A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden is the tale of Étain, a Saxon woman, and her encounters with Grimnir, a creature from Norse mythology. It is set in the 10th and 11th centuries, spanning locations from Denmark to England to Ireland. Early in the story, Étain is kidnapped by Grinmir to help him in his quest for revenge against another creature, known as Half-Dane.
I enjoyed the first half of the book, as Grinmir dragged Étain from Denmark through a spiritual gate into England. It was when the story shifted to Ireland that I lost interest. In what Oden calls “Book 3”, the reader is introduced to several more characters, all with hard-to-pronounce names, who are engaged in some sort of civil war for control of Ireland. The problem was that at this point I was just reading words, getting no enjoyment because I didn’t know who to root for. Should I be sympathetic for the man Grimnir wants dead or hope that he succeeds and kills him?
The only truly likeable character in this book is Étain, and after we catch up to her, she makes what I believe are questionable choices, taking her further and further away from her original goal of spreading Christianity to the Danes. And while characters’ goals can certainly change throughout the course of a book, I saw no rational reason for her to make the choices she did.
A Gathering of Ravens is well-written and the first half had me very engaged in the world of pre-Norman England. But because I was so disappointed in the second half, I cannot recommend this book.