A Stranger North

The Northland Chronicles #1

by Henry J. Olsen

Nine years ago, the Desolation laid waste to Earth’s human population, leaving only tiny, scattered pockets of civilization in its wake. Now, John Osborne drifts through the ravaged land, his only companion the six-shooter at his side.

When a young girl finds John unconscious in the northern Minnesota wilderness, she urges her village to help him. But while John is regaining his health, the girl mysteriously vanishes. Recognizing that the disappearance is no mere coincidence, John takes it upon himself to find and bring her back safely.

Outmanned and outgunned, the deck appears to be stacked against John. Little do his adversaries know that he has a turbo-charged bionic surprise lurking under his left sleeve...

Genres: Science Fiction

109 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2013

About the author

Like all successful authors, (soon-to-be) bestselling author Henry J. Olsen writes what he knows.

Henry knows adventure. He's backpacked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He's scaled the summit of Mt. Fuji. He's braved the Black Omen.

Henry knows technology. He's been surfing the net since his dad brought home a 9600 baud modem. He graduated college with a degree in Mathematics.

Henry knows the world. He's lived in Japan and Korea. He enjoys foreign books, comics, and games before they're translated.

Henry knows conflict. He and his editor are forever at war over which of his words will appear in print. Though the deletions are mounting, Henry sincerely hopes this war continues for decades to come.

Henry currently writes, eats, and sleeps in southern Taiwan. You can follow him via his blog, simplyunbound.com.

Reviews

[Clouds · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't recall another book I've given just 2-stars to, but still felt so enthusiastic about..!

Disclaimer:
I was gifted a free copy of A Stranger North in return for an honest review.

About the Author:
99% of self-published authors looking to promote their work on Goodreads should get in touch with Henry J. Olsen for some tips. This is my third year as a Goodreads reviewer, but only the second time I've taken up an offer to review a self-published book. Friendly, low pressure, kept in touch despite me taking over a year to get around to his book; seems like a genuinely nice guy.

So what's the book about?
1. This is a novella, so it's pretty much straight to the point, and all-over in a few bitesize chunks.
2. It's a post-apocalyptic, western-tinged adventure - Brin's The Postman is an easy reference point.
3. It's about a wandering hero, being stalked by 'government' forces, arriving in an isolated town. The innocent smallfolk of the town are put in danger, as bait to lure him to an outpost where the badguys can deliver a message - inviting him to come meet them.
... and that's about it.

Come on then, why only 2 stars?
*sigh* This is hard. I'm a little brain-dead tonight. Ok, I'll try.

Imagine you're watching an amateur football match, and you're totally wrapped up the game. You judge the players in relation to each other, to who else is on the field. The defence is a bit creaky. That forward's got electric pace, etc. You don't judge them in relation to the pros, because they're not playing in the same game.
Books don't work like that. Every author is playing in the same game. So when Henry J Olsen steps up to do his thing, I'm comparing him to his peers at the very top end of the spectrum. David Brin won a Locus Sci-Fi award for The Postman, but I only gave that 3 stars because wandering hero adventures aren't my favourite flavour - too episodic, too prone to archetypal/clichéd encounters. Sure, they can be done well - Stephen King set the bar with the Gunslinger saga, but he created a whole post-apocalyptic fantasy multiverse for his flawed hero to wander through. However nice a guy Henry is, he's not yet competing with the big boys.

Give me some specifics:
1 - The prose is solid, but some of the words are a little repetitious and jar.
There are 11 smirks in just 95 pages of story.
There are 9 crept/creeping/creeps.
These ratios aren't 'bad-writing', but they're the kind of thing a good editor would've caught.

2 - For a short novella the focus is awful dilute - however brief some are, I think we hit six or seven different character POVs in that 95 pages (John, Emiko, Nathan.. Ramses, The General... Aristotle at the end... and the barman at the beginning?) If I were editing, I'd push back on that. We need the audience to buy into the main thread, and that's John (the wandering hero) or Nathan (the homestead big-brother who needs the heroes help to save his sister). Pick one of those and give them 90% of the air-time. Sell them. Win us over. Sure, the whole cast is kinda interesting, and it's great that you want to tell all those stories, but if you've only got 95 pages to spend you've got to put all your eggs in one basket.

