What do you think?
Rate this book
Harald
Harald Haraldsson, farmer, sometime commander of the allied armies, and the best storyteller in the Northvales, has a problem. For 30 years, the Kingdom of Kaerlia, the Order, and the Vales have together held back the empire. Now, the king who forged that alliance is dead. His heir, preferring subjects to allies, is trying to seize control of the order. Its Lady Commander has vanished.
To put the alliance back together Harald will have
Raise an army from the Vales, where nobody owes allegiance to anyone. Find and rescue the Lady Leonora - if she is still alive. End a civil war. Persuade a young king that he is making a very large mistake. And do it all with as little killing as possible. Because he will need every lancer of the kingdom and every lady of the order when the emperor and his legions, the best infantry in the world, come south again. But wars are not won only by fighting; even the best infantry in the world has to eat and drink. Harald has a lot of friends, and a story, sometimes, is more useful than a sword.
To put the alliance back together Harald will have
Raise an army from the Vales, where nobody owes allegiance to anyone. Find and rescue the Lady Leonora - if she is still alive. End a civil war. Persuade a young king that he is making a very large mistake. And do it all with as little killing as possible. Because he will need every lancer of the kingdom and every lady of the order when the emperor and his legions, the best infantry in the world, come south again. But wars are not won only by fighting; even the best infantry in the world has to eat and drink. Harald has a lot of friends, and a story, sometimes, is more useful than a sword.
Audible Audio
First published March 28, 2006
4 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
David D. Friedman
20 books144 followersfrom amazon.com:
I am an academic economist currently employed as a law professor, although I have never taken a course for credit in either field. My specialty, insofar as I have one, is the economic analysis of law, the subject of my book _Law's Order_.
In recent years I have created and taught two new law school seminars at Santa Clara University. One was on legal issues of the 21st century, discussing revolutions that might occur as a result of technological change over the next few decades. Interested readers can find its contents in the manuscript of _Future Imperfect_, linked to my web page. Topics included encryption, genetic engineering, surveillance, and many others. The other seminar, which I am currently teaching, is on legal systems very different from ours. Its topics included the legal systems of modern gypsies, Imperial China, Ancient Athens, the Cheyenne Indians, ... . My web page has a link to the seminar web page.
I have been involved in recreational medievalism, via the Society for Creative Anachronism, for over thirty years. My interests there include cooking from medieval cookbooks, making medieval jewelery, telling medieval stories around a campfire creating a believable medieval islamic persona and fighting with sword and shield.
My involvement with libertarianism goes back even further. Among other things I have written on the possibility of replacing government with private institutions to enforce rights and settle disputes, a project sometimes labelled "anarcho-capitalism" and explored in my first book, _The Machinery of Freedom_, published in 1972 and still in print.
My most recent writing project is my first novel, _Harald_. Most of my interests feed into it in one way or another, but it is intended as a story, not a tract on political philosophy, law or economics. It is not exactly a fantasy, since there is no magic, nor quite a historical novel, since the history and geography are invented. The technology and social institutions are based on medieval and classical examples, with one notable exception.
I am an academic economist currently employed as a law professor, although I have never taken a course for credit in either field. My specialty, insofar as I have one, is the economic analysis of law, the subject of my book _Law's Order_.
In recent years I have created and taught two new law school seminars at Santa Clara University. One was on legal issues of the 21st century, discussing revolutions that might occur as a result of technological change over the next few decades. Interested readers can find its contents in the manuscript of _Future Imperfect_, linked to my web page. Topics included encryption, genetic engineering, surveillance, and many others. The other seminar, which I am currently teaching, is on legal systems very different from ours. Its topics included the legal systems of modern gypsies, Imperial China, Ancient Athens, the Cheyenne Indians, ... . My web page has a link to the seminar web page.
I have been involved in recreational medievalism, via the Society for Creative Anachronism, for over thirty years. My interests there include cooking from medieval cookbooks, making medieval jewelery, telling medieval stories around a campfire creating a believable medieval islamic persona and fighting with sword and shield.
My involvement with libertarianism goes back even further. Among other things I have written on the possibility of replacing government with private institutions to enforce rights and settle disputes, a project sometimes labelled "anarcho-capitalism" and explored in my first book, _The Machinery of Freedom_, published in 1972 and still in print.
