One King's Way

Hammer and the Cross #2

by Harry Harrison, John Holm

A craftsman, visionary, and warrior, Shef has risen from slavery to become king of a mighty Viking nation. But his growing kingdom menaces all of Europe, and he has made many powerful enemies.

Chief among his enemies are the Knights of the Lance, a fanatical order of soldiers sworn to bring Shef down, no matter what the cost. To defeat Shef, they will go to extraordinary lengths to find the sacred spear of Christ--and resurrect the Holy Roman Empire.

Driven by dreams, Shef battles to change the course of history, but even the gods themselves may be plotting against him....

Genres: Fantasy, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical, War

480 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second installment of the Hammer and Cross trilogy happily does not suffer from a sophomore slump; indeed, if anything, this is better than the first. While the first in the series focused primarily on England and the rise of Shef from his lowly beginnings to becoming King of Norfolk, OKW shifts to the Nordic lands-- the many kinglets of what will be known as Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

Shef, ever inventive and keen to combine old and new knowledge to produce something better, decides that the best way to stop Viking raids on England is basically a strong coast guard, but what can stop the deadly Viking longboats? Shef, again, working with many others, devises a ship that can launch heavy stones via 'onagers'-- an ancient projectile weapon that shoots stones like a catapult, but with a straight trajectory. One blow from a stone is enough to sink the valiant albeit somewhat fragile Viking ships. So, while the new coast guard ships are slow and unwieldy, simply by patrolling the coast they constitute a strong deterrent. Shef decides to take his new fleet on a raid to thwart his enemies the Ragnarssons which does not go as planned. In fact, Shef ends up shipwrecked on Danish shores with nothing but his eating knife...

Harrison weaves a complex plot here. On the one hand, we have Shef and his adventures in the Nordic lands, 'visiting' some of the major ports and experiencing what life is like for the hearty Northernmen. Against this backdrop, we have the machinations of some of the members of the Roman church, who wish to reconstitute a version of the Holy Roman Empire centered in 'Germany'. To facilitate this, and create a rallying point, they endeavor to find the lance that struck Jesus on the cross, which they trace to somewhere in Nordic lands.

What makes this such a fascinating series are the 'what ifs?' along the way. As the cover blurb states, "what if... the Vikings conquered Britian-- and threatened the entire Christian World?" But beyond this, Harrison explores the revitalization of 'machine war', where onagers and other projectile weapons lay hash to the 'tried and true' forms of warfare that have existed for centuries. In the last volume, Shef defeated both the Vikings in England, killing one of the Ragnarssons in the process, and the 'Holy Crusade' lead by the King of France invading England as well, in part, due to his new machines.

This questing for new technology is in line with "The Way," a somewhat moderated form of Nordic theology that is gradually sweeping the North and poses a challenge to the Roman Church. The (re)invention of things like crossbows and so forth is described in great detail; this reminded me of K.J. Parker's work The Escapement and the rest of his Engineer's Trilogy. Shef and a few buddies explore new ways to work metal, discover the power of windmills, and even take a shot at distilling liquor! The curiosity of Shen and pals is infectious-- they not only devise new tools and such, but new ways of constructing them, almost mass produced! I loved these sections, although some may find them a bit tedious (so much detail); in any case, you can tell Harrison did a lot of homework here.

The only real fantasy elements here concern the role of the Nordic gods and Shef's visions. He is not the only one who has them-- priests in the order of The Way have them also-- but the dialogue among the gods is fascinating and brings the Nordic Canon to life. I am by no means an expert on Norse mythology, but Harrison seems to do it justice nonetheless.

While this wraps up nicely, it also sets the stage for the next volume, which looks to be something of a holy war the likes of which the world has never seen. 4.5 Nordic stars!!!

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Harrison's fantasy-historical novel continues. It's a fantasy due to the events described and the bevy of preternatural and supernatural beings that inhabit the tale, but it is "historical" in that the setting is Earth in the 800s. While the countries and some of the key players are real, the events described did not happen and the technology they use is a few hundred years advanced.

After the events in the first book, Shef is now co-King with Alfred over England. Shef is also renowned for the killing of Ivar "The Boneless" Rangnarson and inventing new technology. He follows the "Way", which is a formalized Norse religion based on the traditional faith.

This second volume has Shef, who becomes separated from his men, on a long journey through Scandinavia. While wandering the lands of the Norwegians, Finns and Swedes- it turns out that he might hold the key to a prophecy about a coming ruler.

He also meets some rather odd preternatural creatures that assist him in his quest. But, there is also another cool character introduced- Bruno, a German Knight, who along with Bishop Erkenbret founds an organization of Holy Knights (much like the real world Teutonic Knights) that will not only protect Christians in Nordic lands, but is also seeking a piece of the Spear of Longinus.

Shef's wanderings and resulting troubles were not as exciting as the first book, but still quite enjoyable. A different fantasy-based alternative history. But it is a good read (no pun intended) and one I will finish off when I get the third book. Looking for something different? With Middle Age setting and some odd fantasy creatures? You will like this series.

