Rune to Ruin

Spear of the Gods #2

by Gregory Amato

A viking crew set on revenge. A conspiracy among the gods. The Spear of the Gods Saga continues with Rune to Ruin.

Ansgar the Skald is sailing into the middle of an epic war between two legendary vikings. That’s about to be the least of his problems.

Delving deep beneath Midgard? Battling trolls, sea monsters, and sorcerers? Just another season for Ansgar and the crew of the Sea Squirrel as they seek revenge for fallen friends.

This time, they will need to cross even more dangerous thresholds. The realm of the dead awaits, where secrets are easier to uncover. That deep wisdom has a price, though, and it might cost Ansgar his sanity.

It helps to have Haldor Skullsplitter and company watching his back. But it will take all Ansgar's powers of poetry and runes, a guardian spirit, and a shapeshifting sword to survive this adventure.


Rune to Ruin is book two in Gregory Amato's Spear of the Gods Saga, where the myths, magic, and monsters of the Viking Age are real.

Genres: Fantasy

470 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2024

About the author

Gregory Amato made a career of selling his quill as a mercenary writer for many years. He wrote true and important things for newspapers, magazines, academia, and, for over a decade, intelligence analysis for the FBI.

Now, he writes fantasy stories based on the myths and sagas of the vikings. His fiction is often influenced by tales lost to time, usually full of high adventure, and always the sort that makes readers late to dinner.

Outside his time spent spinning yarns about vikings and wizards, he teaches Judo, brews beer, and plays DnD when he gets the chance.

Gregory lives happily with his family in the Pacific Northwest.

Sign up for updates, free fiction, and fascinating musings at AmatoAuthor.com!

Reviews

[Gregory Amato]

I won't be rating my own books, but I intend to use this space for updates:

31 December: If I got only one review the whole year, this one from Dr. Tom Shippey would still make the year a good one. I mean, holy hells, is there even a higher endorsement to seek than the world's foremost Tolkien expert?

6 December 2024: Rune to Ruin paperbacks are now available at online retailers!

22 November 2024: Rune to Ruin ebook now available at online retailers!

15 October 2024: Enjoying Rune to Ruin? Fallen to Fury is the last book in the series, and its Kickstarter campaign is now in prelaunch! Come check it out here, and make sure you click Notify me on launch to get the announcement when it goes live!

20/21 September 2024: Kickstarter backers now have Rune to Ruin ebooks (20). Online reviewers getting eARC copies (21). If you are a reviewer/blogger/poster/whatever and would like an eARC, let me know!

10 September 2024: Preorders of Rune to Ruin available on Amazon!

14 March 2024: The Kickstarter now has Project We Love status!

12 March 2024: The Kickstarter is live!

Go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... to back the campaign!

8 January 2024: The Kickstarter prelaunch page is up! Click Notify on Launch to stay updated on when it goes live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

28 April 2022: The first draft is finished. A long way to go, but here is the beginning.

[bookcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and that's exactly what I'm gonna give. Luckily for me, I loved this book, so that saves me having to write something awkward. Amato has obviously done an enormous amount of research (he mentions Carolyne Larrington and Tom Shippey in the credits) but he hasn't just reproduced or imitated Norse myths. He's not drinking from the Eagle-as-Odin ass drippings of the mead imbibed by those who settle for adequacy. He's reaching for real inspiration here (even while his protagonist Ansgar wisely is wary of Odin's gifts). A student of Norse, Germanic and Finnish mythology and religion will recognise the various source material but it's woven into a truly original story here. I really appreciate his depictions of seidr and galdrar.
Many second books in a series suffer a bit of a lag but not here. I think both the writing and story have gotten even better (and I really liked the first book a lot).
Rune to Ruin continues Ansgar's journey as a young Skald with the crew of the Sea Squirrel. It picks up not long after the end of the first book. The pacing of the story is really well done- just enough tension and action, interspersed with the larger mystery of Ansgar's prophetic dreams and own life story he's trying to solve. I was drawn in and invested in the story immediately.
The characters are wonderfully written- Innstein and Utsteinn might be my favourite side characters but I have a special fondness for Svipul, Ansgar's fylgja and Huld the volva. All of them have their own distinct voices and motivations, which makes for a richly woven story. His female characters, of which there are several, are written with as much diversity, agency and depth as his male characters.
Like the first book, there's a lot of humour, (and not just with Humour the raven), wonderful riddles, puns and heiti. But also a lot of grief which is sensitively and thoughtfully written. A lot of times in fantasy, especially heroic or Norse inspired, the consequences really aren't fully felt by the main protagonist. But here, the story hinges precisely on Ansgar feeling the full brunt of everything, especially in only seeing afterwards what a prophecy was hinting at. Tragic and truly unfair. Or is it? Do we change our fate or make it come about because we tried to? How much of our fate is immutable and how much rests in us heeding a warning in time? All of this humour and grief (and sometimes the lines blur between the two) is very Norse. You'd die laughing, I suppose.
Amato has become one of my favourite authors. I expect he'll become famous, or at least achieve "word-fame" with a certain subset of fantasy readers. I think he does Norse styled fantasy better than just about any writer today and that's really saying something. I'm really looking forward to the 3rd and final book in the series!
Highly recommend.

