Gold Runner: A Novella of Goblins, Theft, and Teenage Gods (The United States of Asgard) by Tessa Gratton

Gold Runner: A Novella of Goblins, Theft, and Teenage Gods (The United States of Asgard) Reviews

• 
  Kay

  If you haven't read The Apple Throne, I'd be sure to read these stories first--The Apple Throne will spoil the plot of this one (and possibly the other two, though I've yet to read them). That doesn't make "Gold Runner" not worth reading--it's a good story and seeing the world through Amon's eyes is fascinating, but a lot of the urgency in the narrative is lost because I know exactly what's happening.
  
  It might just have been the way I read this (on my phone, because I was too lazy to unearth my forgotten NOOK), but the prose does get a little overbearing here. I liked it, in a sense, because it points to the secret romantic under Amon's jaded exterior. That said, I would read pages and pages of unending description on my phone, and that made the pace of the book a little trying.
  
  Amon himself is a wonder. The Apple Throne is Astrid's book, but he's very present there as well. Seeing him through his own eyes, though, is a different experience--all of the other USAsgard characters are at least somewhat straightforward. Amon doesn't say what he means if he can help it; Amon doesn't even know what he means half the time, and his occasional moments of honesty are almost all accidental. The two other characters who have significant presence in "Gold Runner" are amazing: what I wouldn't give for a novella for each of them.
  
  Eirfinna is so hard to get a handle on, and not in a bad way--she's not supposed to be human, and who only see her through Amon's eyes and, later, Astrid's. I think my biggest overarching critique of the entire USAsgard series is a lack of focus on the etinfolk--even the characters who had occasionally sympathy for them were sympathetic in a vague, sometimes baffling way. Seeing the world through an elf's eyes would've helped with that, I think.
  
  And, because I'm an embarrassing mess, let me talk about my favorite character in the entire series: Sune Rask. He's an important character for me because even though Gratton's USAsgard is just as capable as homophobia as our own, Sune is so open and chill about his orientation. I also love his personality: efficient, observant, but still so, so fallible. Sune fucks up left and right in this in such a human way; he's a jerk and he's dumb and, especially after seeing him so vulnerable in The Apple Throne, it's interesting to see Amon's perception of him.
  
  All that said, I wish there had been more. I'm not sure Gratton could've stretched the novella into a novel, but I wanted it to happen regardless. I wanted to actually see Amon and Thor interact, and I wanted to see Amon and Glory fight, I wanted to see Amon get the love he wants so badly (I forgot to say, but wow does Gratton write intimacy so, so well. I thought "Gold Runner" was going to get smutty once or twice and was actually disappointed it didn't).
• 
  Nicol

  You may be asking yourself, should I read this before or after
  The Apple Throne. Personally, I read it after but I am going to recommend that you read it before. It will introduce you to characters that are in the
  The Apple Throne and back stories they refer to and of course assume you know. Now if you are asking yourself whether or not you should it read it at all, that depends on whether on not you love Gratton's series - if you do then it is a must, if you are not all that impressed I don't think this is this the short story to change your mind but you never know . . .
• 
  Nancy The book junkie

  Rating: 3.25/5
  
  Review coming soon!
• 
  Kara

  I've had this novella on my to read list for a while, and I'm glad I waited to read it. I didn't like Amon very much when I read The Apple Throne. Now that I think back, my dislike of him is likely the source of my ambivalent response to the novel. Now that I've spent some time getting to know Amon, I'm ready to return to Astrid's story.
  
  Like the novels and other novellas set in the United States of Asgard, Gold Runner is richly and smartly detailed, and successfully avoids excessive, gimmicky, look-how-clever-I-am story-world building one often finds in less well-written alternate universes.
• 
  Veronica

  Pretty good, but not as good as the two full length books. The plot twist wasn't really a plot twist for me and I didn't like the ending.