3 - Hero overpowered vs Antagonist underpowered. The evil sidekicks were comic relief - it's even flagged by the 'victim' that they're pathetic. The fact that the our hero gets some karmic assistance (angry mama bear!) in dispatching them just left me feeling sorry for them. And the head badguy on the scene is just clueless, uninformed, and totally out-gunned. This is never a challenge for the big man, John.

4 - Unrealistic. The safe return of the girl, Emiko is not relevant to the evil scheme. If this were a grittier scenario, well... have you ever seen the movie written by the musician Nick Cave called The Proposition? It's a wild west style movie, set in the 1880s. That film is brutal... but feels way more 'real' than A Stranger North. Emiko would've been gang raped as soon as those three rednecks grabbed her.

5 - Plot hole. If the end goal is to deliver a message, why not just walk up to him and deliver the message. Or send the girl back with the message. Why kidnap the girl, invite John to come out and rescue her, get your idiot sidekicks killed - and then deliver the message? Makes no sense.

So... why do you stay you're still positive?
Because there's potential here. None of the specific issues listed above would have made it past a forceful editor.
The ebb and flow of the story, the little details and nuances are all solid. The vision, the tone, the atmosphere, world building and scope of the land are all rich, strong and cohesive. By and large the prose flickers past unnoticed, and the story breathes - it's got life.


There's a lot here to like, and there's a lot here to make a reader give The Northland Chronicles another chance to impress. I know the second book is already out...

After this I read: Silently and Very Fast

[Justarius · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had its good parts, and I really wanted to give it 3 stars. But in the end, it was too short. And too long. Let me explain.

The opening grabs your attention, introducing you to a mysterious man with a mysterious power and past. He reminds me of Wolverine from X-Men, actually. You want to know more about him and how he got there. Why the world is the way it is. Who is after him and why.

But the middle of the story doesn't really provide many detailed answers. There are answers, but they are all sort of vague. Instead, it fleshes out supporting characters and their town. Now if these characters were X-Men, things might get even more interesting, but they are ordinary folks doing ordinary things until the protagonist showed up. A few things happen, but before you know it, the story is over. It feels a bit short..and long. After reading 100 pages, I was still left wondering most of the same questions I started with. It felt like a long introduction to something greater.

But the story has its strengths too. For a first work, I was reasonably impressed with the description, action, and general flow. This book just need a little more body to it, more substantial answers to reward the reader for his dedication.

[Thomas Sabo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit I'm vastly enjoying the independent author revolution Amazon has brought to the world through digital publishing. I've discovered some amazing authors, beginning with Hugh Howey's "Wool" series and now finishing my most recent find "The Northland Chronicles: A Stranger North".

This story doesn't disappoint, and I've read a few I couldn't get through from other indie authors. The author here crafts an interesting tale that puts us firmly in a world that has already de-evolved, but doesn't slap us in the face trying to tell us the "why" and "how" too fast.

There is action right out of the gates that does a good job at setting the hook and firmly establishing the protagonist as someone you want to know more about. Character development is solid and the human element is faithfully portrayed in a non-sappy way. There are a couple of cringe-worthy lines...the radio communication with "The General" made me a little crazy (ending each transmission with "This is the General, over and out"), but I'll allow it, as it was the only thing that really stood out.

This is an easy read, and a trip I'm glad I chose to embark on. I'll definitely be buying the next in the series when it comes out. Keep up the good work, Mr, Olsen!

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of The Northland Chronicles: A Stranger North from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Likes: Beards, frankenmoose, frankenmeese, rambling professors, sass, more sass, "Who is that guy?", mama bears, arms *wink wink*

A common problem I've noticed with new authors is that they don't really do very well handling dialogue. Let me explain. Many of the characters end up sounding the same, don't each have their own unique touch. Mr J.Olsen however, had no such issue. In fact, he handled the characters dialogue very well and left me impressed with how easily he could get into of each of their mindsets. For example, the ramblings of the professor (which I loved), Nathan's confusion at how to handle his younger sister, Emiko, constantly wondering what his father would have done in his position. I found this specially evident when Emiko is kidnapped and she overhears one of the kidnappers say he wants to have his way with her. This is clearly something very dark and ,well, serious, yet Emiko, at such a tender age, merely reacts by saying 'Gross'. I found this particularly effective because this is likely how a young girl would react- with such naivity. And for the author to have portrayed this while being not only a different age but also gender, is very well done.

