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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The Norns of Fate are weaving still, and I was a Norseman now", March 6, 2010
This review is from: Raven, Blood Eye (Paperback)
I ordered this book from amazon.uk because I did not see it available at the time. Looks like it is available in the US now, which is great.
I found the 1st 50-pages torturous, as I slogged through a young writer's plodding character development. Once our main man takes to a long ship, the story picks up and I slew the book in 2-days. The story takes place around 790 AD, which is largely considered the start of the Viking Age, though it likely began considerably sooner. It begins with an outcast, our main man, in a small English coastal dung-hole of a village who does not remember his childhood. I'm not sure but it could be loosely based on the early Viking raid on the monestary at Lindisfarne.
Raven has to pay his dues before he is accepted into an elite band of raiders. Eventually the teach him their fighting arts and he discovers a natural talent for war as he adventures across Wessex and Mercia. At times the story gave me deja vu, like I was back with Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred. Then there is the ship "Fjord Elk"; great name for a ship but it transported me straight back to Robert Low's "The Whale Road".
One nice thing I can say is, while some of the sentence structure could use some work, the book is well edited. One small grievance with these English writers, you need to join with the rest of the world and differentiate between "corn", an New World food, and wheat, what you are actually referring to. Its kind of like stubbornly insisting on driving on the wrong side of the road, which the rest of the world has rejected.
The book is filled with graphic violence, and profanity that was often so colorful I had to wonder as to the historical realism. Once the adventure got going it kept my attention and on balance I thought this was an excellent first novel filled with lots of good characters. I plan to start book II tonight. Enjoy.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not good enough, September 6, 2010
Being a Norwegian who reads allot of historical fiction I decided to read this book. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed.
Many compare this book to Bernard Cornwells books, but where Cornwell is a brilliant writer and storyteller who portrays vivid characters with depth, Kristians characters are mostly extraordinarily one-dimensional.
The Vikings laugh, kill and drink. They are all supreme fighters and they keep mentioning the gods at every possible opportunity. Then they laugh some more, kill some more and drink some more, before they yet again show of their supreme fighting skill, deftly followed with a mention of the gods. Further on in the story they do it all again, and again, and again.....repeat sequence seven times or so, and you will essentially have read the story. Skirmish heaped on drinking heaped on skirmish heaped on boring plot heaped on skirmish heaped on drinking. In an effort to try to compare it with something equally monumentally boring and repetitive, the first thing that comes to mind is the TV-show "The Pacific", whose characters possibly outfight Kristians characters in terms of lack of depth and personality.
Bernard Cornwell has given us characters like Uther of Bebbanburg, Lord Derfel Cadarn and Nicolas Hook. Persons with doubts, fears, love and hate. On top of this Cornwell dives rather more into the politics, ideas and bigger picture of the time. All this he succeeds in mixing beautifully into exciting books. Kristian has mostly succeeded in portraying a bunch of staggering alcoholics and sociopaths(come to think of it, it's possibly an even bigger feat not to manage to get something entertaining out of that mix) to the degree that I must wonder how much Mr. Cornwell actually was paid to recommend this book.
However, I can not speak for the last 30 pages or so, because by that time I simply was not interested in reading the end. To put down a book before I have read it to end has only happened two times before in my life, and I have read allot of books. That sums it up for me, you do the rest of the math.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standing in the ShieldWall., September 21, 2010
Great story with great characters.I liked this book big time.You really get caught up in the story and feel as if you yourself are standing in the shieldwall.Waiting for the enemy to attack and stoking up the anger needed to eradicate your fear.Bring on the slaughter...........Bring on part 2.
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