The King of Vinland’s Saga

By Stuart M. Mirsky

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The King of Vinland’s Saga is the unusual tale of Sigtrygg Thorgilsson, orphaned grandson of the legendary Viking Leif Eiriksson. Sigtrygg is denied this inheritance by his unscrupulous relatives in his native Greenland. To seek his future and fortune he gathers a crew of adventuring spirits and hunts for the mythical Vinland: a domain stumbled upon and abandoned by his famous ancestor.

Thorgilsson’s assemblage of colorful characters includes the timeworn Viking, Vargi Skeggjasson, full of profundity, courage, and foresight. Vargi, definitely one of the better-rounded individuals in Mirsky’s debut novel, is pleasingly balanced by the outlaw Arnliot Keelfoot, a disagreeable warrior, immense in strength and girth if not in mind.

When this eclectic threesome, among others of Sigtrygg’s crew, reach their
destination, they are confronted with all the dangers which exploring an unknown terrain brings. This rag-tag band of men must deal with Vinland’s native people, the Skrailings, but also the unforeseen arrival of Thorgilsson’s Greenlander kinsmen, come to dispute his claim.

The action/adventure tale is a page-turner. Mirsky’s style is straightforward, in your face, to the point! But it lacks descriptive details and well developed characters to invigorate and energize it. At some junctures the story moves at the pace of a snail on a slow day. Nevertheless, the reader will still be entertained, entranced and very involved with the plot and the lives of the characters in The King of Vinland’s Saga.