I noticed a few people speaking negatively of the fact that A Stranger North is so short and leaves quetsions unanswered, there is one reason for both: as the author mentioned, this is only episode one of The Northland Chronicles! There are answers that the protagonist himself does not yet have. If all these questions were to be answered immediately, what would there be left to write about? I for one enjoy discovering things at the same pace as the main character, it adds excitement and helps you empathize with them. Which is necessary for a succesful series. You need to want to come back, to see how the protagonist is doing as well as all the other characters you love, in search of the answers not yet in your possession. Which is exactly how I feel after having finished this brilliant piece.

I'm going to be completely honest and say that I was not expecting to enjoy The Northland Chronicles as much as I did! Oh John.. Osbourne..Ozzie. I really can't resist those heroes that nobody can see coming. The composed, quiet ones. So quiet that when they finally do show their complete badassery, they make the other characters exclaim "Who is this guy?!". I almost expected Ozzie to crack one of Horatio Caine's one liners, stroking his beard as opposed to putting on sunglasses.

Great job, Mr Olsen. I was definitely left wanting more. Not because there was too little, but because what there was, was very well done. There honestly was not a point that I did not feel thoroughly entertained or unwanting to read on and I anxiously await the next installment. I will definitely be joining Ozzie on as many adventures as he will allow me too!

[Janie Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I did not know what to expect but saw that is was kind of a post apocalyptic, futuristic type of story. I have to say that I really did quite enjoy this book. I feel like it flowed very well and was easy to understand and follow.

This story is about John Osborne, 9 years after the desolation of the earth. He is traveling across the country that has a minimal amount of people who have survived. Ekimo, a teenage girl who has only her brother, discovers John unconscious and alerts her small community that she found a man alive and asks for their assistance. While John slowly recovers, Ekimo disappears and John then helps her brother Nathan pull off a rescue.

I liked the imagery to this story, the world was pretty well constructed. I could not imagine living in a world so desolate and lost. The author painted the scene well, but I would like to see just a bit more depth. The world created here makes me think of an old western. I also found the many things that are different in this future quite intriguing I also liked that they were not over the top and the characters often made references to the old world.

I also enjoyed the characters, but I wish that there would be a bit more back story, especially on John and his life before all of this. I am hoping there will be more information on that soon and on life before desolation. This is obviously not a complete story so I look forward to more of this story. I am rating this a 3.5 stars and recommend this to anyone who likes post apocalyptic/futuristic stories.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a short read. I started and finished this in one night. Granted that night was from 5 to 1 AM but still. Anyways, it was VERY intense towards the end, and that's why I read until 1 AM as I wanted to know what happens. I do feel like certain sections could have more stuff in it, like what the heck the people look like. All I got was 2 Japanese kids, and that was at the end, and a bearded guy, so naturally I thought of someone who looks like they're from Duck Dynasty.

I did get a bit worried in the beginning because it started off being WAYYY too masculine for me, but it mellowed out as soon as Emiko was introduced. I feel like it wasn't very developed and maybe something I could pull off myself for like NaNoWriMo or something like that. However, as I'm trying to reach my 50 books in a year goal, this was very easy to read.

Definitely for someone looking for a good, short, easy read and a not so terrible cliffhanger for a series.

[djcb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Northland Chronicles by Henry J. Olsen The Northland Chronicles A Stranger North is a story set in some post-apocalyptic time in the not too distant future; for the scenery, think [The Postman] (ie., in the US, and a bit of a 'western' atmosphere, a traveling loner etc.) and certainly without any The Road-bleakness.

The story is about a man who, for unknown reasons, is sought by some 'government', and on his journey ends up in a village, where various adventures ensue.

It's a quick read and certainly well-written; but perhaps something for 'young adults'; I would have liked a bit more surprises in the story, as well as, perhaps, and bit more background on the sociology of a post-apocalyptic environment.

Disclaimer: the author kindly provided me with a copy.

[Mark Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book. It started slow and ended with a cliffhanger, but it was a good read. I'm looking forward to seeing how the story continues. The book left a lot of unanswered questions and added new characters right up to the end.

