The Year Of The Warrior [Mass Market Paperback]

Lars Walker (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is not for spiritual sissies . . . rowdy action and a realistic look at the human and spiritual costs of religious and cultural conversion".

-- Florida Today

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Baen (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671578618
• ISBN-13: 978-0671578619
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lars Walker is a native of Kenyon, Minnesota and a graduate of Augsburg College, Minneapolis. He grew up on a farm, and has worked as a crab meat packer in Alaska, a mail clerk, an administrative assistant, and a radio announcer, and is now librarian and bookstore manager for the schools of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations in Minneapolis. He is editor of the Journal of the Georg Sverdrup Society, and is a Viking reenactor and Norwegian translator. His website is www.larswalker.com, and he blogs at www.brandywinebooks.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, February 29, 2000

By 

Gregory T. Dougherty (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Year Of The Warrior (Mass Market Paperback)

I wasn't expecting much from this book. Happily, my expectations were far too low. This book was just plain fun. It was also incredibly thought provoking, and an introduction to a part of history about which I know little.

I'm not going to say much about the book, because I think you should read it, and don't want to give any spoilers. But I will say that "Father" Aillil is a very good main character. He is a human being, with human failings and weaknesses, who manages to grow, to learn, and to become a better person, all the while giving us a good perspective on what's going on around him. While I don't agree with him on everything (to start with, I'm not even a Christian :-) ), his thoughts and beliefs brought me new things to think about. A truly wonderful gift from the author.

Buy it, you won't regret it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heroic fantasy that stands out from others, January 1, 2001

By 

Extollager (Mayville, ND United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Year Of The Warrior (Mass Market Paperback)

Too many recent fantasies seem to have been written by authors who know other recent fantasies -- and that's about all they have to draw upon.

Not Lars Walker! Walker is telling his own story -- and what a storyteller he is -- but his imagination is drawing on a much richer compost than (it seems to me) most authors command. Walker knows the Icelandic sagas, and has adapted the terse saga style for the modern fantasy reader. Thus he provides us with a series of memorable supernatural incidents -- pagan gods, werewolves, ghosts -- and battle scenes, but he doesn't "write them up" in pulp magazine style. You may find yourself going back and reading again some of these scenes, to savor how really eerie or violent they are. His locales are generally convincing; they do not seem to have been invented by a writer who is making things up as he goes along.

There's human depth here, too. Walker gets me interested in characters without halting the story for extended patches to "work up" the description of the person. Here are men and women with blood in their veins.

I'm teaching an undergraduate course on modern fantasy. If I'd known of this book in time to include it in the reading list -- where it would have been in the company of Tolkien, Le Guin, and Peake -- I'd almost certainly have done so. I would have liked to include an example of really worthwhile swords-and-sorcery fantasy -- and that's what we have here!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent look at religious issues, June 26, 2000

By 

Mrs. Donihue (Clear Lake Riviera, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year Of The Warrior (Mass Market Paperback)

My husband and I have read books aloud together for years, and science fiction and fantasy is our favorite genre for this purpose. Our latest completed endeavor: "The Year of the Warrior" by Lars Walker.

Not only is this book great entertainment, which is what a good fantasy novel should be, but it offers a complex and unflinching look at various religious issues (i.e. the conflict between following the teachings of Christ while forcing others to submit to the same).

Through the eyes of the book's narrator, Father Aillil, Walker offers a first-hand look at an intriguing period of history - the supplanting of Pagan beliefs by the spread of Christianity, in this case in Norway.

As the old beliefs and gods conflict with the new, Father Aillil must wrestle with his own inner demons and come to grips with his own secret sin.

I fear to say more may give away too much. Suffice to say, I encourage you to buy this book. Read it with someone you love, and it may provoke some very thoughtful discussions.