![]() I listened to the audio production of this novel, narrated by Jeff Hays. That's not to say that his change of fortune is without conflict, as is to be expected, but I won't elaborate more in order to avoid spoilers. ![]() The manner in which this change of fortune occurs and the reactions of those who had known him as a thrall were a bit of a surprise, as they don't "fit the mold" of the change of fortune theme that is somewhat common in literature. Halfdan experiences a change of fortune that sets his life in a new direction. However, there is more in both his family history - and his future - than the life of drudgery that a thrall can expect. The hero of the story, Halfdan, is born a thrall to a household in Denmark. I look forward to hearing about the continuing adventures of Halfdan in the next novel in the Strongbow Saga, Dragons From The Sea. Viking Warrior has done that for this reader (listener). The most important thing about a novel that is first in a series is whether or not that novel makes a reader (listener) look forward to the next novel in the series. He really brought the story to life for me. Jeff Hays does an outstanding job narrating, switching between a wide variety of characters, male and female, old and young, with a variety of accents as well. The setting is well drawn out, the fight scenes excellently coreographed, and the narrative flows smoothly. ![]() A truly excellent book, with some great characters, especially Halfdan, a boy crossing into manhood in a society that is much more sophisticated than people would think. At the end of the pulse pounding action, Halfdan escapes, swearing to avenge his family. Halfdan is forced to flee alone, denounced by the scoundrel, and go on the run from a variety of hunters, putting all his old and new skills to the test. While his older brother takes him on a trip to see Halfdan's inhertance from his father, their stepbrother attacks with his vikings, wreaking terrible destruction. The only fly in the ointment is his fathers wife and her ne'er do well son, a truly evil berzerker captain. Halfdan grows closer to both his half brother and sister, who accept him as an equal. His older brother then starts training him in the way of the warrior, discovering Halfdan is already an excellent archer. In this way does he gain his freedom and lose his mother, all on the same day. When his father is fatally wounded on a raid, his mother makes a bargain with his father before he dies that Halfdan will be freed and legitimized, in return for agreeing to acompany his father on the deathship to Valhalla. He lives and works in the longhouse with his mother and the other slaves. cookbook writer.When the story begins, Halfdan is a house slave of a Danish viking lord, who is actually his father, having enslaved his Irish princess mother on a raid. Like rhubarb and strawberries, apple pie and cheese, roast pork and sage, the two tastes and textures meld together into the sort of subtle transcendental oneness that we once fantasized would be our experience when we finally found the ideal mate. “Rice and peas fit into that category of dishes where two ordinary foods, combined together, ignite a pleasure far beyond the capacity of either of its parts alone. That is why they insist upon their continuitytheir links with their dead and the unborn. Those who dismiss names as a detail have never been displaced but the peoples on the peripheries are always being displaced. “All nationalisms are at heart deeply concerned with names: with the most immaterial and original human invention. We have turned them into petty and ridiculous things. We have infected the pictures in museums with all our stupidities, all our mistakes, all our poverty of spirit. “ Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business are mostly imposters. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. Famous quotes containing the words links to, museums, links, viking and/or ship:
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