Justice

Northworld #3

by David Drake

In Northworld, a world of eight warring planes where weaponry is supreme, gods and men battle for control of the Matrix, a high-tech bridge through space and time, and participant Nils Hansen faces a difficult challenge.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Mythology, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Fiction

282 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.

Reviews

[Julio Gilarranz]

In my opinion, the series deviated from the original setup of the first installment, and though it tried in this book to reconnect with it in one of the plot lines, it ended up finishing the trilogy as a collection of three separate, independent books. Not what I was looking for.

[Neil]

This is the final book in David Drake's sci-fi take on the Norse Eddas. I recognized one of the stories as being taken from the tale when Thor confronts two giantess sisters and their father; I did not recognize the background tales for the other two 'stories' in the novel itself. It had a decent flow, overall. It moved at a good pace.

There are three 'plots' interwoven throughout the novel. I think the basic plot is that Nils Hansen must right two specific 'wrongs' [one which was his fault, one which is a challenge to his abilities] A second story involves Sparrow the Smith attempting to acquire a wife for his 'master', the god Saburo. The third tale involves one of the two plots involving Nils Hansen - two Searchers are punished for defying North.

Things have gone wrong in the Western Kingdom. Hansen's desire to bring 'peace' to the region has backfired as a petty demagogue is now in power and he is crushing everybody around him if they do not swear allegiance to him. Hansen is appalled at how even more unjust society has become around him, and North challenges Hansen to 'fix' his mistake. The only way to 'fix' the mistake is to destroy everything Hansen has spent the last 100 years building.

Meanwhile, two Searchers [Race and Julia, introduced in the previous novel 'Vengeance'] save a valiant warrior who North wishes to kill to save his soul and spirit 'for the Final Battle on the Last Day.' The warrior manages to defeat four out of five opponents who ambush him, but then five more warriors appear to attack the valiant victor. Angry at how the odds have been manipulated by North, the two Searchers kill the new ambushers, only to be taken away by North. North is furious with them but gives them a chance for atonement.

In the Western Kingdom, the demagogue has been provided with a gift, a device that alters probability and allows him to control Fate so that the odds will ever be in his favor.

Fortin drops in on Plane Five and is captured by the military minds of Starnes Keep. He is tortured and after being drained of what he knows, he promises if his tormenters will let him go he will provide them with an even greater challenge [drum roll - Nils Hansen dangled as the prize]. He also promises to deliver Hansen alone and unarmed. Starnes and Karring [Keepkeeper and head of his research division] agree to these terms and let Fortin go. Starnes has two daughters - Lisa [thing and somewhat attractive in a plain sort of way] and Lena [thick [fat?], intelligent, and always with two male lovers/toys] who help provide security for the APEX computer system. APEX is some sort of high-tech, newfangled, ultimate computer system that was included as support for the first fleet that disappeared onto plane Five; North believes this computer system can provide him with answers he needs to better prepare for the Northworld version of Ragnarok. The system is very close to determining how the inhabitants of Starnes Keep can pass through the Matrix to invade other worlds/planes of existence [which might not have been a bad thing if North and his gods could have force Plane Five to attack the Lomeri on Plane Two].

Unbeknownst to Hansen, North provides Venkatna [the demagogue with delusions of grandeur] with Race and Julia to power the probability generator. Battles start swinging Venkatna's way, and Hansen [who has joined the Opposition] becomes frustrated. He was ecstatic that Krita [calling herself 'Kriton' and trying to pose as a man] had joined his forces, but she is taken captive along with Salles [an ally] and most of Hansen's initial forces [due to the probability generator's adverse effects].

Meanwhile, Fortin approaches Hansen [in a different point in time as duration no longer has any meaning for them] and tells him about Plane Five and how they have offered to let him use the APEX Fleet Battle Computers so that he can finish the task originally assigned to him by the Consensus back in the first novel. Hansen expects a trap and speaks with Krita before he goes; she provides him with a Level Three Command Helmet before they consummate and he has to leave. North had given her the helmet to give to Hansen when Krita 'determined was the right time' and this seemed like the best time to pass the helmet along. She is unhappy he will not let her help him on Plane Five, so she instead goes to the Open Lands [Plane One, I think ?] to join his forces opposing Venkatna.

Sparrow figures out something is amiss with his friend/master/retainer/boss, Saburo, and offers to assist him in any way he can. Saburo shows him a princess [Mala] with whom he is smitten and Sparrow promises to provide her as his wife. Sparrow then makes his plans, including studying Venkatna's probability generator before heading to the Android's Plane of Existence to find this princess. He kills a slave gang guarding the Keep in which the Princess lives [including her android brother] before entering the Keep. He finds a woman inside who is like a maid to the Princess Mala who takes Sparrow to Mala; Sparrow realizes he has taken a fancy to Olrun [the maidservant] and offers to bring her back with him when he takes Mala. When he finds Mala and tells her of her 'new' fate, she retreats into the Matrix. Sparrow pursues and torments her with various 'Fates' until she agrees to return with him to be Saburo's bride.

