The Ship in the Ice

by William Sullivan, Karen Sullivan (illustrator)

Why did the Viking settlement in America fail? One saga claims the problem was "uniped" monsters. The other says the Norse left because one of their women instigated the murder of an entire ship's crew. The Ship in the Ice weaves together the most credible of the sagas with findings from actual archeological sites, but because the book is historical fiction it is free to tell a broader tale -- and to speculate about mysteries. The book alternates chapters between a Norse poet, Jorund, who has set out to learn what happened to his parents in Vinland, and Mette Gustmeyer, a modern archeologist investigating many of the same sites. Along the way they encounter Viking ghosts, Greenlandic shamans, and the crush of Arctic ice. The Ship in the Ice is the fourth and final book in the Viking Saga series. The first, The Ship in the Hill, recounted the start of the Viking Age in Norway. The second, The Ship in the Sand, told of the Danes' conquest of England. The third, The Ship in the Woods, followed the Swedish Viking east as they founded Russia. The Ship in the Ice covers the end of the Viking Age -- and perhaps the end of the world.

Genres: Archaeology

482 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2024

Reviews

[Dora Podkovyroff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an unbelievable book! I read the whole series, and I really liked the writing, the style and the whole rhythm of those stories that makes the past with the contemporary, the fiction and the facts!

Loved it… I believe I will probably try to read them again later on .

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most enjoyable historical fiction though I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, But its powerful ending drew me back in.

This book has it all - historical figures, gods, traitors, spies and a witch right at it center