My only complaint is the lack of a logical pause. I would have like a bit more before ending the book. The way he wrote the book is definitely to create a cliff hanger. Anyone can stop a story, but it takes a genius to know the perfect place.

I fully intend to continue the series.

[Aimee Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I think that this author has potential. The story was fun and imaginative. I'd like to see more character development. I am curious as to what we will find out about our protagonist. He seems very Chuck Norris meets Wolverine in The Road. I normally shy away from those type of characters, but I am curious as to what will happen to him. I will likely follow the rest of the series.

[Aeshna Juncea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Left me wanting more BUT I'd like it grittier! I know you're not going to get that in YA books though but I'll read any dystopian/apocalyptic I can!

[Darren Mitton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this via goodreads.com - Interesting work! Part dystopian post-apocalyptic nightmare & part almost western. Recommended for a good, adventurous read!

[Dionne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story!

I couldn't put it down. John is a great story where he triumphs over evil. Something no one the story would do, until a girl gets kidnapped. Looking forward to reading more about John and his adventures. I also hope he survives.

[Sandra Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really into this book. I needed more description of this post apocalyptic world the author talked about. I also understood why he kept these characters close to his vest, only to reveal as he went along. Overall, more explanation would've been nice.

[Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

It’s a interesting book but a little short on enough detail to make me want to purchase the next in the series.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book short and didn't like hanging at the end. The writing bothered me. Can't explain. I could not relate to the characters.

[Alexander Crommich · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Northland Chronicles: A Stranger North is a post-apocalyptic action piece focusing on the adventures of John Osborne, a bearded, six-shooter toting ex-soldier with a bionic arm. The novella has several problems, however, that prevent it from drawing the reader in. The pacing is off, John has an inconsistent and puzzling personality, Mr. Olsen tells the reader what the characters are thinking, and the ending doesn’t quite gel with a work of this length.

The problem with any novella is that it has to strike the delicate balance between being a short story and a novel. Short stories generally have one point that every single word in the story builds towards. There’s not much room to flesh things out, and even a handful of excess paragraphs can foil an otherwise good tale. A novel, on the other hand, has to do more work to build a sense of place, give the reader periodic breathers, and incorporate a more nuanced plot structure.

Unfortunately, in this story the author never quite finds the balance he’s shooting for and ends up caught in a mix of a short story and a novel rather than a novella. Too much happens in the story, which clutters things up. There are more characters, places, and the like than there really need to be, and one in particular gets several chapters to herself that don’t serve to advance the narrative. They flesh out the setting a bit, but not enough to justify their inclusion.

On the other hand, although the author thoroughly describes everything, the world never develops to the point that it feels real. He injects a lot of technical detail about survival in the woods that, although interesting, doesn’t contribute much. Additionally, there are routine information dumps about the Desolation (a mix of nuclear war and plague) and how it changed the world. These tend to break up the action or drag out scenes longer than necessary, and given the sort of story this was the details really didn’t matter. It’s enough for the reader to know that something wiped out the civilized world. In a novel, it would have been worthwhile to explore the subject and there would have been room to do it, but here there simply wasn’t enough space.

The main character, John, has an irregular personality that prevents the reader from ever getting a sense of who he really is. The prelude to the adventure pitches him as a sociopathic killer, essentially murdering someone because the man is a drunken jerk. Later in the story, however, he easily adapts to small town life and expresses a clear willingness to go out and help someone he’s hardly met. There’s never really an arc that takes him from one point to the other; he starts as a vicious loner and ends up a small town hero without the reader ever feeling like the necessary ground has been covered. His personality also tends to change scene to scene. It feels less like different aspects of the same character and more like different characters altogether.

This isn’t helped by the author’s tendency to tell the reader what’s going through John and everyone else’s heads. The author regularly has the characters deliver quick, italicized thoughts in the middle of the action that gives away what they’re thinking, or he uses descriptive language that does the same thing. It’s too direct, and it takes the life out of the characters. For me, I have most of my fun figuring out the characters and being surprised by them, so being outright told what kind of people they are and what they’re thinking takes that away. Also, it never really helps clarify John’s back and forth personality.

The end of the novella leaves too many questions open and immediately sets John on the path to his next task. There’s no sense that something has been accomplished or that feeling where, as a reader, you can close the book, take a deep breath, and feel like things have settled up for the time being. Instead, the status quo is much as it was before the story took place, and the reader is left without that critical sense of resolution.

