Freya is a normal girl of our modern time, but Christianity doesn't exist and the people believe in Thor, Woden, Freyja, Frigg, and all the Viking Gods. But, when Freya is left in a room of the British Museum with the Lewis Chess pieces and a magical horn, she is transported into Valhalla itself and meets the Gods she thought no one would ever see. She soon finds herself plunging head-first into a world of adventure, where she will escape giants, flee fire and outwit dragons…

I thought the beginning of the plot to this story was very imaginative and original and found the Lewis Chess pieces really interesting. However, I didn't like the style the story was written in - I thought there were way too many adjectives, and often they were repetitive.

I also thought the storyline was quite depressing, and I was disappointed, because the beginning was so promising. When I was about 50 pages away from the ending, I stopped reading it for a few months and eventually forced myself to finish the book so that I could review it. I'm not against stories that include danger and sadness, but there was just too much misery and it seemed to never end.

It was a shame that Ms. Simon wrote the story in the way that she did, because if some of the depressing moments had been taken out, it would have been a much better book. I think you have to know about the Viking culture to be able to understand more about this book and I'd suggest it to over 10 year-olds.

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