Odin's Child

Odd Tangle-Hair Saga #1

by Bruce MacBain

An old grudge erupts into violence as Odd Tangle-Hair refuses to back down from the men he believes shamed his father and betrayed their heritage by turning away from the old gods in favor of the White Christ. But when the violence escalates and Odd's family bears the brunt of it, he must leave his beloved Iceland behind and find his own way in the world.The golden age of Viking conquest is fading when he takes to the seas, buthis journey is full of adventures, and he meets priests and politicians as well as many unscrupulous men all too eager to take advantage of a young man abroad for the first time.Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and deeply rooted within the oral tradition of story telling, Bruce Macbain has woven an evocative saga that will sweep readers into the past and plant them firmly in Odd's rapidly changing world."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction

414 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2015

About the author

From boyhood, Bruce Macbain spent his days in reading history and historical fiction. The Greeks and Romans have held a special fascination for him and this led to earning a master’s degree in Classical Studies and a doctorate in Ancient History. Along the way, he also taught English as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Borneo. Later, he taught courses in Greek and Roman civilization at Vanderbilt University and Boston University, and published a few dense scholarly monographs, read by very few. Recently, he has turned to writing fiction, a much more congenial pursuit. He has previously published two historical mysteries set in ancient Rome, Roman Games and its sequel, The Bull Slayer. Now, he has turned his attention to his other favorite folk, the Vikings. He has completed a trilogy, "Odd Tangle-Hair's Saga" consisting of "Odin's Child," "The Ice Queen," and "The Varangian", which takes our hero from his home in Iceland to Norway, Russia, and Constantinople. Two of the novels have been selected as Editor's Choices in the Historical Novels Review.
Bruce spends his spare time in the kitchen, cooking spicy food.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be reviewing this for the Historical Novel Review, so my official comments will come later. In the meantime, this book was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and heartily recommend it. The story is compelling, the world and setting vibrant, the characters alive, and the writing compelling and mature. Well done, MacBain.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5

Ever since I did some research on Norse mythology for a project I wrote many years ago, I have been fascinated by the Scandinavian legends and mythology and history (it happens that this is my genealogical background, as well). And while there have been adventure stories based on the Norse gods, I am not aware of much literature that looks at the history in a fiction format. But now there is Bruce MacBain's 'Odd Tangle-Hair Saga' and it is brilliant.

Odin's Child is the first book in MacBain's saga and I will admit that while it caught my attention (and hence my request for a review copy), I was a little less than anxious to delve in to a re-telling of a Norse god story, because the Edda's by Snorri Sturluson are awfully good and don't really need a re-telling. After all, what else would this be, being called Odin's Child?

But this is NOT a retelling of the stories of the Viking gods. This is a well-researched historical fiction story of a young man, Odd, who is experiencing the transition of the worship of the old Norse gods to the new Christian god. He is a wanderer, a Viking, who experiences battles and imprisonment, friendships, expected and unusual, and the loss of friends. He is a story-teller, in the grand tradition, but he is also a fighter and ship's captain. He is a leader who is faithful to his followers.

This book relies on our attachment to the narrator, Odd Tangle-Hair, and fortunately MacBain has created a young man who is completely engaging while being appropriately modest and favored with fortune (he is, after all, Odin's child). We really do want him to succeed, given his treacherous beginnings, and like Einar and Stig and Glum, we'll follow and support him.

Due to the number of books I read and review, I set reading goals for myself -- number of pages and/or chapters -- and I regularly exceed my goals with Odin's Child because I kept wanting to read just a little more each time. That's always a mark of a good book for me.

If I were to make one complaint, it is that we do seem to move from one 'incident' to another, always putting Odd on edge and having to deal with something crucial. This is definitely in line with the Edda's and mythology story-telling, but in this context, I wouldn't have minded just a few more peeks at what a 'typical' day might have been like for Odd and his Viking friends. (And while I really like the beautiful cover as seen above, can anyone explain to me why the moon on the cover is dark on the side that faces the sun?)

I truly enjoyed this entire book, but I can say that I was most definitely hooked in the scene when Odd befriended Glum. You will have to read this book to understand who and what Glum is, and why this scene was so special.

I highly recommend this book. I can not wait for the next volume in the saga.

Looking for a good book? You've found one if you've picked up Odin's Child by Bruce MacBain. This is a must read.

I received an ARC of this book from the publicist in exchange for an honest review.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I hate to admit that it took me forever to really get into this book. I would read 10 pages or so then put it down. I finally sat down and told myself that I wouldn't get to read or buy any other books until I finished reading this one. So I did. It took til about 100 pages into the book to finally look forward to reading the next page. Now don't get me wrong, the writing was very good, but the characters fell a little short in the beginning. I thought that there was going to more viking plundering and killing. Closer to Prince of Thorns. There were of course, parts of the book that was brutal and washed in blood, it just didn't quiet hit home for me. The author Bruce MacBain can really paint a picture by describing almost every little thing. And that really reminded me of Jean Auel's Earth Children series. You know the one that takes her 8 pages to describe a cave. There were many places that the author could have really skimmed over and added more action and suspense to others. My favorite part of the book was:

"Who is guarding you?"
"Whipped dogs," the answer came back.
"Armed?"
"What difference to Pohjolan women -- aiiii!"
And Einar's cheery voice rang out, "One throat cut. Who'll be another?"

Dark, funny, what I was expecting and hoping for with this book.

All that aside the book was very enlightening. I feel like I learned a lot about vikings and what life was like back then. You can really tell that not only did the author do a lot of research but that he really loves what he is writing about.

While I didn't love the book, I didn't hate it either. When the next book does come out I plan to read it (the first book leaves off in such a way that you feel like you have to) as soon as I can. I really hope that the author can really make the cast of characters flourish.