[C.K. Sorens · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are other reviews here about the story, so I want to turn my review toward the amazing crafting of this novel.

I absolutely love the method of storytelling by Greg, and the power he puts into the words of storytellers. Ansgar, our main character, is getting stronger and wiser, all the while learning there’s always more to experience than knowledge alone, and that the skilled listener is as powerful as a someone well-spoken.

And please, do not skip the author’s note on this one. It is an absolute hidden treasure of reality in this epic Norse fantasy.

[Charlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really liked this book. You learn more about the characters, they are so well written. And the story just gets better and better.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️ - awful, probably DNF
⭐️⭐️- didn’t like but not terrible, actually finished it
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - it was ok, passed the time
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - good story, good writing, entertaining, just not great
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - great, could not put it down, excellent writing and story

Burden to Bear was really good. A wonderful story, well written.
Rune to Ruin was better. Excellent writing, great story telling, and hard to put down. And, of course, left me wanting to read the third book of the trilogy. Three books are just the start. More is desirable.
I loved the characters, those who lived and those who died. And the idea that you cannot realistically save every heroic character.

[Andrew Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bare with me, I ramble when I like or dislike, burdensome as I am. And I try to be funny for Review's sake but my wife and kids have warned me I'm not who I think I am in that regard, but I see it as two sides of a ruined rune. Though I dislike "goat's breath and cat piss", I wholeheartedly like this series. I initially watched the Sons of Anarchy but fell off, feeling the characterization and camaraderie fizzled out quickly as the series progressed, especially with Opie Winston. Opie lost a lot and reverted to a violent retribution that I was ready to tune in for, knowing he wasn't going to survive the environment. Knowing he didn't want to. Yet Opie should have went out like Samson, invigorated by returning to his vows in a sense, taking out the bulk of his enemies while succumbing to his own berserkir rage. Alas, the writing for S.o.A. was not consistent, in more than just this, to uphold revenge or hope even in the face of debauchery, decadence, and devastation. Good news: Amato keeps it consistent, not in a way that you know what's coming next, but in a way that you are engaged from start to finish. Will you like what pillars fall among the Brotherhood? No. Will you devour every bit of it anticipating what could possibly come next? Absolutely. Will the veiled words of a woman drive you mad while she insists we don’t listen? It’s not so straight-forward. Will you think twice about accepting your sibling’s invitation for her kids to be your god-children? You better read this series before you commit. I don’t mind over-using a phrase so I once again refer to this installment as a page-turner. I find that I can read more if I read multiple books at a time, going five to ten chapters, then rotating through with a handful more. With Rune to Ruin, I couldn’t wait to get back to it. I don’t want to drag this review on, giving my opinion on hell within scripture, God versus gods, or …

There's no reverence for the White Christ but there's plenty of black sorcery afoot, grey areas of intent, dreamlike colorful pantheons of not-so-clear advice, and neutral (sometimes) spirits of earth, water, fire, and air with the essence of divine intervention. I was skeptical early on that there was a dismissive and critical take on something, then a character later shows up and challenges this narrative gracefully. There is no statement for or against it but a realistic exchange where both sides have common ground to explore and new territory to consider. The atmosphere can go from one character’s pessimism with a black-and-white criticism of all things pertaining to gods, then to a nuance and complexity of gods, God, humans, and all manner of emotions, unspoken truth, forgiveness and revenge. If anything, I think Hell is a lot worse than the symbolic images used to describe it but it's the reason why it's bad that is my strongest belief for it: Hell is simply a place without God, and that is the punishment itself, or at least without God's grace, as Scripture does point to us not being able to flee God in heaven or hell. There’s no camaraderie there, no brotherhood, sisterhood, no family, and no magical romance. My firm belief is, in contrast to a weathered sorcerer's feeling that the gods are absent, that God is present and the main thing that keeps us from losing all hope of surviving, while also prompting us to act in the face of adversity and wrong-doing. Sometimes those actions are in line with revenge, and a Christian monk (Tafi) clearly states that "A man cannot seek both forgiveness and revenge". It's a fair debate, as old as time but we ARE agreeably crazy, like this Brotherhood's Kraki and Magnus, or John the Baptist, a pretty good skald himself, event-tellers like the Psalmists. Reading R. C. Sproul's Unseen Realities: Heaven, Hell, Angels and Demons, he points out that Shakespeare's Macbeth waxes on how "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon stage, and then is heard no more" while Hamlet declares "There are more things in heaven and earth than we dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio." We know, similar to Macbeth, like Rune to Ruin's Svipul states, that "people die. And dying, they end", at least to the earthly realm. But to what end after death, is the next great adventure.

