have to confess: my first response to hearing about this book was delight that a YA novel had been written about one of the Icelandic Sagas. I first read Njal's Saga (the story that is central to this book, and one of the greatest and most famous of the Sagas) when I was in college, and then reread it a couple of years ago. It's a story of both grand scope and intimate detail, and I'd recommend it to anyone. (Don't go with the free Gutenberg translation, as that's a thoroughly expurgated Victorian one; get a modern translation.)
But anyway! Thief Eyes! As I said, I was delighted (after years of Greco-Roman and Celtoid fantasy) to see a fantasy based on the Icelandic Sagas and Norse mythology. Freki and Muninn, both familiar figures from Norse myth, are distinctive and well-rounded characters... but even more so are the characters from the Sagas: Svan the sorcerer, ancient and amoral, and Hallgerd, who reaches across the generations to avoid a fate she doesn't want.
But the star of the show was Haley, an Arizona teenager who happened to be one of Hallgerd's descendants, who came in search of her mother and accidentally fell afoul of ancient magic, and who then had to find a way to turn back that magic. She was tough and determined, but realistically sheltered and sensitive, and I liked that. I also really liked her relationship with Ari, an Icelandic boy who was sweet and shy and charming, a total geek (he kept making Star Wars references, and I loved him a great deal just for that), and attractive to Haley. But Haley also had a boyfriend in the States, Jordan, and while she was undeniably attracted to Ari, she also felt loyalty to her boyfriend, which I found pretty admirable.
The way that Haley's conflicted friendship-and-proto-romance with Ari reflected her love-hate relationship with Iceland and her ancestry seemed to me to be particularly well-done.
I was particularly pleased with the treatment of Hallgerd. Hallgerd is a complicated figure: a woman with a great deal of agency, who has the protection of both an extremely physical foster-father and a magic-wielding uncle, who is perhaps best known for her refusal to give two locks of her hair to her third and last husband to use as a bowstring. I really liked the way Thief Eyes neither attempted to rehabilitate her by making her nicey-nice nor presented her as a one-dimensional demanding bitch. Hallgerd was as she is in the sagas: complex, human, tough, and a little bit of a cipher.
Similarly, I loved the way that Haley's romantic conundrum was addressed, by not giving an easy answer: it wasn't that she was no longer in love with Jordan, it was that she was young, and too young to pledge eternally to anyone. Very realistic.
Finally: Freki. Oh, Freki. Even though I knew that he was not a "real" fox, and would survive and reappear in one form or another, his sacrifice really touched me.
Recommended. And I also recommend Njal's Saga: find it in a recent-ish translation, and enjoy.