[David Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so this book focuses on the life of Odd in 11th century Iceland. Odd’s father along with the rest of the family have falling out of favour with their neighbours during what I can imaging would be a very difficult time with people moving from one religion to another.

You can gather enough from the synopsis of the book to know that Odd gets in a bit of trouble and has to leave his home behind.

I won’t lie I felt a little lost in the first couple chapters. Maybe because I’m not used to reading a work of historical fiction in the first person.. Who knows? After that point the book did pick up pace considerably and I really started to enjoy it.

Odd decides to become a Viking and sale the high sea, make his fortune and return home to set things right.

As you can imagine things don’t always go to plan and we see Odd gather a crew and jump from one big event to another. So much is crammed in to the adventure it makes for a fascinating read although at times I just wanted Odd to calm down and stay put so I could take in everything that had just happened to him. We see him in battles and at one point imprisoned which for me was the best bit of the book as well as the most surreal.

The characters in this book made things really interesting. Glum was a particular favourite of mine.
As you can imagine with a story such as this people will die and I felt there was a great development of some of the friendships/relationships during these events.

It’s a great start to the series, Bruce has wrote a very engaging tale and I’d very much like to see how Odd’s adventure pans out.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I received this book free in exchange for an honest review, as part of this book's blog tour.)

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have a weakness for Norse tales, so I hopped right on this one. I received an ePub copy which had some really wonky formatting, but despite that, I was able to read it and enjoy it. (I have given up on books for this reason, but this one held me despite that, so point for it.)

It was written in First Person, and I found Odd to be a generally engaging narrator. His emotions seemed to wax and wane quite dramatically, but that can easily be put to 1) a dramatic age he lived in, and 2) he was a teenager. So if you could just roll with that, it was all good.

The time the story was written in was a hard and brutal age, and this was not spared by our author, yet it wasn’t used gratuitously either. Our narrator and his friends were not immune to the grey shades of morality, but they were a part of their age. And I didn’t find they greyness at points to be so dramatic or terrible as to drive me off.

Ultimately, I liked Odd and many of the characters, but Jorunn and Glum were by far my favorites.

The only thing that was a little trickier for me was just that we rolled from Big Event to Big Event, and it felt like quite a bit and quite quickly at points. Yet it still had that High Adventure feeling, and never so much that I stopped liking the book. I was able to read it in two nights, despite the formatting.

Definitely a solid 4 Fireball tale, and I will be looking for the sequel.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This first book of “Odd Tangle-Hair’s Saga” is a triumph for Macbain, previously known for clever detective novels set in ancient Rome. Odin’s Child starts in 11th century Iceland, where Odd grows up as the younger son of Black Thorvald, a once-fierce warrior who has fallen into bitter melancholy as the ways of the “White Christ” overcome the worship of Odin and Thor. When a rival chieftain rigs a murder charge against Odd and his brother in order to acquire Thorvald’s farm, the bloody consequences leave 16-year-old Odd no choice but to flee his homeland on a stolen ship with a ragtag crew. His ambitious plans to go a-viking and return, laden with gold, to take revenge on his family’s enemies go utterly awry as he is swept into extraordinary adventures in primitive Lapland, war-racked Norway, magic-haunted Finland, and finally on the border of Russia. Quite aside from the colorful settings, full of battle-lore and wonderful detail, Macbain’s skill is in letting us see how this inexperienced boy, haunted by the loved ones he has lost and desperate to prove himself, begins to know and trust himself as a man.

[Morgan Parabola · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of a historical novel, I think this book is fantastic. There were times in the beginning where I had a hard time getting into the book, especially due to some of the impulsive behaviors of Odd. However as I kept turning the pages I found myself appreciating the flawed nature of this protagonist. He makes errors and learns from them, and the journey he's on is captivating and real.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

[Kasey Cocoa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is good but goes into entirely too much detail on a rather frequent basis. I had a difficult time finishing this one. I love Viking history and that aspect of the book I found intriguing and interesting. The rest could really use some polish, especially with the characters and the flow during the first 1/3 of the book. I received an ARC through Smith Publicity in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good historical fiction and a bit of fantasy. This was all over my wheelhouse. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter and didn't put it down for the rest of the book. Delightful.

Thank you to the publisher for the galley copy and the opportunity to read and review it.

[Helen Hollick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs

"From the start, the action is relentless, sometimes brutal, but this is tempered by the sheer atmosphere of the settings which the author captures magnificently ... a talented writer"

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! On to the second in the series. 5+ Stars!

[Elysium · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christianity has come to 11th century Iceland and old traditions are changing while dividing some families on the way. 16-year old Odd’s father is holding to old pagan believes which is driving a wedge between his family and neighbors. After revenge killing becomes a political problem, Odd is sent to exile. He steals a ship and decides to go viking.

It did take me some time to really get into the story. At times it concentrates to describe things too much and while there is plundering, murder and blood, I guess I just expected there to be more of that. I liked Odd but I never understood why men would follow him and call him captain. He wasn’t someone to inspire that kind of loyalty.

And yey there’s Finland and Kalevala but I wasn’t really into those chapters. Kalevala chapters just didn’t work for me and I have to say that I’ve never read it so I can’t comment on that. But for me Kalevala is this mythical thing and 11th century is just too close. I mean we’re close to the Norman conquest! Too much is known about the period to be mythical.

It wasn’t a bad book by any means but I guess I just expected more.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, captivating story, kept me interested for more. I will definitely read book two of the Odd Tangle Hair saga.

[Uuencode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoying the book now and yet not finished this is the greatest novel about medieval Iceland and vikings I've read so far!

[Rickus Bookshelf]

DNF at 10%