The Fell Deeds of Fate (The Saga of Hasting the Avenger)
For Viking warriors of the 9th century, reputation is all, and Hasting worries that his is on the wane. After leading the siege of Paris a couple of years before, he has settled down and put on weight, only to find that storytellers have begun to credit his exploits to a rival. No wonder his wife complains that he drinks too much! The solution, he decides, is to gather a fleet of longships, traverse the great riverways of Eastern Europe to the fabled city of Miklagard (Constantinople), and conquer it.
His companion on the quest is Bjorn Ironsides. Both are based on real historical figures of the period, but the plot is mostly fictional and narrated by Hasting himself. While this deprives us of objectivity about other characters, it does provide an insight into the self-doubts that trouble him, giving him a more complex personality than a stereotypical Viking. Some of his reflective comments, however, feel a tad too modern for me. The story works best in its absorbing action sequences where the writing has a fast-paced fluidity. Period detail is well researched, especially for nautical, martial and architectural aspects. Personally, I would have liked the natural landscape to come alive a little more, but otherwise the book is recommended for anyone who enjoys a good Viking Age adventure.
This volume opens a new series, The Saga of Hasting the Accursed, and the ending suggests it will be essential to read them in order. Adrien wrote a previous trilogy about Hasting which I have not read, but reference to events of the earlier books is sufficiently detailed for it not to be a necessity in my opinion.
