The King of Vinland's Saga

Rating:
Summary: A Ripping Read!
Review: A grand tale, sweeping across the North Atlantic like a gale. I admit I did have to listen to some Wagner while reading (to fully feel the power) but it wasn't necessary. I tore through this in record time. The pacing and depth simply worked. Stu, I do hope you are shopping this one out for a movie deal.

Rating:
Summary: A Norse Tale of the New World
Review: An interesting story about Vikings who come to the north American coast in olden times and have to find a way to get along with the Indians already there and then with each other. Their struggle to survive, and the hero's efforts to gain acceptance by his relatives and the natives, make for fascinating reading. I wasn't too keen on all the blood and gore but the story moved along nicely, except for a few sections where the antiquated prose sometimes seemed to overwhelm the narrative. But this was not too common and the story ends really well with a beautiful and poignant epilogue closing out a rousing tale of fighting, loving, honor and betrayal.

Rating:
Summary: Have read it twice, nevertheless, will read it thrice ...
Review: I enjoyed the book even more the second time around! The King of Vinland's Saga is fiction about a subject difficult to research, it is based on scant record and few viking runes left behind by the Norse. However Stuart Mirsky has seamlessly filled in the historical record with a colorful and knowledgeble imagination! Stuart has crafted a saga of adventure and intrigue, even of unrequited love that alas even an ole macho like meself could handle! A drifting together and gathering of a small group of down and out n'er-do-wells, political refugee's from King Harald, and incorrigibles have Norseman sailing west from an overcrowded Greenland. There is little land available in Greenland to farm and therefore little wealth to be had for those without. No land, no farm, no status. Status was above all of vital importance to a norseman for status was power. Those without status were looked down upon by the 'haves' and treated not much better than the clan goats. However they see a way out by voyaging to a new land, ostensibly to claim the heroes inheritance, Leif Ericksons lost colony in Vinland, America. The personalities in this saga are distinctly individual, they are alive and vibrant. They're just like ... us. You know, not every norseman was at all eager to go on what they thought was a fools errand, and some that went did so just to keep a step ahead of viking justice. But what makes fictional history and this book fun for me is this ... that the story is alogether plausible! It is written in a style that that seems to have a thrumming rhythm, almost lyrical at times and is written in syntax that is appropriate to the Norse and that period of history. I found myself being drawn deeply into the tale every time I settled in to read, angering at the injustice inflicted on hero Sigtrygg, the betrayals and lies by his arrogant, treacherous kinsmen. To me Sigtrygg is the Clint Eastwood of the Norse, but he keeps a cool head. If it were me in his place I'd of been lopping off heads left and right! Each evening when I opened the book I became a part of the tale, when I become part of the story I know I am reading a superb work by a superb author.

I was initially drawn to the novel because Mr. Mirsky asked that I review it several years ago. Lack of time prevented me from doing so at the time but after reading it once again I made it a point to review. I was also drawn to the book because I had yet to read any substantive account of real or surmised Norse interaction with 'skraelings', American Indians, a subject barely recorded and virtually ignored. Inasmuch as I am a student of history and American native tribes in particular, I was very interested in Mr. Mirsky's treatment of two diverse cultures colliding unexpectedly, how the skraelings may have reacted to these rather arrogant, burly giants with beards coming from the sea. The book passages and events involving viking prejudice and treatment of the stone-age skraelings and the skraelings subsequent response rang true to what I know of viking culture, native indian culture, beliefs, and history of the time. Also, the premise that the Norse may have penetrated much farther inland in America than previously thought is not just wild speculation; ancient stone forts have been discovered as far inland as Kentucky, implements discovered far inland not of indian technology, and blue-eyed indians were a fact. In my view it is more credible that such is derived from a culture we absolutely can prove came to America, the vikings, than other theories that have been advanced.

For the history buff and adventure-minded this book is a keeper for the ole bookcase, and even though it is a large volume, an intimidating volume, the tale still ends much too soon. Thanks Stuart!

