Season of the Sun (Viking Novels) [Paperback]

Catherine Coulter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1991 | Series: Viking Novels (Book 4)

Dear Reader: Zarabeth, with hair as red as an Irish sunset, is chosen by Mgnus Haraldsson, a Viking on a trading visit to York, to be his wife. She is both stunned and fascinated by his bluntness, but is soon won over by this man who makes her laugh, brings her desire, and untimately makes her trust him with her future and that of her little sister, Lotti. But her stepfather, Olav the Vain, has no intention of setting a bride price on Zarabeth. Zarabeth does eventually return with Magnus to his farmstead in Morway, but as his slave, not as his wife. She wears the slave collar around her neck for all to see, but bears his distrust of her and her own pain deep within her. It is the season of the sun in Norway, the clear midnight light of summer. It is a season of growth and flowering, of treachery and malice, of love and learning. God lesning!-Good reading! 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's little pleasure in watching Coulter ( Earth Song ) torment and degrade her heroine throughout this tale set late in the first century. Magnus is a Viking farmer-merchant who does a bit of pillaging ``from time to time.'' On a trip to York he spies the beautiful Zarabeth and introduces himself with a proposal of marriage. The girl decides to accept, but her stepfather, Olav the Vain, who wants her in his own bed, blackmails her into rejecting Magnus's suit. No sooner does Olav wed her himself than he is poisoned by Toki, his daughter-in-law, who wants his riches. On learning that they were left to Zarabeth, Toki pins the crime on her. Magnus arrives in time to add his damaging testimony and persuade the court to make Zarabeth his slave instead of killing her. As Magnus sees it, ``Shepk had wronged him. She deserved to suffer for it, and she would.'' Accompanied by her young, deaf half-sister Lotti, Zarabeth sails for Norway to make a new life as Magnus's slave--the only one of the bunch to wear a slave collar--and mistress, plagued by his vicious and deceitful sister Ingunn.

Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Catherine Coulter lives in Northern California with her husband Anton and her cat Gilly, who's as old as her marriage.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Onyx; Revised edition (October 3, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451402626
• ISBN-13: 978-0451402622
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh House, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take and TailSpin. She lives in northern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Violent., February 7, 2004

By 

MaryGrace Meloche (Ontario, Canada.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Season of the Sun (Viking Novels) (Paperback)

Not long ago, I watched a special on " PBS " viewing the Viking onslaught into new territories, taking into account the tales of violence, plunder, and rape. Similar facts must have helped Catherine Coulter write this book. This novel may entice the reader's interest, but it is a violent story.

The male lead, Magnus Haraldsson, is a rugged, handsome Viking. On a trading mission to York, Haraldsson encounters a beautiful, statuesque, redhead known as Zarabeth and the warrior wants her! And Zarabeth wants him!

Now the issue, Catherine Coulter may have written a book but she didn't fill it with romance. Zarabeth has the "smarts" of a turnip; easily her lustful stepfather manipulates her. Sorrowfully Zarabeth rejects the marriage offer made by her dashing Viking warrior. With revenge and hatred, a subdued Magnus buys Zarabeth for his slave. Sadly, Zarabeth realizes Magnus Haraldsson has changed . . . .

--- "Zarabeth . . . I am going to take you, and I don't wish you to fight me" . . . He gritted his teeth . . . her eyes were no longer vague . . . there was only fear now, and he smiled . . . "Now, hold still" . . . he felt her fists pounding at his chest . . . but he didn't stop . . . she was crying." - - -

This is rape. Catherine Coulter has truly written a disturbing story.

They published the edition I read in 1991 and the story followed the same guidelines all romance novels of the era seemed to follow. Thank you authors for moving forward into today's style -- stories showing flexible storylines -- characters existing on equal playing fields.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Definitely not one of her better books, October 31, 2000

By 

Challott (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Season of the Sun (Viking Novels) (Paperback)

I can always tell when I am reading one of Catherine Coulter's earlier works. I started reading her books with her later work and thought I'd enjoy her earlier stuff, too. Boy, was I wrong. Apparently, at this point in her life, Catherine Coulter was much too influenced by the genre common to so many of the 70's and 80's romances. She would have us believe that, after being raped repeatedly by Magnus, Zarabeth would feel anything tender for him? For 2/3's of the novel, Magnus treats Zarabeth with contempt and barely controlled rage and we are supposed to believe that this is conducive to inspiring love and faith in him? Not likely.

Also, I know that Catherine Coulter's writing style today is much, much better, but I have to say that the dialogues in Season of the Sun were clipped and the character developement was horrible, with much left to the reader to fill in.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It was OK, I guess...., March 13, 2007

By 

Mari (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Season of the Sun (Viking Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

I didn't think that it was such a terrible book, like many here stated but it is not one of the best. Personally, I would like the alpha male hero that's often dark and brutish. Rolfe in Brenda Joyce's "Conqueror" is an excellent example. However, Magnus didn't quite measure up. He tortures Zarabeth for the better part of the book for no good reason other that she refused to marry him after initially accepting his offer, and he is now pissed. Also, there were at least two (and possibly more) instances when "...his fist connected with her jaw". The woman likely had no teeth left by the end of this book. Was that the ONLY way he could shut her up? I didn't find that very appealing or romantic.