Thunder God

It is possible to write about this book and make it sound like a tale of high adventure and in plot terms it does fit this category very nicely.However there is a curious dislocation between the events being described and the tone of the book which is quite detached and the prose relatively leisurely .It is almost as if the author is writing a genre piece -high adventure in the Dark Ages -in the mode of someone aiming at the Man -Booker prize It opens in a small town in what is today Norway ,in the year 79AD and is narrated by Hakon ,a fisherman's son .Hakon is struck by lightning and survives the experience .In the eyes of the villagers this is a sign that he is set apart from others and they earmark him to be the next village holy man .The village still cleaves to the old religion although Christianity is becoming more fimly established across Norway and the rest of Western Europe . On the eve of his investiture as holy man ,Hakon is captured by raiding Vikings and becomes a slave to Halfdan and together they travel to join the elite Viking unit ,the Varangians,at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor ,Basil the Second at Miklagard(modern day Constantinople).He eventually buys his freedom and sets out to return to his own land .In the company of the virulently anti-Christian Welshman Cabal he has many adventures but on returning home settles quickly back into his old life until a decree from the King that all must become Christian or else face punitive taxation forces him to resume his old warlike ways .Eventually he ends up in the New World amongst the Mayans where he again must deal with war and bloodshed , The book strongly emphasises religion and spirituality ,from the rites of the Old Nordic Gods to the rituals of the Mayans ,and Christianity gets a bad press in the book .Its advocates are depicted as charlatans ,bullies or at best well meaning windbags .In its interleaving of an actionful narrative and meditations on the nature of belief it invites comparison with Gore Vidal's "Creation" but without the insouciant wit Vidal brought to proceedings .Thunder God is a bit plodding and the first part of the book is a tad heavy going .It picks up pace after Hakon returns to Norway and the second half is very gripping with some good insights into ordinary village life Its a good book and well worth reading but as I indicated some may find there is a touch too much reflection and not quite enoough action early on .Minor quibbles aside this is a worthwhile read

without a doubt Watkins' best novel. Norse culture and landscapes come vividly alive, and characters and events are well drawn.

Yet another new author to add to my list and thankfully another one that is well worth reading. The book as can probably be deduced by the title is a Viking Odyssey. The book charts the voyages of Hakon, a fisherman's son who is struck by lightning. Kidnapped by raiders Hakon is taken to Miklagard (Constantinople), where he eventually becomes a part of the Emperor's personal bodyguard. He is caught up in a raid off the Welsh coast and driven by storms across the big sea (Atlantic). The book is full of action and suspense, it sweeps across oceans and land as swiftly as an eagle on the wing. The author has the ability to make his descriptions of things leap from the page and the reader feels as though he is almost there with the characters in the book. I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for more by the same author.

Paul Watkins is an extraordinary writer; I was convinced of this after reading of his childhood and education in his autobiography "Stand Before your God" and am just as impressed with his storytelling abilities in "ThunderGod". His strength lies in his ability to imagine himself and describe to the reader what daily life might have been like in a long-gone way of life. His account of politics, economics and technology in the last days of Pagan Norway are so convincing that I imagine they might not be far from fact and reality. His characters are wonderful and you'll be relating to them personally by the end of the first chapter, even if, like me, you have no previous interest in this particular place and time in history. This is an accomplishment of a novel!

Paul Watkins is my favorite contemporary author. He has an incredible ability to immerse his readers in unusual times and places with fascinating characters and accurate detail of their social and geographical environments. In this case it is the Norway of a thousand years ago as Christianity attempted to displace the Norse religions. We are treated to much detail of the medieval Norse landscape and as we follow the protagonist who was for a time a Varangian mercenary at Constantinople we learn much about other parts of the world as well - even as far away as the Yucatan (where a foul storm blew our lead characters)- and where Mayan legends suggest a visit by a Norse explorer in the form of what they believed to be the blond haired, blue eyed god Quexacoatl. Watkins never ceases to educate and entertain me. He is grossly underappreciated in this country - perhaps better known and respected in the U.K. Shows our ignorance, perhaps.