HNS Reviews - May 2008
SONG OF THE NORTH by Jules Watson
(Overlook Press, hb, 399pp, 9781590200506)
Roman Britannia, 366. Minna, a servant girl of mixed Roman and British
blood, feels out of place and discontent with her life. The Romans
whisper about her native features and strange visions of the old pagan
gods; her brother wants to sell her off in marriage to advance his
military career; and her beloved British grandmother has just died,
leaving her alone in a world she wants no part of. Hopeless and
desperate, Minna runs away to seek her own fortune. On the road she
meets Cian, a traveling performer and skilled horseman, who becomes
her only friend when they are captured by marauders and sold into
slavery north of the Roman Wall, in the vast unconquered land of Alba.
The young pair end up in the court of Cahir, ruler of the western
Alban kingdom of Dalriada, and his Rome-loving queen Maeve. In Cahir's
kingdom, a place of mixed loyalties and intrigues as ancient and
mysterious as Alba itself, Minna finally discovers her identity and
her destiny, a destiny tied to Dalriada and its gods, its wars, its
secrets, and its king.
SONG OF THE NORTH is a blend of fact and fiction, history and myth, love and battle, Scotland and Rome. In short, this book is right up my alley. It's epic historical fantasy in the vein of Morgan Llywelyn, Marion Zimmer Bradley, or Donna Gillespie, filled with memorable characters, tense action, romance, intrigue, and a little bit of magic all woven into a richly layered plot. The pages turned themselves, and the characters stayed with me after I put the book down. NORTH is the third volume in the Dalriada trilogy, but it stands alone as its own story. I very much look forward to reading the rest of the series.
THE VOYAGE OF THE SHORT SERPENT by Bernard du Boucheron
[English translation by Hester Velmans]
(Overlook Duckworth, hb, 206pp, 9781585679201)
In an unspecified year, a Church cardinal sends a letter to a bishop
with orders for a special mission. The remote Greenland settlement of
New Thule has been out of contact for over fifty years, and now rumors
have reached the Church that the settlers have turned to all manner of
heresy and paganism. The cardinal sends the bishop to see if the
colony truly has gone native and, if so, to restore it to the Church's
control. He is instructed to take inventory of treasure, monitor
property, collect tithe, and -- oh yeah -- see if the people are
alright. Ready to eradicate sin and restore order, the bishop heads
off to the icy wastelands on a ship called the Short Serpent. After a
grueling (and gruesome) journey, what the bishop finds at New Thule is
more shocking than he could have imagined, but that is nothing
compared to what happens next.
THE VOYAGE OF THE SHORT SERPENT is a short book, but it packs quite a wallop in its few pages. The story is full of historical detail with regard to shipbuilding, navigation, Church policy, local geography, and the horrors of the settler's life, all told in a literary epistolary style with almost no dialogue. The writing style is somehow both offhand and pointed, describing the most disturbing scenes with a callous detachment that hides what feels like a kind of dark glee. As the story goes on and the bishop's report becomes less and less intelligible, the sense of morbid amusement grows even stronger. This is not a story for the faint of heart (or the queasy of stomach) -- part literary tale, part historical tragedy, part horror show, it is a book that defies genre and defies expectations. Short, shocking, and strangely celebratory -- a dark and definitely recommended read.