It’s similar to an ongoing TV show that keeps dropping a handful of new twists at the end of each episode so the viewer never has a chance to catch up. That’s not to say that the structure is necessarily a bad one, but in this case the novella was too long to really make it work. Had it been short, perhaps around 10,000 words, or part of a book being released as a serial one fairly brief chapter at a time, it would have worked better.

Mr. Olsen’s work ends up caught between being a short story and a novel and never finds the happy middle ground. The author gives too much of the wrong sort of information about the characters and the world, which clutters up the story and breaks up the narrative, and John seems like a different character scene to scene. The story has an interesting premise, but it never becomes what the author wants it to.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm at something of a lull in my reading - I needed a little break from the many, many Philip K. Dick novels I've been reading lately. Not because I'm not enjoying myself... think of it as a palate cleanser. I need a mild reset to continue enjoy the unique ideas and themes.

And hey, I always love post-apocalyptic fiction, so this was right up my alley.

In fact, the themes in A Stranger North are kind of a checkerboard of what appeals to me: viral outbreak, massively depleted population, a story that takes place in my locale, survivalism, and so on. What it felt most similar to was Stephen King's The Gunslinger, minus the very bleak, dying world; there seems to be plenty of hope still in Olsen's Minnesota. To be fair, the mysterious stranger with a six shooter and a cloudy past is a trope that is very common to literature (and I've enjoyed it just about wherever I've observed it).

But, there are things about the dialogue that I don't enjoy so much. It's hard to peg down exactly how old John Osbourne is, but it seems that he acts and speaks fairly impulsively, and though it is pointed out to him explicitly, he doesn't seem to have great esteem for the value of life. So, yes, post-apocalyptic society... but the world doesn't seem to have degenerated to a degree that justifies wanton slaughter. Perhaps it's just not clear how much society has broken down. I'd love to know more about the state of Minneapolis, for instance, and why Nathan's and Emiko's family left.

Similarly, other characters seem to blurt out whatever is on their mind, and there is a tendency towards braggadocio and machismo. Again - perhaps a symptom of societal break-down and lack of socialization? Honestly, it just felt slightly juvenile to me - this, in and of itself, makes me feel like the book is more appropriate to a young adult audience. Not a bad thing, but it feels too exaggerated for adult literature.

All in all, I liked the book a lot - it was an exceptionally quick read (I finished it in a sitting), and enjoyable one. Contrary to other reviews, I didn't feel like the books's events were abrupt or lacked depth - it's a shorter novel and the intent is obviously for the events to be expanded upon and concluded in future sequels. It's basically a serial. I like it that way. There is some camp to it, and it walks the line between several genres, but it's fun in that way. I look forward to reading more of the series.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, there were hits and misses here. And while I will completely admit probably more hits than misses, I still have to give this a 2 star rating. That's mainly because the few things that I disliked, I disliked a lot.

Focusing on the hits I'd say description and dialogue. When the author wants you to know what's happening and how things look, he's got a knack for communicating that. The dialogue for each character is well done. No one sounds exactly the same. There was some well established authors that can't make that claim.

There is also an "eh" factor for me here. The Desolation was roughly 9 years ago. I'm not sure how I envision the post-apocalypse +9 years but one thing that messed with me a reader was the flip-flopping back and forth between characters seeing it as so long ago (another time long past kind of deal) and kids still remembering TV shows. Probably just a nitpick that hits me oddly.

The scenes with the General annoyed me, honestly. He's the only character that doesn't "feel real" at all. And John seems a bit too good or too well rounded, maybe. But, really, that could be used in an interesting twist int he future.

I could be interested in book 2 (as I understand it is already available) but I won't likely be reading it just yet. I've read a few shorter books recently and I'm currently looking for something a bit longer. In fact, perhaps I'll plan on picking up the next few chapters to read them all together.

[Eric Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Olsen has created an interesting post-apocalyptic world, lead by the villainous The General, and destined to be saved by the heroic and bionic John Osborne. There's a hint of Total Recall in this book, but that makes it more inviting to my developed sci-fi tastes. I look forward to more John Osborne in Spear Hunter and beyond.