Kindle/Audible
Well, 1.5 rounded up - I really wanted to dig this...but:
All told - this is a YA book that should be a Kindle Unlimited selection. I’m a sap for paying both the Kindle & Audible...but hey, as Mr. Kane points out in his end-of-book Mea Culpa - he has to churn out one novel a year so his fam can eat. Glad I could help!
PG13 Vikings. There are some battles, but Ben Kane is no Bernard Cornwell. They are poorly written and mostly bloodless. If you're looking for an immersive experience - look elsewhere.
Written in First-Person. It's too constraining.
I think writers imagine it being intimate…it’s not. The world becomes small. I get it…it’s easier to write as you just have to focus on one person & what they observe. This book is hair-pulling tedious - nearly every sentence…I did this, We did that I, We, I. Have a drink every time a “Seax” is mentioned.
Lots of anachronistic language: no means no, the living daylights, two shakes of a lambs tail, crying over spilled milk, a terrified pig screaming “blue murder”…it goes on & on. Idioms, phrases & words not extant during this period.
The careless writing frequently pulled me out of the story. Finn/Stormcrow should (reasonably) think like a bloke in his time…not describing situations using language centuries away. I’m cool with slack in this area, but man, it was abused.
The history is sketchy at best. Kane tries to tidy it up in his Pre & Post Author's Notes, but the backdrop to the events of this story are really murky and unclear. Name dropping Æthelred a few times isn't sufficient.
Also...
Shield-maidens are folklore, but the author is relying on a shred of unverified/proven evidence (from one lone scholar) to support the notion that he isn’t suffering a “woke imagination” as he emphatically defends in the authors’s note.
You even used politically correct pronouns - AND this is told First Person. Stormcrow wouldn’t think in a modern vernacular.
Ben, hate to tell you...but, that's woke as hell.
Amusingly, his Shield Maiden is more interesting than the main guy. I (surprisingly) wanted more of her story. To that, Finn & Vekel are hardly developed and the the rest of the cast not at all.
Speaking of the Druid Vekel, he is clearly based on the TV show Vikings character Floki…even the Audible narrator imitates Floki’s speech pattern.
That’s cool & all, but this is strictly Viking fan fiction & not historical fiction - as the reader won’t learn a thing.
On the plus, the pace was brisk & the writing (outside the jarring modern touches) wasn’t the hackiest (sic) I’ve ever encountered - but close. It’s just predictable as hell…every dorky Viking cliche pops up - Ravens, Valhalla, Odin, Tankards of Ale…topped off with a character arch that is void of surprise and is mostly paint-by-numbers. You bump along with him as he levels up.
Thing is, I dig all those Viking tropes…your job is to make it interesting. Like I said…this is YA. It’s too sterile for a badass reader like me.
It’s clear that this era isn’t the authors sweet spot & I can see why he mentioned there won’t be a book #2.
This might not have been the best book to intro myself to this author & I can tell he’s not for me. Bummer…I really wanted to like this.