Descendants of the Norse gods are alive and well in Blackwell, S.Dak. The children of Thor tend to be large, blond football players who end up with careers in law enforcement and local government. Children of the trickster god Loki are more inclined to get into trouble. In Loki's Wolves, Armstrong and Marr set the stage for a modern-day confrontation between the Champion of Thor and the Midgard Serpent--over nothing less than Ragnarök, the end of the world.
Matt, descendant of Thor, has mostly been a disappointment to his family. He's smaller than his brothers, and just not good at the kinds of things at which Thorsens excel. But somehow Matt gets chosen as Champion, the one called to stand in for Thor in the final battle. Classmates Fen and Laurie, descendants of Loki, enter the fray when they join forces with Matt, and begin searching for children of the other Norse gods: Frey and Freya, Balder and Odin. Along the way, they discover powers they never knew they possessed. Together, they fight against wolves, trolls, serpents and all the evil monsters who want to see civilization end in another ice age.
This first installment of a planned trilogy takes some patience as the authors set up the world and get things going. But once the plot takes off, readers will be thoroughly engaged with the well-drawn characters and nonstop action. Left with a cliffhanger, they will certainly be clamoring for the sequel. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators