King and Emperor

I've enjoyed this third volume of "Hammer & the Cross" saga greatly. First I want to point out how Harrison starts from an universe deeply rooted in early middle ages in the first volume and end in a completely different environment, created by the new facts and actions performed by Shef and his pals. In "King and Emperor", the human dimension of each character grows and they are confronted with moral and ethical dilemmas. Shef, Svandis, Cwicca, Thorvin, Bruno, Brand and the rest (even the crooked Erkenbert) has to choose between different actions in order to proceed. Still is a novel full of action, adventure and entertainment. In my personal point of view, some aspects of Svandis cuasi Freudian dream explanations are out of context. I don't agree with other reviewers, in their appreciation of an abrupt and rash ending of the novel. The confrontation between Bruno and Shef is well paced and reach a "logical" ending. The overall background of examining different religious beliefs is provoking, but each reader may extract it's own conclusions without being forced by the author to take sides or accept his points of view. A great book! Reviewed by Max Yofre.

I read these books a few years back at the same time as my brother in-law. We were both impressed by the depth, (alt)history, and interest in the stories. Not as thick as a George R.R. Martin's books, but a similar grittiness. (The first book features the removal of limbs by sword and preserving of life by searing the limbs with fire to cauterize the wounds. eeyoo!)The stories are really well crafted and takes the reader from the North Sea to the Medeterainian and throughout the land masses in between. The character develpoment kept me reading the entire series end to end despite my semi-revulsion at the gore. As a fan of Orson Scott Card, Issac Asimov, Terry Goodkind, C.J. Cherryh, Mercedes Lackey, Neal Stephanson and Carl Sagan, I can say I liked this book and its predecessors enough to read them all.

Harrison tries to evoke a world where the reign of Christianity has been replaced with a more heterogenous array of faiths. The 'Way', a sort of pagan reaction to the threatened 'Skuld-world' that Christianity would bring about, has as its champion the good king Shef. Shef, and the followers of the Way, are very much of this world and believe in the use of man's creative reason to better man's worldly condition---something the 'Christ-priests' are loathe to do. The Christ-priests are more concerned with subjugating and dominating man, than actually improving his worldly life. Christianity is portayed, correctly in my view, as an unmitigated disaster for the Western world. Other monotheistic faiths are also skewered: Judaism is portrayed as too bookish, Islam is portrayed as too complacent and smug. Clearly, Harrison discerns a common virus in each of these three faiths.The essence of Harrison's narrative is 'man'. Harrison creates an alternative history where men create their own gods, who are in effect reifications of mens' needs. To heal the wounds within the divine realm, therefore, requires that wounds among men here on earth must first be healed. And the Way is about that. The tale is basically about man coming to grips with all that makes him human---his creative side, reified into the god Rig, as well as his anarchic side, reified into Loki. The book will rankle those who do not believe that christianity is an affliction best overcome by a renewed invigoration of a more worldly, life-affirming pagan morality. The idea that Christ never died, but lived and recovered to pursue a family life is interesting, as is Christ's apostacy. "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani??"

I loved the first two books in this trilogy (as well as many other books by this author), but there's something about this book that bugs me. While respecting Mr. Harrison's creative license with his characters, I thought this was a conclusion unworthy of the other two books. The characters were mostly well done, as always, but the plot was flawed. The excessive Christ metaphors and intellectual leaps and bounds (especially towards the end) took attention away from the main point of the story-- THERE'S A WAR ON, REMEMBER??? and futhermore it leaves the reader hanging more than it should, since the overly-neat wrap-up at the end is too fake to be realistic. I was left with a sense of "is that all there is?" after reading this. The technical aspects of the book-- catapult artillery and so on-- are both interesting and amusing, and the battle scenes ought to have been more involved. All in all, it was a poor ending to a great story. Mr. Harrison, if you read this, I suggest some sort of post-Shef account of events up north.

Any alternative history fan would enjoy this novel , along with "Warriors of the Way". I like the concept of vikings of that era being more than just barbarians and that they have a distinct and rich culture also. I do want to note one error in the story. The god Rig is actually Heimdall (as described in the Edda). I've also enjoyed the entire Stainless Steel Rat series