Anyone who has read and enjoyed any of the previous 8 Cairo Jim/Jocelyn Osgood books will happily grab this one.  It has enough tongue in cheek adventures and awful puns to keep both old and new readers of the series delighted.

Best described as Indiana Jones-meets-Biggles, Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood adventures take us all around the world with such evocative titles as "Xylophones over Zarundi" and "The Sunken Sarcophagus of Sekheret".  While they are probably aimed at upper primary and lower secondary readers, adults can enjoy them very easily.

This one sees Jocelyn (intrepid Flight Attendant with Valkyrian Airlines), her pet axolotl Zsa Zsa and her make-up obsessed friend Joan Twilight journeying to the far north of Norway to return a strange old hammer.  Accompanied by the clumsy Harald Loddfafnir and pursued by the fiendish, but very short, Swartalfheim brothers, they risk train wrecks, icy wastes and flying chariots in their quest.

As Joan says "once Jocelyn Osgood, Valkyrie of the Skies, had set her mind on doing something, then nothing short of a massive earthquake combined with torrential rainstorms, annihilating landslides, monstrous tidal waves and four hundred ladders in her stockings would stop her"!

Along the way Geoffrey McSkimming manages a gentle message about taking art and artifacts from their original environments, and has a subtle dig at museums that do not respect the cultures they display.

But, all in all, "Ascent into Asgard" is a light-hearted story with a little suspense, a bit of danger, a lot of fun and an hilarious description of line dancing.  You do not have to have read any of the earlier stories to enjoy it, but you will probably want to afterwards!

Other titles in the series:
Cairo Jim and Doris in search of Martenarten : a tale of archaeology, adventure and astonishment
Cairo Jim on the trail to Cha Cha Muchos : an epic tale of rhythm
After the Puce Empress : a Jocelyn Osgood adventure
Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus of Sekheret : a tale of mayhem, mystery and moisture
Xylophones above Zarundi : a chaotic tale of melody
Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of the Forgotten Gods : a tale of disposable despicableness
Cairo Jim and the quest for the Quetzal Queen : a Mayan tale of marvels
Cairo Jim and the secret sepulchre of the Sphinx : a tale of incalculable inversion
Cairo Jim amidst the Petticoats of Artemis : a Turkish tale of treachery
Cairo Jim and the lagoon of tidal magnificence : a Sumatran tale of splendour
Cairo Jim and the tyrannical bauble of Tiberius: a tale of ancient atrocity
Cairo Jim and the Chaos from Crete: a tale of underground uncertainty
Cairo Jim's Bumper Book of Flabbergasting Fragments
Cairo Jim and the Rorting Of Rameses' Regalia

Review by David Beagley

© 1999 David Beagley