Varangian

Aelfraed #3

by Griff Hosker

The story of the last two Housecarls from Harold Godwinson’s army who, forced from England by the Normans, journey down the Russian rivers to join the Varangian Guard where they fight, once more the Normans from Italy. The two men have to fight not only barbarians and the Empire’s enemies but treachery from within the complex world of Byzantine politics. Culminating in the battle which finally drove the Normans back to Italy, the historically accurate book paints a picture of the dying world of the Saxon warriors.

Genres: Historical Fiction

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2013

About the author

I was born in 1950 in Lancashire and attended a boy’s grammar school. After qualifying as an English and Drama teacher in 1972, I worked in the North East of England for the next 35 years. During that time I did write, mainly plays, pantos and musicals for the students at the three schools in which I worked.

When I stopped teaching I set up my own consultancy firm and worked as an adviser in schools and colleges in the North East of England. The new Conservative Government ended that avenue of work and in 2010 I found that I had time on my hands; having started work at the age of 15 I found the lack of work not to my liking and used the time to research the Roman invasion of Britain and begin to create a novel. The result was The Sword of Cartimandua.

My decision to begin writing was one of the best I have ever taken.

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Reviews

[Barefoot Gypsy Jimerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice work

I give five stars for the whole series. This series is well wrote, it tells the story of a young English man has his beliefs. Men follow him cause he knows how to fight, cause they love him. He is a great character,Griff Hosker brings him to life in more ways then one.

[D. Haskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have to

You have to read this if you want to finish the Aelfraed series. This series takes Aelfraed from being the "runt" and youngest in his family nearly a 1,000 years ago in England to this book. This final book finds him as a large warrior building a legend about himself in Constantinople for Emperors. A quick action filled read.

[Geoff Boxell · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the failure of the many revolts of the English against the Normans during the Norman Conquest of England many left the country, with a lot of the warriors going to Miklagarð (Constantinople) to serve in the Byzantine Varangian Guard. I had thought that Ælfræd, following the collapse of his own revolt, would join Hereward the Wake and, after that defeat, join Siward Barn and the others who left in a fleet of ship provided by William the Bastard (thought to have been some of those left behind by the defeated Norwegians who had followed Harald Hardrada) to then sail into the Mediterranean Sea, fight Saracens only to then arrive at Constantinople and relieve the Seljuke Turk siege – their reward was to serve in the Varangian Guard and also be given land in the Crimea, which they called New England). But I was wrong: Siward Barn’s expedition was in 1087 and Ælfræd and his friend Ridley sailed to Norse river route via the Rus to arrive at Constantinople in 1073.
The complexities of Byzantine politics (as well as their strangely named military units) make for a confusing mix, which the author manages to lay out in a clear manner. The battles fought are against river pirates, Steppe horsemen, Turks and, of course, Normans; all done with Hosker’s usual flair.
Much of the Byzantine part of the book comes from a life story of the Emperor Alexios written by his daughter. This is not an area of my expertise and my knowledge only comes from R.H.C. Davis’ “The Normans and their Myth”, which does give some details of Robert Guiscard and his son, Bohemond and their attempts at creating a free Norman state in the lands of the Byzantine Empire and the author varies only in giving the fictitious Ælfræd credit for the strategies and leadership that lead to the Guiscards’ failure in that enterprise.
One of the sad things about Griff Hosker books are the typos and, in some places, wrong names allocated. This book seems to suffer more than most but, please, bear with them for the story is very well written and credible and well worth the five stars I have given it.

[Lorreine Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simply adored book 1 - absolutely fab. Bought book 2, it was good and then I bought 3. Hubby enjoyed it, I became totally fed up. It was simply plan for a battle, implement strategy behead enemies. I read until 60% then lost the will to live. I needed to move on. There really is not story other than what I have described. I’ve moved on and can’t recommend this book at all.

[John Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy misspelled words... hard to stay focused on the action.

So many punctuation errors in this book it makes it tough to read . It just gets worse and worse as the book goes on. I liked the series. Entertaining.

[Terry Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fitting end to the Aelfread Varangian trilogy. Full of typical Hosker graphic battles but tinged with empathy, honesty and relationships. Pity about the lots of typos and missing words but didn't distract from an action packed tale.

[Mr Kevin John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good series end

Thank you for this book. I enjoyed the read. The characters were well portrayed and the adventures kept my attention.

[Keith Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story

As always, a well researched and told story. Again, as always, let down by poor editing, for an ex teacher to fail on SPAG is disappointing.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good series.

[Darek Zawisko · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Mike Whitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all of the 2 dozen Griff Hosker books, this so far my favorite. Well done,sir. You have come to your own.

[Shane Findlay · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Kris Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this series and the characters. Fast, fast reads which have helped me get out of myself!

[Michael Annis · Rating 4 out of 5]

cracker

Ive run out of superlatives to describe My Hosker’s novels, safe to say they brighten up my days on old age. Just a crying shame this series stops at 3.

[Dennis M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only three stars for the third and final book in this series. Unfortunate since it is once again a good tale, well told. I reduced my rating for two reasons: first, the story seemed to lose it's way a bit once Aelfraed reached Constantinople; Second the proofreading/editing issues I noted in the earlier books seemed to get worse here, not just typos and missing/wrong words, but a couple of actually contradictory statements.

Another gripe - limited to the Kindle edition (which may also account for some of the proofreading issues) - is that the list of characters, locations and Byzantine military terms is at the back of the book. If you go look at it you lose your "last page read" feature when switching between devices. Picky I know, but why not fix it for the Kindle edition?

[Calvin Kleinmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book by Jarl Hosker

Although not quite as good as Bernard Cornwell, this author is very entertaining and prolific, which I appreciate. I look forward to another of his series.

[David Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry really is enjoying Mr.Griffin Hosker

Dry has no clue on Varanangian (sp) Ann the Byzantine Empire; this short historical novel achieved a lot of new things for dry!