The Testament of Loki

By: Joanne M. Harris

Narrated by: Allan Corduner

In the sequel to The Gospel of Loki, Loki’s adventures continue when he finds a way out of the end of the world and plans to restart the power of the Norse gods.

The end of the world—also known as Ragnarok to the Norse gods—has occurred, and Loki has been trapped in a seemingly endless purgatory, in torture, until he finds a way to escape. It seems that he still exists in the minds of humanity and uses that as a way to our time.

Back in the ninth world (Earth), Loki finds himself sharing the mind of a teenage girl named Jumps, who is a bit of a mess. She’s also not happy about Loki sneaking his way into her mind since she was originally calling on Thor. Worse, her friends have also been co-opted by the gods: Odin, Jump’s one-eyed best friend in a wheelchair, and Freya, the pretty one. Thor escapes the netherworld as well and shares the mind of a dog, and he finds that it suits him.

Odin has a plan to bring back the Norse gods ascendancy, but Loki has his own ideas on how things can go—and nothing goes according to plan.

Definitely a change from the first book

It took me a while to figure out this storyline. When I did, it was pretty exciting - I've played such games before, and I saw a lot of potential here. Potential that was alas unrealized.

The story had some nuggets of brilliance but the execution was a bit disjointed and choppy. Adding to that was the fact that midway through the book, perhaps shortly after the first half, the narrator inexplicably started to change the voices up.

Had it been only one character, I might have thought it was just me remembering wrong - though as I've worked as an audiobook technical editor on lengthy works before (double digit hours), I'm pretty tuned in to voice changes during the course of a narration. I noted three distinct and consistent changes, with about two others that were occasional in nature. It got noticeable enough that I started to get confused in an already fuzzy plot, as I couldn't tell which character was speaking.

Despite the above, I thoroughly enjoy this depiction of Loki and the Aesir/Vanir overall, and it was nice to return to Loki as portrayed by Alan. Always makes me smile.

As a side note, I think my favorite part of all came towards the end, when there was a lovely hat-tip (unreferenced) to the Voluspa when the question is asked, "Do you need to know more?" (Can't discuss context without spoilers, but the circumstances were spot-on for the question.) Hail the knower!

Influenced by Good Omens??

Loved the narrator! I enjoyed the story, though not as much as the first book in the series. I was left wondering how much Ms. Harris was influenced by Gaiman & Pratchett in Good Omens. Loki, into Testament, has a lot in common with Crowley from Good Omens.

Such a Great Book!

Joanne Harris has a way of writing that flows so well with Allan Corduner's narrating that I was invested by the start and was on the edge of my seat!

A fitting sequel to "The Gospel..."

...replete with familiar gods and their "ways" and the excellent performance of Allan Corduner coupled with the ingenious mind of Joanne M. Harris, propelling the old work into this one. Seamlessly written, superbly delivered. No spoilers.

slow start, but great finish

it was a struggle to get through the first dozen chapters. but developed into a great read. Couldn't put it down after that.