The Edda of Burdens - La série

It all began with Ragnarok, with the Children of the Light and the Tarnished ones battling to the death in the ice and the dark. At the end of the long battle, one Valkyrie survived, wounded, and one valraven – the steeds of the valkyrie. Because they lived, Valdyrgard was not wholly destroyed. Because the valraven was transformed in the last miracle offered to a Child of the Light, Valdyrgard was changed to a world where magic and technology worked hand in hand. 2500 years later, Muire is in the last city on the dying planet, where the Technomancer rules what’s left of humanity. She's caught sight of someone she has not seen since the Last Battle: Mingan the Wolf is hunting in her city.

For five hundred years the immortal Children of the Light, einherjar and valkyrie, have lived together in the North of Valdyrgard. They were born out of the Sea, each with a shining crystal sword in his or her hand; they are Angels of Light created in the formation of a new world. But three have come before them, from the death-throes of the old world, Midgard: the world-girdling Serpent, Bearer of Burdens; the Wolf Fenris, eater of the Sun, who now takes the form of an einherjar; and his demon sister, stealer of souls. The Children spend their days feasting, fighting, hunting, and guarding their human charges. But one dreadful day a woman is washed up from the sea, a Lady who is no mortal, though she is not valkyrie either. Thus begins the breaking of the Children of the Light, the tarnishing of their power, and the death of Valdyrgard. By the Mountain Bound is a prequel to Elizabeth Bear’s highly acclaimed All the Windwracked Stars, and tells the painful tale of love and betrayal, sorcery and battle, that led up to the day when Muire was left alone in the snow at the end of the world.

Cette suite directe de All the Windwracked Stars d'Elizabeth Bear reprend l'histoire quelque cinquante ans après que Muire soit entré dans la mer et soit devenu le nouveau Bearer of Burdens. Belle Cathoair, maintenant un ange guerrier immortel, a été rappelé à la ville d'Eiledon pour élever son fils - le fils de Muire aussi, jeté sur la rive comme un bébé. C'est apparemment une vie tranquille. Mais le danger mortel approche ... la déesse maléfique Heythe, qui a machiné la mort de Valdyrgard, a voyagé en avant dans le temps sur son coursier arc-en-ciel. Elle s'attendait à se réjouir d'un monde mort, la preuve de sa vengeance, mais à la place elle trouve un pays ravivé, renouvelé par le sacrifice de Muire. Elle se vengera en forçant ce nouveau Porteur de fardeaux à violer ses serments et à briser ses limites et à provoquer ainsi la fin vraie et définitive de Valdyrgard. Elle le fera en tourmentant Cathoair et son fils Cathmar. Mais Mingan, le loup gris, voit son ancien ennemi, Heythe, revenir. Il ne permettra pas que cela se reproduise.