Runelight

The Old Gods have settled into life in the quiet village of Malbry, but the world is not done with them yet. Prophecy will out, wolves will rise and riders will ride; Carnage, Treachery and Lunacy astride steeds of fire, sea and air. Ragnarok is coming, again; even with the aid of a newly discovered twin, this time Maddy may not be able to cheat the immortal malevolence of the Whisperer, and the aid of her sister Maggie is not something to be counted on.

Joanne Harris's sequel to Runemarks ramps up the emotional hurt while maintaining a strong blend of modern irreverence and mythic resonance. At the core of the story is the idea of the language that makes the world, and in particular of the emergence of the new script to replace that which was crippled at Ragnarok.

Unfortunately, the increased focus on the shenanigans of the travelling gods - an unwieldy party consisting of seven Vanir, six Aesir, three wolves, a dodgy witch, a surly dwarf and Loki - detracts from the role of Maddy, the protagonist of Runemarks, leaving her to wander kind of lost through most of the book and failing to be either an effective soldier or a committed rebel. Maggie, meanwhile, is a poor substitute, a mystical powerhouse but the pawn of manipulative men pretty much throughout the story.

Runelight is not a bad book and has a lot to recommend it, but it isn't as strong and Runemarks by some way.