Esme, Venkatna's wife, dies and Venkatna is furious with Race and Julia for not saving her life. When he finds out his fortress is under attack, he snaps. The final straw occurs as Race and Julia ask for a moment's peace to rest and eat; the probability generator is slowly killing them, and the constant usage is further destroying their bodies. In response to their request for a moment's peace to rest, he demands they re-enter the generator for this final battle. His last order to them is that there will be no peace; he does not realize he has just ordered his own destruction.

Hansen and Third [the helmet] destroy Starnes Keep, ensuring Starnes cannot continue his reign of destruction on Plane Five of Northworld. He is clever as to how he goes about his business of destruction. Instead of entering the Keep directly through the Matrix [as Fortin did], he instead appears in the swamps surrounding the fortress. He then proceeds on foot and enters through the sewage system. All of the Keep's defenses are bypassed with the help of Third, and Hansen achieves his objective of reaching the APEX Fleet Battle Computer system [the biggest, most powerful, most awesome, fastest computer system in known existence as it has morphed over time to become even more powerful than it was upon first entering this plane of existence].

As Hansen and his 'meager' forces battle Venkatna's army, hundreds of new warriors constantly appear. They are dressed in golden royal battle suits, and they turn the tide in Hansen's favor. Oddly enough, they are crewed by former friends, allies, and comrades-in-arms who had died over the past 100 years. Just before he kills Venkatna in 'final battle', he sees Krita's head taken off in battle. Venkatna's final dying act is to accidentally destroy the probability generator as well as his wife's embalmed body. Race and Julia are set free, finally free from their atonement.

The book ends with Hansen singing in the shower, only to be surprised by one final gift from [by] North.

Other than Sparrow kidnapping a woman after torturing her into agreeing to marry his 'friend' and master Saburo, I would say it was a pretty good book, overall. Lena and her bizarre S&M stuff was a stupid addition to the book and did not really lend much to the character or the storyline. It could have been left out without ruining the story. So I guess other than those two things, it was okay. 'Good' is such a relative term, y'know?

[Joe Santoro]

I really had to log through this one... and I was disappointed in the end. Rather than actually do something with his plot from the first book that was by and large ignored in the 2nd one.. this one doubled down on the ignoring of the plot and just retold 3 Edda poems with his characters with really very little variety. I would usually be into that sort of thing, but you need to have big interesting grandiose characters to pull off the larger than life deeds in such legends, and they just don't exist here.

While the tactical bit of one of Hansen's two simulataneous adventures (which was also weird, but since they were completely unrelated it didn't matter much) was interesting, I spend most of the time reading this wishing I was done with it.

[Brad]

If I were to rank the three books in the Trilogy, I'd go with Northworld, Justice, then Vengeance. To be brutally honest, I didn't really get a lot out of the series as a whole; the writing was good but the characters never seemed to develop any depth, and the narratives felt more like a rattly bag of ideas (some good, so not so) than a well-planned whole. Of the three, this one had the best plot line and most breathless end sequence; Northworld, by comparison, had a very odd, short, end sequence that didn't marry with the rest of the book at all. In summary - OK. It has made me interested in delving into Norse Mythology, at least!

[Lisa]

This is a great finish to the trilogy. Several story lines are woven together, each interesting on their own. The action scenes are so intense that I felt quite wrung out at the finish. I'll return to this author when I've had time to recover.

[Tony Hinde]

The ending was a little underwhelming, but as a whole, I thought highly of this series.

[Niraj]

I liked the premise of being a God, and loved the way the protagonist won, but overall it just didn't do it for me. I was expecting another ending and was disappointed that I didn't get it.

[J.]

The first half of this book is something of a slog. There's some necessary setup in there, but I'm not sure it needed to be as detailed and extensive as it was. When the action (finally) begins, though, it's great. [SPOILER ALERT] There is nothing so cool as a railgun round going through nine planes of existence. And where it ends up? I didn't expect it, didn't see it coming, and that's pretty rare. [END SPOILER ALERT]

Skimmed the first half. Devoured the rest. Could have lived without the sexual overtones (they're only in spots, not throughout) but the spoiler mentioned above made it all worthwhile. And the final battle? Excellent.

We'll call this one four stars. Want more from this author.

[Steven]

Even more visceral then the first two books in the series this one interweaves three Norse tales. I flew through this book, the action comes so fast it is almost physically jarring to read, and it hits so hard it would be easy to miss some the subtler underlining themes.

[bluetyson]

Northworld by David Drake (2000)

[Charl]

A whole scifi/fantasy trilogy based on the Norse Eddas, written by one of the masters of military SF. Awesome. Simply awesome.