Fortunately, like Lucky Ansgar says, "... there might be magic in humor as much as in poetic form" so with all seriousness and humor making for good storytelling, "we have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God..." (Tolkien). A character states that "one torch lights another" and "the fire dies if a man does not share it", so I'm simply sharing the fire of Heaven in contrast/comparison to the flames of Hell. Either way "everyone wants to believe they want to learn the deep lore before they learn it" but whatever the exact details of Hell, where one head wants to see one more sunrise (IYKYK) or one more new beginning, the lack of hope and grace and the endless darkness is what I fear for the ultimate Down-Below.

Anyways, you’re not here for that, my apologies. Great series that simply piques my interest greatly. I doubt you will find a better way to spend your time than Amato's saga of highly relatable characters, but not the one guy that met his match with a goat. I hate that guy.

Trollsbane short
The Skald short
The Sorcerer's Reward short
Burden to Bear novel
Rune to Ruin novel
Fallen to Fury novel
The Once and Future Sword short

[Kristoffer Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rune to Ruin is a gripping continuation that captures everything I love about Norse fantasy. The story is rich with myth, yet grounded in a world that feels completely real. The attention to detail in language, setting, and tradition shows a clear respect for the era. As someone who grew up in Scandinavia, I recognize so much of the texture and truth here. Gregory Amato builds a world that feels lived in, brutal, and beautiful. I’m already eager for the next book.

[Sondre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for this amazing book! Loved the entire thing. Would never have found this gem of a trilogy if not for M Sullivans blogpost about a small school for writers. Looking forward to reading the final book. Please never stop writing.

[Rowdy Geirsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent volume in the Spear of the Gods series! This is the second book and as such, picks up shortly after the end of the first, Burden to Bear. The characters from the first book return and some new ones are introduced as the crew continues its adventures, this time up to the far, far north for some much-deserved vengeance.

If you read Burden to Bear and enjoyed it, you won't be disappointed with Rune to Ruin. The pace is a bit faster in this one and the same wit and humor is on display, which is one of my favorite qualities about the series. You don't see a whole lot of that in historic fiction or fantasy novels dealing with the Norse world.

Rune to Ruin opens with a scene of certain, multi-faceted ill deeds being committed in a wintry, snow-covered landscape in Denmark, and from there charges headlong up the Baltic on an action-packed adventure. Encounters with trollwife hostility, goblin ancestor veneration, resuscitated severed heads (that drip, of course), cow-killing medieval machines of war, Loki-style visual gag/torture methods, necropants in-jokes, sea monsters with strange hair, tidbits of Kalevalian wisdom, the pre-avenging of a comrade's brutal death, and more await! All tied together with a solid foundation in the myths and sagas.

[Ant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm lost for words. Rune to Ruin is an excellent read, with the final few chapters lifting further and moving into the realm of the sublime.

How to review without spoilers?

There are so many moments: epic battles, the telling of stories (from one character to another) as metaphors, tension, action, treachery, fellowship, bravery; and so much of this has direct bearing on the main plot, that I think to pull out even one example may give away some of both what's contained here or what's to come in the next book.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best books I've read this year.

If you like Norse mythology, or if you like fantasy, or if you like action: buy or read this book (and it's predecessor). You will not be disappointed.

Many thanks to the author for the advance copy on which this review is based.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire saga is fantastic. The author’s love for Norse sagas is clearly evident and his skills at writing in that style is indisputable. Additionally, he demonstrates how easily stories can be altered, names can be changed and original intent skewed. It is a lesson all readers should heed when considering history: just because it is written down, it doesn’t mean it is correct, or even truthful.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great continuation of this epic. Ansgar is as funny as ever but not as young in maturity as in the first book. The journey continues with its horror, adventure, humor, and supernatural dealings of magic and gods. It’s a worthy journey, and I look forward to the conclusion we’ll get in the next volume.

[Jenny O · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Burden to Bear, but this was the superior novel (as a second entry should be). It's far more coherent and consistent throughout, and has some really good philosophical moments. I never once felt lost, which I could not say if the first entry. I'm very much enjoying watching Ansgar mature and grow, and am pretty grumpy that I have to wait for book three!

[Bret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great continuation of the first book. It kept me hooked and eager for each new chapter. I really enjoyed getting more of Ansgar’s narration and little anecdotes along the way. I’m excited to see how everything comes together in the final book. The series just keeps getting better!