Review of Sigurd’s Swords – Olaf’s Saga book2

Book Title: Sigurd’s Swords

Series: Olaf’s Saga, Book 2

Author: Eric Schumacher

Publication Date: June 28, 2021

Publisher: Bodn Books

Page Length: 300 Pages (print)

Genre: Historical Fiction

From best-selling historical fiction novelist, Eric Schumacher, comes the second volume in Olaf’s Saga: the adrenaline-charged story of Olaf Tryggvason and his adventures in the kingdom of the Rus.

AD 968. It has been ten summers since the noble sons of the North, Olaf and Torgil, were driven from their homeland by the treachery of the Norse king, Harald Eriksson. Having then escaped the horrors of slavery in Estland, they now fight among the Rus in the company of Olaf’s uncle, Sigurd. 

It will be some of the bloodiest years in Rus history. The Grand Prince, Sviatoslav, is hungry for land, riches, and power, but his unending campaigns are leaving the corpses of thousands in their wakes. From the siege of Konugard to the battlefields of ancient Bulgaria, Olaf and Torgil struggle to stay alive in Sigurd’s Swords, the riveting sequel to Forged by Iron. 

REVIEW

Sigurd’s Swords is a fabulous story of warrior life in tenth century.

I didn’t know too much about the history of the Rus and the Slavs so I was keen to get to grips with this book.

The story is told through the eyes of Torgil, the noble lad charged with keeping an eye on his younger childhood friend, Olaf, the son of a Norse king, driven from his land into exile. The subtitle of the book gave me the impression that the main character would be Olaf but that was not the case of course as this turns out to be very much more Torgil’s saga rather than Olaf’s.

The two youths couldn’t be more unalike, Olaf being the likeable but selfish, slightly narcissistic trouble maker and Torgil the more sensitive, sensible and deeply passionate one. Schumacher’s portrayal of two young warriors finding their way in the world they should never have been thrown into is well done. Their destiny would have been much different had it not been for the betrayal of Harald Eriksson.

With them is the girl, Turid, for whom Torgil’s love goes unrequited – or perhaps it doesn’t, and Turid just does’t realise it. Her rejection of his love has more to do with the fact that she wants to be a warrior than it has to do with her not being attracted to him – but throughout their adventures the sexual tension between them is palpable and ads an interesting, if not steamy, romantic layer to Schumacher’s tale.

I don’t know much about the places he is depicting, but Schumacher builds his world confidently and convincingly, giving you a snapshot of everyday life in the Rus world adding in the visceral sights and smells of that time. His portrayal of Olaf’s uncle Sigurd’s warrior band and their lives, gives you that feeling that he knows his subject. His ability to create a believable environment is credit to him and the battle scenes are well written showing his extensive knowledge of Viking Age combat.

In this riveting sequel to Forged in Iron, we see intrigue, sieges, battles on the ground, and combat at sea. Also story of camaraderie and friendship, and a dash of fatal attraction. Schumacher carefully crafts his story telling with his pleasantly drawn characters, making this an engrossing, enthralling read.

Not having read the first book had put me somewhat at a disadvantage, however it was still an enjoyable historical romp and did not hinder the plot for me in anyway. Of course it would have been better to read them in order and I do think potential readers should consider reading book one first. That aside, I recommend anyone who enjoys adventures of Dark Age warriors and the Viking sagas read this.

Author Bio

Eric Schumacher

Eric Schumacher (1968 – ) is an American historical novelist who currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife and two children. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended college at the University of San Diego.

At a very early age, Schumacher discovered his love for writing and medieval European history, as well as authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Those discoveries continue to fuel his imagination and influence the stories he tells. His first novel, God’s Hammer, was published in 2005.

Social Media Links:

Website: 

http://www.ericschumacher.net

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Facebook:

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LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-schumacher-91b80b

BookBub:

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Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/Eric-Schumacher/e/B00K8G4YW

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/399517.Eric_Schumacher

Book link – mybook.to/sigurdsswords

Check out the previous blog stops

The Last King Blog Tour: MJ Porter

Blog Tour: The Last King: England: The First Viking Age

(Powered by Coffee Pot Blog Tours)

  By M J Porter

July 14^th – September 15^th 2020

Please welcome MJ Porter to my blog as part of her blog tour, to talk about an aspect of her research into The Last King.  As a writer of pre-Conquest England myself, her post here resonates with me! Imagining the landscape of England in times gone.

Mapping the 870’s

 

The Last King is set in Mercia in the Ninth Century, one of the ancient kingdoms of England.

One of the particular challenges of writing about Mercia, or any early English period, is trying to reconstruct the physical landscape. Places that could be assumed to be prominent, were simply not, and vice versa. The most obvious of these is that London was not England’s capital at the time. Equally, river courses may have changed, and bridges may have been built in the modern era, although there are a surprising amount of ancient bridges that might surprise you.

While there are many maps of the time period available, they never (in my experience) actually show everything that you want to know. They don’t tell you where the roads went in great detail, or even what the roads looked like. They don’t always make it clear which side of a river was inhabited, and which side wasn’t. The size of the population is unknown, and even more, the size of the Viking forces is impossible to calculate.

In writing the three books to date in the Ninth Century series, I’ve had a bit of an ace up my sleeve. My father is known as the ‘mapman’ and my ‘mapman’ has hundreds, and hundreds of antique maps of England, Scotland and Wales. And so, rather than spending hours pouring over google maps, I’ve spent my time looking at these antique maps, in conjunction with the maps available from historical non-fiction sources.

For the third book in the series, I wanted to write about both Northampton, and Cambridge. I’ve never visited either place, and more, I don’t know what they might have looked like in the past.

So, to my ‘mapman,’ and his 1610 Speed Maps of both of these places. John Speed (1551/2 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer and historian and is one of the best-known English mapmakers of that time period. His maps are highly decorative, and they also show little ‘cut outs’ of the county towns. And so, for Northampton, and Cambridge, I had an idea of what those places looked like in the Seventeenth Century. Still, eight hundred years later, but much closer than visiting those sites today and trying to decipher what might have been there long ago.

Northamptonshire

Northampton

Yet, even here, there was a piece of information waiting to trip me up, because unlike the Cambridge of today, it’s believed that Cambridge in the 870’s was actually on the opposite side of the river.

Finding the landscape of the historical past is difficult, but I’ve found that using antique maps, rather than more modern ones, can be incredibly helpful, especially when they include images of the landscape (trees and hills)!

 

Author Bio:

M J Porter

I’m an author of fantasy (viking age/dragon themed) and historical fiction (Early English, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since AD1066. I write A LOT. You’ve been warned!

Connect with M J Porter:

Website • Blog • Twitter