It's been a thousand years since I last used a sword in anger. A thousand years I've known no peace.
This is how the Prologue begins, for this book is ostensibly narrated by a warrior looking back over a thousand years.
Of course we'd known that the first years would be hard, for 'History is written by the victor'. When that victor finally died, happily miserable and alone even admitting his cause was unjust as he breathed his last, we all felt that truth would find its voice. Many who had been there through our victories and defeats lived on well beyond his years of tyranny. They had seen with their own eyes what we had achieved how close we had been to yet another victory. A victory that would have cemented our title as the greatest warriors the world has ever known. Instead, these spineless survivors stayed silentand the myths grew stronger.... So one of us was chosen to set the record straight. One whose final honour would give the last Saxon King the merit he truly deserves and the heroes of Stamford and Senlac their rightful place as paragons of courage and valour. Unequalled by any other warriors the world has ever known.
And in order to do this he shows us the youth of one such warrior, known as Emmet (an ant), his home in Hwicce on the western border of Mercia, his parents and brothers, his dream of being a warrior, and how he almost accidentally comes to impress the local thegn sufficiently to be taken for warrior training while still only a boy, and his dream of marrying the beautiful Nydam, the thirteen-year-old daughter of the local blacksmith.
While all this is happening in the foreground, in the background, King Edward (the Confessor) is showing more and more favour to the Normans from across the sea, and seriously offending the great Saxon families such as that of Earl Godwin. Civil war looms as Harold Godwinson attempts to assert his family's rights, and Emmet, the boy-warrior, is caught up in the fighting that follows.
For the first time I was wearing full armour. I felt warm, comfortable and safe. The weight of the mail was well spread so it didn't feel too heavy, and I'd been told my body would get used to the extra weight. Under the layers of cloth, leather and iron I felt absolutely invincible. The linden shield added greatly to these feelings. I must have grown three feet taller while I transformed from boy to warrior. Now I could take on the whole world. Single-handed. Only the thrill of Nydam's gentle touch could beat this.
I hefted my long spear, examining the shining blade by running a finger along each side. I drew blood. Fifteen inches of death-dealing power. It could kill with either the point or the sharpened wings on each side. If the head were snapped off, it would make a useful sword, while a ball of wood at the rear balanced the spearhead and could be used as a club when the head was lost.
It is well-written and an exciting glimpse of Saxon life in the years immediately preceding the Norman Invasion. However, I do have two complaints.
One is that it is only the first "book" of what will presumably one day be a novel consisting of a series of "books": it does not really stand alone.
The second is that the whole thing needs some serious editing: "seem" is repeatedly spelt "seam", and among many other typos there is "loose" for "lose", "scarred" for "scared", "father" for "farther", "new" for "knew", "tendon's" for "tendons" and "taught" for "taut" (all of which the spell-check would miss of course); there are also such bits of nonsense as cooking a deer and a pig and ending up with VEAL and pork. This kind of thing spoils what is otherwise a very good story. It also gives ebooks as a whole a bad name.
JM
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