[scafandr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than first book

[Cassie W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

Interesting enough to keep me reading to the end though it was slow going. Too many random plot points crammed in to one book, seemingly just to draw it out and make it last longer. As with the first book, the end was very anti-climactic. The gods seemed to be used solely for solving Shef's problems when he is backed into a corner. I have no interest in reading the third book as I couldn't care less about most of the characters at this point, nor what the Christians will do with the lance.

[Steven Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

And excellent adventure yarn continuing the story from “The Hammer and the Cross”. It is an interesting blend of viewpoints and perceived realities of various religious thought. Well-written as expected, it is continued in the final installment “King and Emperor”. The predictability of the story arc now diminishes the excellence factor just a bit, and some of the technological developments are really too rapid for credulity. But if you like a fast-paced medieval period pseudo-historical tale of adventure, this one will satisfy.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent follow-up to The Hammer and the Cross. Adventure is king, here, and reader travel far and wide across medieval Scandinavia with Shef and friends. The pacing is somewhat sluggish for a thick, middle portion of the book, but events do pick up and accelerate swiftly by the end. One King's Way is much, much more than alternate history... It's alternate human civilization and it's compelling. Readers will be diving directly into book 3 of the trilogy, King and Emperor.

[C.I. DeMann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this series. This 2nd book's not quite as good as the 1st one (it's all adventure, with not as much nation-building), but it's still very very good. I'm looking forward to seeing how the trilogy ends.

[Djordje · Rating 4 out of 5]

UKUPNA OCENA (overall rating) ★★★★ 4/5
Radnja (story) ★★★★ 4
Okruženje (setting) ★★★✫ 3.5
Pripovedanje (writing style) ★★★ 4

UTISAK (summary) - Odličan nastavak sage. Kvalitet priče nije opao i knjiga je zanimljiva sve vreme.

[Michael Bonkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most excellent 2nd book of this series

Interesting how he has placed the people of The Way between the old Norse God's with no hope and only defeat at the end; and the Christians whose only hope is to be saved by the gift of God.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid sophomore entry into the series. If you like alternate History, Vikings, Ancient England then this is a series you will devour the way Fenrir will devour the sun on Ragnarok.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the book better than the first,now for the third.Shit he could write a good tale.

[Loosefish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first book but still interesting.

[JMA · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting but not as good as the first. Jinky timeline was frustrating. Otherwise I liked it.

[Gee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was like walking through marsh pit. You see where you want to be, but it's a slow and mucky walk in wet clothes. I wish all the best to Shef, but I'm tapping out of this adventure. DNF 50%.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harry Harrison’s Hammer and Cross trilogy is a rollicking adventure story, but underlying its tale is a profound consideration of intellectual and social stagnancy of medieval Europe in the 9th century and consideration of its cause, the pervasive influence of Christianity and the Catholic Church. What if the re-birth of thought and invention could be kick-started 400 years earlier than the renaissance of the late 14th century? What might be the circumstances that would enable a man to set in motion the demise of Catholic absolutism and the birth of free thought and free men?

The trilogy begins in the late 9th century, in 865 AD, and it barely spans five years, but it’s enough to cover 1300 pages and sweep clean the historical slate, preparing the Western world to precociously toddle into the renaissance and enlightenment and beyond. The protagonist, Shef, is the bastard son of a raiding Viking and English noblewoman, and he is but a 17-year-old thane, a piece of property in an English village on the northeast coast of England, not far from York. The appearance of Vikings sets off a chain reaction, and circumstances enable Shef—through good luck, cunning, and perhaps the divine providence of a lesser Asgardian god—to rise from thane to joint ruler of England, driving off both Viking and French invaders. In this first installment and in the succeeding novels, Shef pursues new knowledge to overcome the power-hungry forces that will not abide his growing influence.

It is the pursuit of new knowledge—not bookish philosophy or theology, but a practical scientific empiricism—that allies Shef with powerful sponsors, members of Asgard’s Way, enabling him to bridge English and Viking loyalties. Shef’s inventiveness initially provides his forces catapults, lance launchers, an all-purpose pike, and crossbows reinforced with steel, then there is development of windmills to grind grain and drive engines to smelt iron, then the creation of iron-clad ships and experiments with rudimentary flight, and even the application of algebra to compute catapult trajectories at a crucial moment. Even as he creates more sophisticated weapons to fight off Viking, French, Greek, and Arab forces, there is awareness that his chief foe, Bruno the Catholic, is fast matching the development of comparable weaponry.

At the conclusion of the final novel, Shef brings Catholic forces to their knees, annihilating Catholic sovereignty, and enabling nations and people to choose their own paths. Shef is confident that the world will no longer succumb to the enforced ignorance of the previous 500 years, aware that the great school he founded with Asgard’s Way, in England, at the present site of Cambridge, is working to discover more techniques to improve agriculture, medicine, and the manufacture iron and steel, as well as create new machines. It is with this confidence in a world changed for the better that he vanishes from sight, escaping into anonymity and seclusion with his Viking wife.