My most recent writing project is my first novel, _Harald_. Most of my interests feed into it in one way or another, but it is intended as a story, not a tract on political philosophy, law or economics. It is not exactly a fantasy, since there is no magic, nor quite a historical novel, since the history and geography are invented. The technology and social institutions are based on medieval and classical examples, with one notable exception.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 1, 2012
Good, clean fun. But too easy. Harald never messes up. He never loses. He always outsmarts everyone. No drama.
Still, a fun read.
Still, a fun read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2015
Friedman is a semi-famous member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. He participates in a bard circle as Cariadoc, where he performs stories and gives handmade silver armbands to other bards that impress him. He and his wife publish How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, and Armor a Turnip: A Thousand Years of Recipes. He also wrote some economics textbooks.
Knowing about his background in SCA but never having seen him perform, I was very interested in the techniques he would use for this book. Knowing about his economics background, and the fact that he teaches comparative legal systems at a private California university, I was also interested in the details of the story itself.
I enjoyed this book. The story is good, the storytelling is engaging, and the general theme about the importance of logistics (hinted at from the dedication) is overlooked in other stories. Harald's tactics, from single combat to small group combat to full-sized campaigns, are described in detail and seem plausible.
War stories often emphasize valor, or discipline and obedience, or weaponry. The amazing cost of running a war is often ignored. However, given the constraints that Harald must operate under (volunteer army of barbarians allied with a feudal country with troops that are obligated to provide military service for short periods of time), his focus on logistics -- his own and his enemies' -- is both natural and genius. Harald also often tells stories of previous campaigns ("let me tell you about when I besieged a castle with twenty men").
I had seen a review that complained about the telegraphic writing style, and it did cause me to avoid this book for a while. It is true that the dialogue and narration of scenes involving the barbarians and the feudal kingdom are written with a clipped grammar that can be a little tiring to read. But it is also true that the dialogue of imperial characters is more grammatically correct, and the narration for scenes involving imperial characters reads more naturally. It's clear to me that this approach is meant to distinguish the barbarians from the empire. I suspect that if Friedman were to perform parts of this story, he would also use different voices and accents for the same purpose. It does work, but it's not subtle.
Overall, it's a very enjoyable book.
Knowing about his background in SCA but never having seen him perform, I was very interested in the techniques he would use for this book. Knowing about his economics background, and the fact that he teaches comparative legal systems at a private California university, I was also interested in the details of the story itself.
I enjoyed this book. The story is good, the storytelling is engaging, and the general theme about the importance of logistics (hinted at from the dedication) is overlooked in other stories. Harald's tactics, from single combat to small group combat to full-sized campaigns, are described in detail and seem plausible.
War stories often emphasize valor, or discipline and obedience, or weaponry. The amazing cost of running a war is often ignored. However, given the constraints that Harald must operate under (volunteer army of barbarians allied with a feudal country with troops that are obligated to provide military service for short periods of time), his focus on logistics -- his own and his enemies' -- is both natural and genius. Harald also often tells stories of previous campaigns ("let me tell you about when I besieged a castle with twenty men").
I had seen a review that complained about the telegraphic writing style, and it did cause me to avoid this book for a while. It is true that the dialogue and narration of scenes involving the barbarians and the feudal kingdom are written with a clipped grammar that can be a little tiring to read. But it is also true that the dialogue of imperial characters is more grammatically correct, and the narration for scenes involving imperial characters reads more naturally. It's clear to me that this approach is meant to distinguish the barbarians from the empire. I suspect that if Friedman were to perform parts of this story, he would also use different voices and accents for the same purpose. It does work, but it's not subtle.
Overall, it's a very enjoyable book.
July 24, 2021
David Friedman writes a book set in a fictionalized medieval period. Our protagonist, a leader of something very similar to anarchist Iceland (another interest of Friedman's), is summoned by a king who wants his help and won't quite understand that he isn't and won't be a vassal. Oh, and the king has also appointed a new leader for this order of warrior nuns. And the Empire is looking hungrily at the whole region...
