Mandar's book review (31st April 2014)
Completed "The Valhalla prophecy" by Andy McDermott. This is the ninth book of Nina Wild series. Published by Headline book publishing in 2014, it's 560 pages long.
Nina Wild, director of IHA (International heritage agency), and her husband Eddie Chase embark on a new adventure. This time the legend is from Norse mythology.
A rune stone is stolen from Sweden. It allegedly tells how to reach Valhalla (the hall of glorious dead) and from there clues can be obtained to reach Ragnarok (an event equivalent to world war of today) at the snake pit. The poison of snake pit is worse than chemical agents. It can mutate human genes to create monsters. Bad guys want it and Nina's team wants to prevent it by neutralizing the poison using Thor's hammer (a neutralizing agent created by Unit 201). But they don't know if it will work. Nina has unlikely allies in this mission.
What is this poison? Who wants it? Who is helping Nina to neutralize it? What are their motives? Can Nina save the world again? Is Nina and Eddie's relation strong enough to sustain the blows of incredulity. Will they be poisoned?
In the first half, the story toggles between present and past continuously. The 'past' part is a series of events in Eddy's life before he met Nina. These two stories run in parallel without any apparent connection for good length till they eventually converge.
In keeping with the tradition of the series this book too is full of action, high speed chases, mercenaries, drama, violence and innumerable deaths. Eddie's smart ass comments and witty one liners serve as garnishing to the actions.
Norse mythology is not as well known as Greek or Roman mythology hence reader does not readily connect to it. The storyline has, however, become predictable. The element of surprise isn't there for the readers who have read previous books.
The actions in the snake pit are tantalizing but sometimes difficult to visualize. In the end Nina and Eddie save the world. Their resignation from IHA at the end has created the setting for the next book.
Read if you have read the previous books of this series.
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