I read The Half-Drowned King because I embarked on a spree of reading Viking/Norse related books. Some time ago, I read all thirteen of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series, and more recently, I’ve read The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown, The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson, Erik the Red by Tilman Roehrig, Odin’s Child and The Rot by Siri Pettersen. I then binged The Last Kingdom on TV and followed that with The Vikings and Vikings Valhalla. So this novel fits right in.
Inspired by Icelandic Sagas, author Linnea Hartsuyker, in The Half-Drowned King, takes major and minor Norse history characters and weaves their lives in a dense tapestry. She creates a strong, though flawed, protagonist in Ragnvald Eysteinsson, and fully realizes even her minor characters, many of whom would be considered villains now. She faithfully recreates the Nordic world as documented in the sagas. When Ragnvald Eysteinsson’s father dies, the boy is left to protect his sister and mother until he comes of age and can inherit the family lands. His mother remarries, and his stepfather screws Ragnvald out of his patrimony. Left landless, he raids with other Vikings, and one attempts to kill Ragnvald—at his stepfather’s behest. From there, Ragnvald joins King Harald Fairhair’s army and rises to become the commander of Harald’s army. Hartsuyker also shows Svanhild, Ragnvald’s sister, as she finds her own way in Viking society and attempts to avoid a political marriage.
I enjoyed reading and getting a new take on characters I recognize from other works like Uhtred, Alfred the Great, and Harald Fairhair. The Half-Drowned King is the first in the Golden Wolf saga. I look forward to reading The Sea Queen (already in my TBR pile) and The Golden Wolf, being delivered any day now.
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The Half-Drowned King (Harper, August 1, 2017) is available through:
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You can find my reviews of some of the books above here:
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