The Midgard Serpent - James L. Nelson

Category: Adults, Historical Fiction
Language: EnglishKeywords: Viking Saga
Written by James L. Nelson
Read by Shaun Grindell
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged
Norsemen Saga Series, Book 10
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Release date: October 6, 2020
Duration: 17:37:22
Thorgrim Night Wolf, now somewhere on the south coast of Engla-land, may be closer to his goal of returning home than he has been since reaching Ireland years before, but he is still very, very far away.
His son Harald, however, has ambitions beyond just getting home. Given command of one of the ships in the fleet, Harald sees a chance to put his courage on display, unleashing consequences that will lead Thorgrim into a fight against the powerful armies of Wessex, a fight he does not want.
As Thorgrim struggles to keep his men alive, his eldest son Odd leads the resistance to King Halfdan’s ruthless attempts to expand his rule over Norway. When a plan to bring Halfdan to heel goes terribly wrong, Odd alone is taken prisoner, and brutally punished as an example to those who would defy their king. But Halfdan’s brutality does not cow the freemen: rather it stokes their anger into a red-hot rage that only freeing Odd and extracting further vengeance can cool.
“Possibly Mr. Nelson is now the Bernard Cornwell of the Viking sea story…. A major strength of this book is its psychological depth. It’s a fact that Viking fleets were not so hierarchical as modern navies and while a captain might well be the shipowner too, he had to earn the support of his crew. Pirates of the 17th century were similar as the crew could remove an unsuccessful captain. Therefore, considerations of honor, kinship and reputation drive Thorgrim to make decisions he is skeptical of at the time…The author’s naval action is authentic for the period and the hand to hand combats are almost as good as Mr. Cornwell’s.”
Norsemen Saga Series, Book 10
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Release date: October 6, 2020
Duration: 17:37:22

Thorgrim Night Wolf, now somewhere on the south coast of Engla-land, may be closer to his goal of returning home than he has been since reaching Ireland years before, but he is still very, very far away.

His son Harald, however, has ambitions beyond just getting home. Given command of one of the ships in the fleet, Harald sees a chance to put his courage on display, unleashing consequences that will lead Thorgrim into a fight against the powerful armies of Wessex, a fight he does not want.

As Thorgrim struggles to keep his men alive, his eldest son Odd leads the resistance to King Halfdan’s ruthless attempts to expand his rule over Norway. When a plan to bring Halfdan to heel goes terribly wrong, Odd alone is taken prisoner, and brutally punished as an example to those who would defy their king. But Halfdan’s brutality does not cow the freemen: rather it stokes their anger into a red-hot rage that only freeing Odd and extracting further vengeance can cool.

“Possibly Mr. Nelson is now the Bernard Cornwell of the Viking sea story…. A major strength of this book is its psychological depth. It’s a fact that Viking fleets were not so hierarchical as modern navies and while a captain might well be the shipowner too, he had to earn the support of his crew. Pirates of the 17th century were similar as the crew could remove an unsuccessful captain. Therefore, considerations of honor, kinship and reputation drive Thorgrim to make decisions he is skeptical of at the time…The author’s naval action is authentic for the period and the hand to hand combats are almost as good as Mr. Cornwell’s.”