Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Valkyrja.
Another one of Pietjouw's Viking-inspired fantasy books, though this one isn't directly a part of the Dreamwalker series! Rather, it's a separate standalone prequel that takes place in the same universe. Spoilers ahead!
Kira is a young Viking woman just going about her daily life when she is brutally murdered. She ends up in the afterlife, where she's chosen by a former Valkyrie named Spear-carrier to take her place and become a Valkyrie herself. Kira starts to explore the afterlife and makes friends and foes, while learning to be a Valkyrie. When she frees the legendary giant wolf Fenrir, however, she may just have triggered the end of the world: Ragnarok.
I just enjoy Pietjouw's Norse mythology-inspired books a lot. They all have their flaws but overall I have a good time reading them. I should also preface this (especially with this book since it leans even heavier into the mythology than the Dreamwalker duology) by saying that I do not know a lot about Norse mythology. Like, at all. I didn't know what a Valkyrie was before reading this, I didn't know any of the Norse mythology characters other than Thor, Loki, Fenrir and Huginn/Muninn, I don't know what their afterlife looks like, etc. So with this book being partially inspired by Norse mythology and partially being just made up by the author, I genuinely do not really know where the "real" stuff ends and where the author's imagination starts. Outside of the very bare bones basics.
That said, even with my lack of knowledge it was a very enjoyable read. I will say that I was sometimes a bit confused with who was who in the afterlife/mythology realm since there's a few gods/higher beings introduced and they're usually all related to one another in some way and it just got a bit confusing to keep track of. Especially since characters are continuously manipulating Kira and their allegiances also seem to change quite a lot. You never really figure out who is on whose side until the final few chapters where it's all revealed.
That said, I do like quite a few of the characters. Kira was enjoyable though I do prefer her sisters Thora and Finna from the duology personally. They just felt like they were written a bit better character-wise. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find Kira to be annoying, personally (she's a fourteen-year-old who was just murdered and is now suddenly training to become a death guide. I think she deserves to be confused in this situation), but I don't think she was particularly well-written either. Just a decent protagonist, though I do absolutely approve of how her compassion for others was a major drive in the plot. You do root for her but I feel that Finna and Thora had more to them in the Dreamwalker duology.
That said, Kira's bond with her raven buddy Balthasar did feel more developed than the bond between Finna and her animal guides. They had a pretty sweet connection and it was all the more devastating when Kira is brutally ripped away from Balthasar without being able to say goodbye to him as she is re-incarnated and given a second change at life, no longer having to be a Valkyrie.
I also will say that, out of the three romances featured in the books that take place in this universe, Kira's relationship with Ragnar felt probably the best. Both Finna's and Thora's love interests in their respective books could be like...genuine assholes to them. Kira's love interest Ragnar did initially seem to start out in much the same way, with Ragnar being very dismissive and cold towards her, but they gradually warmed up to one another and it was pretty sweet. And of course he and her had to go through the same fate as with Balthasar where she's re-incarnated and can't properly say goodbye to him, since Ragnar is in the afterlife.
I also thought that the ending was really what elevated the book for me. I was about to just give it three stars because I thought it was just decent but didn't quite enjoy it as much as the Dreamwalker books. But then came the last few chapters. Everyone's motivations and true allegiances are revealed and Kira is (quite forcibly without being able to properly say goodbye to her friends in the afterlife) given a second chance at life. And then we cut to an epilogue where it's revealed that Kira has been re-incarnated into the younger sister of Thora and Finna, who never got to have a book of her own in the original duology.
That just...I don't know why, but it hit hard emotionally for me. When the duology ended I was already quite sad that the youngest sister never got a book of her own (since the series was so heavily focused around the two sisters and the third was never explored all that mucj\h), but this whole adventure in the afterlife where Kira has to figure herself out and makes friends, only to be forcibly re-incarnated into what is later revealed to be Thora and Finna's sister...That hit hard. And then in the epilogue we end up with her in her new life meeting Balthasar and Ragnar. Don't ask me how exactly, I don't think they ever explained it, but it was a very satisfying conclusion that elevated the book to a 3.5 stars for me.
Overall a good book, I think especially people who love Norse mythology will like it. I myself am not super interested in the subject but I like what the author did with it nonetheless. This is probably the weakest installment in the Dreamwalker-universe, but it's still good, obviously!
Rating: 3.5/5
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