Buried Treasure, #3: The Loki Sword
Some people seem to be under the false impression that I live a life of relaxed calm and idle contemplation. I wish. I’ve written 25 books since my debut with Outlaw in 2009 and I’m now putting out approximately two (mostly historical) novels a year. It keeps me very, very busy. And since I also have to do all my own marketing and promotion, I often don’t give some of my books the PR push they truly deserve. This blog series is an attempt to rectify that. Each “Buried Treasure” featured is one of my books that I believe did not receive the attention it deserved on publication. This week, I’m writing about The Loki Sword.
This is the third volume for my Fire Born saga and when I began writing it I realised that the first two books in the series, The Last Berserker and The Saxon Wolf, were not exactly true Viking stories. The were good bloody tales of bold warriors from Northern Europe, I thought, but they were mostly about the long Frankish wars again the pagan Saxons. Where were the longships? Where were the Norse myths and legends, the long dangerous journeys into strange lands to raid and trade? And so I consciously tried to write a more Viking-y novel with The Loki Sword.
I think the book is terrific, honestly, I do. It’s a classic quest story in which our heroes, Bjarki, Tor and Valtyr travel deep into the heart of Europe (from Sweden to Hungary) by river in search of the treasure hoard of an ancient king and his fabulous “magic” sword. I invented a colourful background myth in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien about the Norse god Loki commissioning a special sword from the dwarfs, who then curse it because Loki tries to get out of paying them, and melded that into a “real” myth about a great battle between the Goths and the Huns that may have taken place some time in the 5th century somewhere on the Pannonian plain. I remain extremely proud of that little bit of myth-making. At the risk of tootling my own war horn, I think it’s some of the best work I have ever produced.
And yet The Loki Sword did not sell. It sold far fewer copies (maybe a tenth of the numbers) than either the books before it or after in the Fire Born series. And quite why remains a mystery. Did people not like the cover? Did they not like the title? Was there some glitch in the Amazon algorithm that stopped it being visible? I have no idea. And if any of my readers can enlighten me, I would be grateful. This is one of the most frustrating things about being an author. You just don’t know why some books don’t sell.
Anyway, this is the blurb on the back of the book, to give you an idea about the story:
An ancient blade, fit for the gods but tainted with a deadly curse
Bjarki Bloodhand has finally managed to subdue his gandr, the spirit that gives him the ferocity of a bear in battle. Yet losing his berserker prowess may leave him at the mercy of his foes.
Meanwhile, his half-sister, the shield maiden Tor Hildarsdottir, has slain two warriors from the personal retinue of the new Jarl of Norrland and now faces brutal reprisals for their deaths.
Valtyr Far-Traveller claims he has a solution to their problems: a long voyage south to the wild Slav lands to find a fabled lost sword said to once belong to the Norse trickster god.
The journey will prove more perilous than anything Bjarki or Tor has ever attempted before. Can all three heroes hope to survive the desperate hunt for… The Loki Sword?
An epic Viking quest for a legendary sword, perfect for fans of Giles Kristian and Conn Iggulden.
So if you haven’t read The Loki Sword, I urge you to give to a shot. It is available from Amazon in paperback, eBook and audio version at very reasonable prices. And please don’t be shy about telling me that you think of it. I’d like the mystery to be solved.
Comments (1)