29 May 2011

Viking Trilogy

Just finished reading this series; Odinn's Child, Sworn Brother and King's Man, by Tim Severin.

Basically its a saga about one man's journeys around the turn of the millennium.  Focused mainly in the Norse world, he also travels across most of Dark Ages Europe from Ireland to Constantinople/Miklagard.  I admit it took me awhile to get into these books, but one I did I really enjoyed them.  Its a series much more focused on the cultures of the times, as opposed to a running thread of battle sequences, and the main character finds himself at the centre of the most significant events of the age (like Flashman, but without the comedic and cad-like behaviour!) .

If that sounds appealing to you then I recommend these books.  Read more about them here: http://www.timseverin.net/viking.html

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recommendation I will have to give these a look after I finish Cornwell's Saxon Stories.

    Any chance we could get you to put together another post with all your recommended reading for the Viking/Saxon era?

    Thanks, Dan

    ReplyDelete
  2. You bet Dan. I've just started my next Viking book, let me get into that a bit so I can add some comment on that one also.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I must say I thought they were tedious compared to Cornwell but interesting as a travelogue!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read them right after Cornwell too, and thus took some time to get into them. Once I did though I found it an interesting series from a context & setting perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I read these last year, I thougally enjoyed them!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the recommendation. I have the three in an omnibus edition and was finding it a bit hard to get into despite the fact that it's pretty tightly written. Maybe my problem was that I was simultaneously reading the Uthred stories (Cornwell) and they were more of an 'immediate hit'? In any event, they're now back on list to read.

    Great stuff that you're doing in your cave, btw.

    ReplyDelete