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I think I'm having a small crush on Atticus O'Sullivan. These Iron Druid books provide the perfect blend of light-hearted fun, and some dark and serious moments. And I adore how Atticus is equal parts cheeky, cocky, charming and compassionate. He is my favourite urban fantasy lead character right now and I don't see that changing any time soon.

As the title suggests, this volume is predominantly about the Norse pantheon, and in particular, Thor, as Atticus has to deliver upon his promise to the vampire, Leif Helgarson, in return for the latter's assistance in dealing with the German witches in the previous book. Given that Thor had been a major asshole throughout the centuries, it appeared that quite a few other supernatural personalities have a score to settle with the Norse god of thunder. One of them was Gunnar Magnusson, the alpha werewolf of the Tempe pack. As Atticus, Leif and Gunnar got together to journey to Asgard, the ensuing interaction between the three of them had me giggling, chuckling and even laughing out loud. While the humour in these books can be a tad childish at times, it is mostly witty in my opinion, and laced with both pop culture and literary references.

Before departing for the suicidal mission to Asgard - in spite of an ominous warning from an omnipotent and very important Deity, Atticus had a few goodbyes to say and these made for some touching moments. For a dude who has lived for about a couple of millenia, I can only imagine how it feels like to be emotionally attached to the more ephemeral mortals.

There are certain encounters that one knows will never be repeated so long as one lives.... Other times escape our notice, slipping by while we are preoccupied, and we do not appreciate their enormity until it's too late to do anything but regret that we had not paid more attention in the present.

In this book, we finally learn about some of the horrible things that Thor had done to warrant the vengeful hatred that so many harboured against him. Definitely not the heroic and honourable Thor we know from the Marvel comics and movies.

With a significant part of the narrative taking place away from Tempe, everyone's favourite Irish wolfhound, Oberon, was unfortunately absent for a large chunk of the story. This was compensated somewhat by some of the most amusing moments in the series so far when the avenging party landed in Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants. Let's just say that I will never ever view the song "It's A Small World" the same again.

Thanks to the Norse/Icelandic language, this book contains words with the hardest pronunciation I've seen or heard in the series. Try saying the name of this Icelandic town out loud 'Kirkkjubaejarklaustur'. And of course, Luke Daniels nailed it. I don't know how much practice he needed to get in though.

In short, I'm loving it!