Customer Reviews

Attila's Treasure

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is a companion to Rhinegold and details the events of the life of Hagan, who is sent to live with Atilla as a foster-hostage. Well written and researched like any of Grundy's novles, you find yourself transported into the time he writes of, and find yourself empathising with the charachters. Hagan, the ultimate introvert, is portraied in a sensitive and understanding way, showing the intense emotion which is felt by those who are often misunderstood, and thought to be without feeling and less than human.

The strong history in this book and wonderful descriptions of surroundings show the culture clashes experienced by the charachters within. It's a story of cross-culture friendships, and tolerance and understanding of your friends even when you don't understand or nesicarily agree with practices of your friends. It is also a story of dangerous forbidden love and longing.

As one who practices Asatru, norse religion, I was delighted at the realistic and true way in which the religions and magic are portraied. Those who enjoyed this may also be interrested to know that the author of these books is a scholar who has also writen books on Asatru under the penname 'Kveldulf Gundarsson' and his books are "Teutonic Magic" and "Teutonic Religion".

Having experienced The Rings at the opera, I thought I would never want to know more about German mythology, but Grundy does a fine job of bringing them to life. Entertaining read, he never falls pray to that second rate writer's ploy of simply making the plot follow one battle after another, interspersed only with bedroom scenes - he made an honest attempt at characterization and I didn't find the foreign terms unsettling at all - they were usually obvious in the context. In order to get a 5, you have to live through time, like Anna Karenina, but other than that, worth reading. It gives me some small insight into the kind of fatalism behind a culture that can throw itself heart and soul into wars and lost causes seemingly springing from nothing more than a bizarre sense of fealty.

It had everything I like; historical information tied with a historical fable and actual events, similar views of religion, battles, politics, and a darker side of story telling e.g. good and bad die. That might be a run on sentence but, I do not care. It was a very good book. I would read this book first though. I say this because Hagan will not appear such an evil person read this way. It will also get you ready for the explantions of the gods in Rhinegold. Both Rhinegold and Attila's Treasure intertwine a lot.

Perhaps because the author of this book is well-versed in history and early Teutonic myth and religion, the "world" the characters inhabit seems extremely real and believeable. The treatment of the religion and philosophical views of the characters is particularly strong.

I enjoyed the main character, Hagan, and wished the story would go on longer so we could learn more about him. It would have been nice to see more of his home life, as well.

The book reminded me of some of Heinlein's earlier works where a self-reliant man virtuously sticks to duty & uses his common sense, ultimately succeeding in life.

It is far, far better than most sword & hero books out there lately.

This is not just another "costume drama"; it's a fine example of how historical fiction should be written: entertaining but based on good historical scholarship. Equally satisfying to fans of romance and swashbuckling, Attila's Treasure also displays the author's insight into the restrictions that society, whether Pagan or Christian, puts on the individual's desires for self-fulfillment. The book's character development is such that readers can empathize with even the villains in this book. The clash between the dying Pagan culture and the rising Christian world are examined through the main characters. For example, the heathen Hagan disapproves his best friend Waldhari's betrayal of his lord for the love of Attila's woman, Hildegund. Conversely, Waldhari's strict Catholic upbringing undoubtedly must prevent him from accepting Hagan's homosexuality. Yet, unlike most of the other characters in the book, the two young princes' comradeship and mutual trust, forged in sharing the warrior's life, ultimately prove stronger than their differences in religious faith and culture.

Readers looking for heroic adventures and mighty warriors set against the turmoil of the Migration Age will not be disappointed. But it is the struggle of Hagan, a young man coming to age in a time of great upheavals in politics, religion and culture that makes this story so compelling. We see beyond the dark and brooding Hagan of Grundy's earlier Rhinegold, into the heart of the man who must learn to balance honor and loyalty to his people with his own spiritual journey. Grundy lets us share the journey as Hagan grows into his dual birthright of princely duty and shamanistic power. If you liked Rhinegold, you will love Attila's treasure.

I really liked this book, and I find it somewhat upsetting that only a few years after it's release it is no longer in print. If you are interested in Norse/Germanic mythology or late Roman and early medieval history, you would do well in finding this book and it's author's other work "Rhinegold".
There a few tiny inaccuracies, my main complaint being weak etymology. There is enough written about the Gothic language and its relationship to other Germanic languages that the author could have easily avoided preposterous reconstructions like 'Donars' for ON Žórr, OE Žunor. But such mistakes are trivial minutia and I'm really just being picky.
It was interesting to see (for the first time in a fictional novel that I'm aware of) a character who exhibited the male/female inversion typical in ancient Germanic belief of the practice of seir - or *saižs as the Goths may have called it (if they called it at all). It was a highly engrossing book with a grim and unsettling tone when dealing with the otherworld (a nice touch). The somber and archaic atmosphere fits the main character and setting perfectly. Pick it up, you won't be dissapointed.

This is better than Rhinegold. Grundy does better when dealing with a shorter time span (several years). Hagan's bisexual feelings for Saganova and Waldhari are portrayed sensitively; as a bisexual myself, I appreciated this. Also, his wariness of Attila and loyalty to the Gebicung house are very understandable. Grundy clearly shows how Hagan got shafted; he was sent as a hostage to Attila to keep the peace, yet was recalled to marry a Christian woman and was not allowed to take the official place of the Sinwist (high priest) as he requested. Grundy shows the conflicts between the Romans and the tribes, between the Christians and pagans. He sensitively treats the love between Hildegund and Waldhari. I highly recommend this book.

The hunnish people is one of the most intriguing happening of the history of humanity. Being a fan of fiction-literature, I noticed how nonexistent were books of fiction with huns as being the main subject, and I was also surprised to find "Attila's treasure" in a used bookstore. The title caught my attention at first, with two words (Attila and treasure) that I always find interesting. The cover, though, reminded me of some of those bad books intended for young and innocent female teenagers. However, it was being sold by a nice price, and I bought it.

I had two surprises. Clearly the author (unknown to me until then) deeply understands the ways of medieval germanic and hunnish culture, or (it also can be possible) he deceived me like no one before. There are detailed and numerous scenes of the behavior of the germanic people in a time where the Huns where threatening the borders of the Roman Empire, and also description of the way romans, goths and huns made alliances and enmities furing the fifth century. I think I got what I wanted, to learn something about the huns in a book of fictions. This is the good surprise.

The bad surprise is that I, like most people, I think, thought that there was only one historical Attila, the maddened hunnish warlord that invaded and sacked Rome permiting the goths to divide what was left of the Western Roman Empire among themselves, and I thought this was the Attila whose name was on the title of the book. Through the first hundred pages of the book I felt something was strange, than skipped to the afternote by the author in the end of the book. There my suspicions became true. Grundy's book is not about the historical Attila, it's about one other Attila, fictional, born and living some twenty to thirty years before the real one. However, through the story, by way of historical characters that appear on the book, Grundy gives hints about the coming of the real Attila (there's a character in the book, a strong warrior named Rua, whose wife is told by the shaman of the huns she will give birth to three of the most important sons the hunnish people will ever have; Rua was the name of the father of the real Attila). When I learned this, I thought the book was a deceipt, but I thought better and continued to read because it was a nice written and told story about medieval ways, sword-fighting, magic, etc.

I liked Grundy's style and the way he seems to know what he's writing about.

Grade 8.2/10

Grundy has done what good historical fiction should always do--he has transported the reader back in time. This is the sort of book that makes you feel as if you are inside the novel, not just observing the actions but walking alongside the heros.