Odinn's Child: The Heroes of the North Live On (Viking Trilogy)

This is an interesting tale set in intriguing 11th century England. Thorgils love affair with Aelfgifu was written with subtlety and deftness, and all of the characters really came alive. Wish the author had given King Knut more dialogue, since his presence loomed throughout the novel, but it was a good read anyway!

This is the second book in the thrilling Viking trilogy and although I enjoyed the first book very much, the author seems to have really got his teeth into the adventure now and I found that I read the book in no time at all. The year is 1020 AD the place, London. It is a few weeks since Thorgils has escaped the clutches of the Irish Church, but he now finds himself driven even further into the mire when he find himself at the centre of a love affair with none other than Aelfgifu, wife of Knut the Great, not only ruler of England but one of the most powerful and feared men in the Viking empire. As the passionate relationship unfolds it augurs nothing but trouble for Thorgils. With Thorgils finally on the run again he meets up with an outlaw, Grettir. The pair become traveling companions and sworn brothers which binds them together not only through life, but death also. At the gates of Byzantium Thorgils' loyalty is put to the ultimate test . . .

Wow. I loved this book. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy. I won't go into detail like some already have, but I will say I was in awe by page 20. Tim's style is easy going and fun. I felt like a friend was telling me a story over some brew. If you are a fan or a believer in the Old Ways, you won't be sorry with this one.

I have never heard of Tim Severin before encountering this novel, which was Mr. Severin's first foray into the fiction realm. He used to write exclusively non-fiction history books, which I learned from the list of books he had written (not less than ten books, excluding this novel). The second and third (last) of the trilogy: Sworn Brother and King's Man, respectively. For reviews of the other two novels, please find my separate reviews. Odinn's Child was the first of the Viking trilogy retelling Thorgils Leifsson adventures and life story from his beginnings in Iceland/Greenland/Vinland in 999 A.D. till somewhere 1070 A.D. Well... in order not to spoil Tim Severin's plot, a reader must judge the book by reading it him/herself for details. If you enjoy reading history/historical fictions, Vikings cultures (including their famous sagas and runes), and not surprisingly, some British histories, and also geography/traveling; I bet you will be thrilled reading it. For me, reading this particular novel and all the remaining two novels in the trilogy is like going to the History classes in college, while not having to take the test and the best of all, not realizing at all that we are being "history knowledge inseminated" into us by Mr. Severin. It was depicted by Severin, that most people during that period early 11th century AD were highly superstitious, and life was very hard in the Scandinavian territories, for they were very close to the Arctic circle up north. Bickering and killings among high-court families and enemies were also common denominations in these series. Tim Severin has succeeded in distributing his very well-researched knowledge into the public domain, while making them fun by creating a non-fiction novel, as opposed to sometimes tedious, non-fiction historical books. However, there were a few of minor mistypes on names and comas in latter books. Besides that, after finishing the whole trilogy, I found that Viking could have been written into a single book, instead of now three novels. Of course, there are some psychological and financial reasons for dividing them into three parts, which I did not found very much different if it had been packaged into a single section. Some readers might be intimidated, since the total paperback trilogy that I read was about 1000 pages total. Being one of Edward Rutherfurd's fan, it was "normal" for me to read 1,000 pages one time, though most people will find it almost impossible. Comparing to Rutherfurd's novels, I found Tim Severin's were researched in a broader scale, where typical Edward Rutherfurd's novels were more acute in terms of depth. Where Sevrin's Thorgils character was the main and sole protagonist, in Rutherfurd's there were many major characters. My final tally for Odinn's Child and Viking trilogy in general: Book 1: Odinn's Child: 5-star read Viking trilogy: 5-star overall

This book is very well written; I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the style of writing. If you are interested in Norse Mythology at all you will like this one. It's not a huge part of the story but it is there. I am really looking forward to reading the 2nd book.