Bears, berserkers and legendary battles

Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’m a bit tired, maybe I’ve just got too much stuff on my plate now, but sometimes I forget about big pieces of work I’ve done, and come to them anew and think: Wow, that is actually half-decent! This happened today with King of the North, the 4th novel in the Fire Born series.

The story is about my two heroes Bjarki Bloodhand and his half-sister, the fierce shield maiden Torfinna Hildarsdottir and their unwilling participation in the legendary Battle of Bravellir, which probably took place at the end of the 8th Century on the Swedish border with the territory of East Gotland. According to the Danish “historian” Saxo Grammaticus, 200,000 Norse warriors took part in the fight – including 300 shield maidens – which is clearly a massive exaggeration. And also he claims the steam from all their terrible wounds, when battle was joined, was so great that it “hung a mist over the sky”.

But, exaggerations aside, it was clearly a great battle that in long-remembered folk memory involved a hideous slaughter of a lot of brave warriors. After all, Saxo was writing in the 12th century, some four hundred years after the event. I wrote about this battle (or my fictional version of it) about a year and a half ago, and already it is dim in my memory. But flicking through the book today, I realise it is some of my best work. Bjarki and Tor find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, and there is some nifty work done in Act 3 by the two “spirit” bears: Mochta (who is dead) and Garm (who is alive). What I am saying it, this is a pretty decent Viking adventure book. Five stars. And if you haven’t read it, check it out here.

Part of the reason I am thinking about King of the North (Fire Born 4), is that Blood of the Bear (Fire Born Five), the last book in the series, is coming out this autumn (October 10). And you probably need to have read KOTN before reading BOTB. For more about Blood of the Bear, follow the link to its Amazon page.

The reason why the Fire Born books have slipped from my mind in recent months is that I do actually have a helluva lot on my plate right now. I’ve just self-published an Arthurian fantasy novel called The Broken Kingdom; I have written a TV sitcom for kids and sent it off to my agent to try and get a producer interested; and I have a new Mongol novel, the first in a trilogy, which is based on a true story, coming out next May. It will be called Templar Traitor: The Englishman who fought for Genghis Khan. I’ve written the first book of those three but I have to deliver the second one very soon, and I haven’t written word of it.

So, I’m pretty busy. But not so busy that I cannot stop and appreciate a fine Viking novel, that I had almost forgotten I’d recently written. So check out King of the North, and pre-order Blood of the Bear. And if you don’t know the Fire Born series at all, start with The Last Berserker. You will not forget it.

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