While it is all solid entertainment, there are two quibbles. First, Shef’s avoidance of apotheosis touches on a major thread in the novel. Even as Christianity and Asgard’s pantheon are being shown as having convergences, and even as Shef seems to be bringing about the resurrection of dead god Baldur, driven and guided by his own patron god, there is in the second half of the final novel a sudden questioning of the reality of the gods, even the ones who have been observed in Shef’s visions (and external to his visions, as when Odin intervenes to help Shef kill Ragnar’s son at the end of the second novel). That man makes his gods in his own image is no new concept, but its intrusion at this juncture in the series makes it difficult to understand just how Shef could have been tapping into a collective religious psyche to fashion his own, more liberating god. The second quibble has to do with the future millennium—and it is no fault of Harrison that he’s not answered the question, as it was merely his task to show how the medieval period could be truncated—but one does wonder what might lie ahead in this alternate history, especially as the new world (the Americas have yet to be “discovered” and “conquered”).

[Sean Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has to hold the spot for the best tension generator for quite some time. It leapt from conflict to conflict with masterful skill, and certain parts - Shef's rescue from Queen Ragnhild and the approaching battle against King Kjallak and the Swedish most notable among them - had me so swept up in the story that the howling wind outside could almost have been the driving gusts pushing the ships along the Danish seas.

It wasn't all battle and bloodshed, though. the Grind - the great whale hunt - pulled at the heartstrings. Even if not for animal cruelty per se, the sheer majesty of the thing can't help but sweep you in. Then there's the men who have suffered mentally, for all the violence and fighting they've been a part of. Brand and Cuthred, mainly, though there's also a lot of question as to Shef's stability and fortitude.

So all of that, combined with the inferences and questions to religion; especially the Way as a middle-of-the-road counterpoint to the banality of Christianity and harshness of Paganism, rounded out this book very well indeed. Lots of typical battle and strife, but with plenty of food for thought, too.

[Michael Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continues the alternate history (fantasy) tale began in "The Hammer and The Cross", involving a what-if scenario of the Vikings taking over Europe in the Middle-Ages. Shef is now one of two kings in England, and while testing his newly built battle ship becomes separated from his crew and companions. He then proceeds to have adventures up and down Western Europe, skirmishing with Danes, Swedes, Germans, Norsemen, and Finns, as well as encounters with trolls and killer whales. "One King's Way" wasn't quite the battle-centric tale of the first in the series, but is certainly filled with high amounts of tension and skirmishes from beginning to end. There is a bit more involvement of the various visions that Shef has of the Gods, as well as of the Christ figure central to the Christian religion. The whole thing sort of reads like a filler adventure that takes place in between major wars as it sets up a palpable tension in the Pagan vs Christian conflict that is the premise of the series -- I'm hoping that this time the pagans win against the corrupt and decadent church that tyrannized Europe during those dark days in actual history.

[Susan Hug · Rating 5 out of 5]

This trilogy is my first exposure to Harry Harrisn, and what an enjoyable yarn! It feels like the author takes the reader on a series of tall tales, s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g readers' credibility beyond reaon, then reeling in the narrative back to the believable (well, almost.) How many authors can combine accurate medieval historical background with an alternate history, sprinkle in trolls, orcas on a mission, and a hero whose many lives would make a cat envious? Mr. Harrison's story telling is imaginative, skillful, full of suspense and anachronisms, ex: there's a situation where 9th century leaders play rock, paper, scissors while planning a multi-pronged attack ___and it's pretty funny. I'm not usually a fan of fantasy & am sparing with my willing suspenson of disbelief, but for Harrson, I surrender. If you're not a history purist (read snob), give this series a try, but start on a lazy weekend---you won't want to put it down. After finishing this novel I was exhausted!

[Ronny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars, some likeable characters (though at times the protagonist feels more like a plot-vessel then a person), good action and travel bits (except for the high mountains around the Oslo fjord). Parts of it were very engrossing, while at other times, I just wanted to get on with it (the pay-off at times felt a bit lacking).

[Amanda Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some swashbuckling historical fantasy I'm kind of enjoying right now. One of my neighbors was moving and among this whole trilogy was the outer numbers of the "Dark Tower" series and some Heinlein books.

Even though I knew this writer also did the "Stainless Steel Rat" series, I was expecting it to be kind of funny but its still a solid, exciting Viking story.

[Bobscopatz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sequel was even better than the first book in the series. The situations are exciting, the characters continue to grow and become more interesting. A bit of strangeness as it slips away from remote plausibility to more pure fantasy elements, but I still loved it.

[Philip Chaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Brisk Harrison page-turner. If I read fantasy hokum, it should be enjoyable, engaging and briskly brings the quest to a resolution or cliffhanger when the second book of a trilogy. Harrison held the Viking period in reverence and a modicum of historical research shines through.

[Thannasset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of a great 'alternate history' series--and there aren't many.

[Tristancsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in the series.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book of Harry Harrison's "Hammer and Cross" series set in an alternate fantasy version of Scandinavia in the late 9th century C.E. I re-read this for inspiration for NaNoWriMo 2009.

[M.A. Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical feasibility -- so what? I love this series.

[Christine Bowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this second book in the series and look forward to the third and more of Shef's discoveries and adventures.

[Óli Sóleyjarson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alveg skemmtileg en oft ótrúverðug.

[Martin]

Ex HH?