I really liked the setting and the byplay between our protagonist and the king near the beginning. I also liked how, midway through the resulting war, the king's character suddenly becomes surprisingly more complicated than we thought. Unfortunately, as the war goes on, Friedman's terse style (quite unlike his nonfiction works that I've read) makes it hard for him to really show us the characters he's built like he did closer to the beginning. As a meta-commentary on war, this'd actually work pretty well, but I don't think he meant it that way. And at any rate, it'd be truer of industrialized warfare than the medieval-style raids and smart plans our protagonist excels in.
Yes, it is still fun to read about Harald's smart plans, how he uses setting and troops to best advantage, and what he does with not just the king but also the Emperor's son before the end. But I wish we saw more of characters as well.
I really liked the setting and the byplay between our protagonist and the king near the beginning. I also liked how, midway through the resulting war, the king's character suddenly becomes surprisingly more complicated than we thought. Unfortunately, as the war goes on, Friedman's terse style (quite unlike his nonfiction works that I've read) makes it hard for him to really show us the characters he's built like he did closer to the beginning. As a meta-commentary on war, this'd actually work pretty well, but I don't think he meant it that way. And at any rate, it'd be truer of industrialized warfare than the medieval-style raids and smart plans our protagonist excels in.
Yes, it is still fun to read about Harald's smart plans, how he uses setting and troops to best advantage, and what he does with not just the king but also the Emperor's son before the end. But I wish we saw more of characters as well.
June 16, 2018
Extremely sloppy writing style, boring prose, and a plot that resembles a mess from a broken blender more than a typical diagram.
December 21, 2025
This is a historical novel with a military emphasis, set in a fictional land populated by fictional peoples with a mediæval level of technology. I classify it as science fiction because this fictional Earth is apparently set in a parallel universe, which is a science-fiction device.
In this fictional world, gunpowder doesn’t seem to have been invented, but counterweight trebuchets are in use, so military technology corresponds to Europe in about 1250 AD: the time of King Henry III of England and King Louis IV of France.
The main military powers consist of the Empire to the north, the Kingdom of Kaerlia to the south, and also the Vales and the Order, who are independent of Kaerlia but generally willing to help it resist periodic attacks from the Empire. The Vales are a loose association of mountain folk with a war leader (Harald) but no king; the Order are a female military order of mounted archers.
It’s quite a good story, that I find worth rereading every now and then, and it goes into some detail (apparently well researched) about mediæval life in general and military life in particular.
The first part (29% of the book) deals with Harald’s difficult solo visit to the new King of Kaerlia, who is less wise than his late father.
The rest of the book consists mostly of a long series of military campaigns and battles, in which the elderly but clever Harald defeats all opponents sooner or later, one way or another.
If you don’t want to read about military campaigns, this book is not for you. I don’t mind novels with military content, but most novels that include battles and campaigns also find space to talk about other things. For my own taste, this novel doesn’t find enough space to talk about other things. It finds a little space to talk about family life, but not very much.
My other criticism of the book is that the characters (Harald in particular) tend to speak in a cryptic abbreviated English that’s a bit irritating to read and can be hard to follow. As it’s presumably a translation of whatever language they’re really speaking, I think it would be better to translate it into normal English that we could read more easily.
It could be argued that Harald’s clipped speech is a part of his personality, but I think his personality could be conveyed by a less exaggerated brevity.
Neither of these criticisms stop me from rereading the book occasionally, but they seem worth mentioning.
Characterization is adequate, I can remember who most of the main characters are, but most of them are not vividly distinct from one another. Helping your readers to distinguish one character from another is an art that must be hard to master; I’m not a writer of fiction, so I’ve never attempted it.
In this fictional world, gunpowder doesn’t seem to have been invented, but counterweight trebuchets are in use, so military technology corresponds to Europe in about 1250 AD: the time of King Henry III of England and King Louis IV of France.
The main military powers consist of the Empire to the north, the Kingdom of Kaerlia to the south, and also the Vales and the Order, who are independent of Kaerlia but generally willing to help it resist periodic attacks from the Empire. The Vales are a loose association of mountain folk with a war leader (Harald) but no king; the Order are a female military order of mounted archers.
It’s quite a good story, that I find worth rereading every now and then, and it goes into some detail (apparently well researched) about mediæval life in general and military life in particular.
The first part (29% of the book) deals with Harald’s difficult solo visit to the new King of Kaerlia, who is less wise than his late father.
