A political whirlwind with adventure galore; Hartsuyker bows out on a high note.
The final installment of Hartsuyker's epic trilogy (The Sea Queen, 2018, etc.) brings together old friends and foes with a new generation of characters to follow, admire, and cheer.
When we last saw Ragnvald, he was the captive of Solvi, his sister Svanhild's seafaring first husband, and in bad need of rescue. Years later, the venerated warrior feels the effects of old age and constant battle. As King Harald's best friend and most trusted warrior, Ragnvald manages the king’s ever expanding holdings while Harald is distracted by a beautiful new wife. To make matters worse, Ragnvald's visibility throughout the kingdom marks him as a suspected usurper of Harald's power. But it's Harald's scheming son, Halfdan, who presents the real problem. Tired of waiting his turn, Halfdan mounts a rebellion by gathering allies from Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, and Sweden. Meanwhile, Svanhild has become disenchanted with her husband, Harald, despite having an unusual amount of freedom and power as his queen. So when she suddenly has the chance to return to Solvi, exiled in Iceland, she takes it. As Hartsuyker weaves the conclusion to her masterful epic, she artfully passes Ragnvald and Svanhild's story on to a new generation of characters. How have Svanhild and Ragnvald's complicated web of decisions affected their children? And what kind of world will they inherit once their parents are gone? Freydis, Svanhild and Solvi's teenage daughter, is a compelling new character, and she transforms from a scared young girl into a leader who wields soft power and political influence with a just hand. Ragnvald's sons, Ivar, Einar, and Rolli, each become, in their own ways, casualties to the constraints of Viking masculinity, steeped in both honor and vengeance. As the book races toward its conclusion, Ragnvald senses the fulfillment of an old prophecy and must decide whether to sacrifice himself for those he loves—or feed his family to the wolves.
A political whirlwind with adventure galore; Hartsuyker bows out on a high note.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256374-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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