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David McK (3425 KP) rated Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5) in Books

Oct 18, 2024 (Updated Oct 18, 2024)

This is the final(?) entry in Angus Donald's 'Fire Born' series about the Viking berserker Bjarki Bloodhand in the time of Charlemagne, a series which - will enjoyable enough - has never *quite* managed to hit the heights of his Robin Hood 'Outlaw Chronicles' series of novels.

Here, we have Bjarki living a quiet life at the start of the novel, before events transpire to drag him - and his sister Tor - back into the conflict between the Christian Franks and the pagan Danes/Saxons, events that culminate in one of the few Frankish (temporary) defeats.

Worth a read? Yes.
As good as the Outlaw Chronicles series? No.

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David McK (3425 KP) rated Northlanders Book 1: The Anglo-Saxon Saga (Northlanders, Book 1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Boy, was that violent - if this was a movie, it would probably be given an '18' (or 'R'estricted, for those Americans out there) rating, not just for the blood, guts and gore, but also for the - occassional - nudity, and the not-so-occassional language.

Actually a collection of 5 different short stories, I can't say how true to history these are as I'm not a Norse scholar. I also found the vernacular a bit off-putting (were swear-words the same in the early Medieval Period as they are now? Really??), with the art-style (and plot) in some of the stories were better than in others. Talking of stories, this contains the following:

[b]Lindisfarne[/b]: depicting an early Viking raid on the monastery of the same name
[b]The Shield Maidens[/b]: in which three Viking women hold off hordes of the Saxons
[b]Sven the Returned[/b]: in which Sven returns to his homeland to claim his inheritance, having previously run away and joined the Byzantine Varangian Guard
[b]Thor's daughter[/b]: in which a clan leader is murdered and his land sold to a rival leader but his 14 year old daughter takes up his mantle and leads an army against the encroaching Vikings
[b]The Cross & The Hammer[/b]: Set in Ireland, this is more-or-less a murder mystery in which the central character is trying to track down the person(s) responsible for a spate of killings.

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Ross (3284 KP) rated You Die When You Die in Books

Jan 21, 2020

You Die When You Die

Angus Watson | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Fantastic witty pre-historic Viking / Native American fantasy

This is the alternative-reality story of the Hardworkers, a small clan of Viking descendants in pre-Columbian North America. A mentally-damaged young boy in the clan has a premonition that the village will be attacked and they should head west. When the village is indeed attacked by natives (who themselves had a premonition of these Vikings ending the world), the clan quickly up-sticks and head off.
There follows a brilliant, exciting, funny story of this small clan with mixed abilities (some well trained warriors, some powerful yet cowardly warlocks, some useless wastes of space) travelling across North America, hunted by the magically-enhanced warriors sent to end them, and meeting numerous clans and tribes along the way.
The wonderful merging of plausible pre-history America and a more familiar fantasy setting (prophecies, evil empires, warriors) results in this superb story. The dialogue is witty and funny, the world is familiar yet strange enough to make you think, and the action sequences are fantastically narrated, often from different viewpoints.
The characters are all very well crafted and unique, and their interactions and conflicts really spur this story on.
I would urge anyone keen on fantasy to read this book. While the cover, and title, may suggest it is a brutal slobberknocker of a book, it is actually very clever, funny and thrilling.
I cannot wait to jump in to the next book in this trilogy. Wootah!!!