The rest of the book consists mostly of a long series of military campaigns and battles, in which the elderly but clever Harald defeats all opponents sooner or later, one way or another.
If you don’t want to read about military campaigns, this book is not for you. I don’t mind novels with military content, but most novels that include battles and campaigns also find space to talk about other things. For my own taste, this novel doesn’t find enough space to talk about other things. It finds a little space to talk about family life, but not very much.
My other criticism of the book is that the characters (Harald in particular) tend to speak in a cryptic abbreviated English that’s a bit irritating to read and can be hard to follow. As it’s presumably a translation of whatever language they’re really speaking, I think it would be better to translate it into normal English that we could read more easily.
It could be argued that Harald’s clipped speech is a part of his personality, but I think his personality could be conveyed by a less exaggerated brevity.
Neither of these criticisms stop me from rereading the book occasionally, but they seem worth mentioning.
Characterization is adequate, I can remember who most of the main characters are, but most of them are not vividly distinct from one another. Helping your readers to distinguish one character from another is an art that must be hard to master; I’m not a writer of fiction, so I’ve never attempted it.
July 14, 2012
Declaration of bias -- I know the author, and I know that this affected how willing I was to keep reading. I greatly enjoyed the book, but it uses a very terse, elliptical style that took some time to get used to, and I think this will cause many readers to bounce off the prose. I would strongly suggest finding excerpts (I think there are some on the Baen website somewhere) and reading to see if you like the style.[return][return]That said, this is a solid first novel with an interesting story and some likeable characters. It's an alternative history book that's firmly grounded in reality -- with one minor exception, not obvious to the reader, everything is physically plausible. And I am impressed with the way Friedman has worked some of his liberatarian philosophy into the book without hitting the reader over the head with it. Too much political speculative fiction involves blatant sermons--this book uses a much more subtle showing-rather-than-telling approach and is so much better for it. It adds depth to the story rather than turning it into a political tract. [return][return]It's not going to be to everyone's taste, but if you can handle the elliptical prose style it's an enjoyable read.
May 15, 2021
[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]
It's also one of those books that just plunks the reader into a world, and the reader has to make some effort to deduce the way the world works via dialog and descriptions. Plus, people talk funny. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pass a pop quiz on exactly who was related to who, or other major plot points. Someone more acclimated to this type of writing would probably have done better.
There's a great deal of edged-weapon warfare in the book, but the blood, gore and screaming horror is underplayed; it's more like one of those strategy games played in the back of the comic book shop translated into prose. The tactics, insofar as I could understand them, were clever, and served to let the good guys prevail over the bad guys in most cases.
July 29, 2012
After some debate, I'm giving this three stars. I wasn't able to get past the second chapter, because the authors writing style made it hard to keep track of what was happening. That said, the style was clearly a reflection of the main character's voice, and was original and interesting. The story flowed well and quickly. The main character and most side characters well developed, the world interesting. The main antagonist was not as well developed, seeming to do the wrong thing out of sheer stupidity, but we see him from the main characters view point and it is probable that the main character wouldn't be fully aware of what was driving the antagonist, and more may have come out later.
I'm going to let it rest and try again in a few weeks, in the mean time anyone who is comfortable with the unusual writing style will be in for a fun read.
I'm going to let it rest and try again in a few weeks, in the mean time anyone who is comfortable with the unusual writing style will be in for a fun read.
Read
March 31, 2008Good fantasy story of an island and the disparate tribes that inhabit it. I found that it moved along well but the style of speech that everyone had wore on me. A little sample would have sufficed. Or if only a few spoke in that way. A good story worth reading if that doesn't bother you.
November 26, 2013
I’m rather satisfied with the book. It’s good, rich and interesting, but could have been written in a way to make it more alive to the reader. Worth the time to read and I recommend it!
Full review on my blog:
http://redletalis.wordpress.com/2013/...
Full review on my blog:
http://redletalis.wordpress.com/2013/...
June 6, 2010
I got about halfway through this book and still had only a low interest in the characters, and don't plan to finish it. The odd dialect (dropping initial pronouns) didn't help.
Read
June 21, 2012Just couldn't get into anything about this book unfortunately. More tell than show and the characters really didn't do much for me.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews