The Age of Odin is part of a series of science fiction books where the gods of old are coming back into power in present day. This book is about Odin, Thor, Loki, and the others from that mythology, and the main character is a retired mercenary who answers a job posting for work and winds up at Asgard.

The story begins with two guys driving along a snowy road when they get into a bad car accident. They are very near to their destination, which is supposed to be a sort of base in the middle of the forest, so they go out on foot. Halfway there, a pack of wolves attack and one of the men is killed. The other barely makes it out alive, and soon arrives at his destination. Very soon after, he finds himself in a fight with a big guy named Thor, and many other meatheads with familiar names start to appear.

At first, it all seems like a bunch of people with a Norse god obsession all banded together and gave themselves nicknames. However, it becomes apparent that these people are the real deal and a war is going on thanks to the trickster Loki and some prophecy that is about to come true. When the fighting starts, it’s going to be brutal as hell. There’s also a love story with a valkyrie. Basically, this takes familiar mythology and places it in a modern setting with a wise-talking tough guy at the center of it all.

I really enjoyed the amount of action in this book, as half of it was during a huge battle. The book cover shows some giant robotic looking things that were sort of like a machine from the Mechwarrior world, and I can’t help but love stuff like that. It also features frost giants, which are the sworn enemy of Thor and his crew, plus a mixture of new and old tech to create a world unique from the Thor and Odin you might know from comic books. The main character in this is a real smart alleck who is constantly spouting off one-liners and his uber-confident way of handling tough situations is quite entertaining. There is a lot of profanity, though.

This is the third book in a series about the old gods being reborn in modern times. As the author explains through a monologue delivered by Odin, the gods are like figments of human imagination and they live on through stories and art. Since they are brought back to the present, they are retrofitted to adapt to new technology, which is why they have guns, mechanized robots, and so on. In The Age of Ra, the same principle was used to explain that what really makes the gods immortal is the human capacity to remember them and invoke those memories in ways that keep them alive.

The author, James Lovegrove, is from the UK. Some parts of this story may be perceived as anti-American, especially since the villain is the President of the United States and she’s modeled somewhat after Sarah Palin, but a southerner. There were a couple of comments about “yanks” and it does depict American soldiers being killed, but I didn’t really feel like it was taking jabs at the U.S. As the story is told, there is a reason for the way things play out and I got that, but some overly sensitive readers might get mad at seeing Americans portrayed as anything but heroic. I’ve already seen some negative online user reviews from people who rated this one star because they thought the author was making fun of Palin.

In the end, I really liked The Age of Odin. I thought it was a lot more fun than The Age of Ra and surely had more action. It’s especially nice to read after having seen the recent Thor movie because of the different way in which those familiar characters are portrayed.

Recommended: Yes