Rating:
Summary: Agreat book -a great movie
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK - IT'S A MUST READ. My son recommended it to me. I didn't want to read it.because it's subject, the Vikings, is something I didn't think I'd be interested in at all. But I read it because he recommended it so highly, I figured I would give it a try. And am I glad I did.
This is a book written by a man, not exclusively for men but from a man's point of view. That is the only explanation that I can give to his detailed description of certain sections such as their tree cutting for weapons. But it also explains how you can get into our hero Sigtrygg's skin and truly feel all the emotions that run through his veins. This book has so much that it would please any reader - man or woman. How Mirsky captured the dialogue, I really cannot imagine. He makes you feel as if you are living then, listening to conversations that are really taking place.
This is a rugged adventure story, a story of discovery and survival and raw human emotions.
I loved how he drew and developed his characters and story line. It draws you in at the very beginning, not like some books that you have to read a while to get the feel. You feel as if you are there with them, feeling all their emotions. And there are plenty of emotions for our hero Sigtrygg to contend with. There is jealousy, greed, lust, desire, love, friendship, respect, loyalty, and fear. I could go on and on, but this book is a MUST.
It's basic story is well-known, the "disinherited knight" returns to claim his inheritance and must undertake an unexpected adventure of the to get his due. But he is blocked at every turn by hostile kinsmen. . In the process, our "knight" falls in love with two women and must make a choice between them that will determine what he wins and keeps and who he will finally be.
The characters come alive for us like real people, giving them a kind of freshness and immediacy. The medieval Norse backdrop and the North American experience of exploration that is recounted seem entirely authentic.
He combines it with tight and swiftly paced language, so that one is left with an experience of genuine adventure in far off times and places.
The plot seems a perfectly natural outgrowth of the characters and events that really led the Vikings to our American shores when others were still huddling in their huts and castles in old Europe.
Not only was I hardly able to put the book down I THINK IT WOULD MAKE A GREAT MOVIE!

Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Adventure Story
Review: Let me say up front, no one sent me any email asking me to buy or review this book. I'm not related to the author. This is my honest opinion, given on my own. According to the back cover, The King of Vinland Saga, self-published and self-promoted, was written so the author could quit his political job. I mention this only because after reading the five-star reviews and plowing through the book, I wonder if I haven't been had. The great talent may lie more in its relentless promotion than in the writing. Some readers have found the prose convoluted and difficult, others defend it as being a perfect imitation of the Saga style. I agree the narration is somewhat goofy at times, and it can become tiresome. I've read most, maybe all, of the Sagas in translation, and chunks of some in Old Icelandic, and hope no one is kept from reading them by believing they're like this. The real Saga style is much tighter, the stories themselves better. The book is absolutely nothing like Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson. It's not like Tolkien. It's an average, modern, formulaic adventure/historical yarn, no more "authentic" than any other, written in a contrived, odd pseudo-Saga style that sometimes gets in the way of the story. It's okay, but not in the same adventure-tale league as "The Viking" by Edison Marshall or half so real as "The Long Ships" by Frans G. Bengtsson.

Rating:
Summary: 5 Viking Longships for first novel.
Review: Norse sagas have enthralled many generations. The image of Vikings in their longships sailing along the shores of North America 500 years before Columbus has always been a romantic one. Names from history class like Bjarni Herjolfsson, Eric the Red, and Leif the Lucky often stuck long after more relevant ones had been forgotten. But while there is archeological evidence to support the claims of these old sagas, it has always been something of a mystery as to why these fierce Norsemen, who terrorized western Europe for generations, were never able to establish themselves in North America.

In the King of Vinland's Saga, Stuart Mirsky provides a very plausible explanation wrapped up in a thundering adventure story. The King of Vinland's Saga is a modern novel told in the style of the Norse sagas. Mirsky cleverly relates the action without injecting a lot of character analysis into the novel. However, we get to understand the characters through their speech and actions. In order to achieve depth in his characters, Mirsky requires a book that is over 600 pages in length. At first, I thought the novel would prove too long for the action in it. However, as the novel progresses, the reader begins to get a full understanding of the depth of the characters and their relationships to each other, so the length was not as much of a problem as I'd initially expected. The novel is constructed like a concerto: in three movements, each with its own themes. Yet there is a thread which binds all three together. Each movement builds to its own climax and the intensity of each movement is greater than the one preceding it. Perhaps the intensity is greater because the reader cares more about the characters at page 600 than at page 150.Whatever the cause, Mirsky has successfully constructed the novel to build to what is its inevitable conclusion.

While The King of Vinland's Saga is clearly a Norse epic, it has, within it, the very Greek idea of hubris. Its characters all have fatal flaws that draw them into conflicts, most of which, to modern eyes, would seem unnecessary and avoidable. Yet, though the characters are flawed, the values and the society in which they live are flawed more seriously. Their code of life and the fateful decisions they make based on the values implied in this code lead them inexorably towards tragic confrontations. Perhaps Mirsky was influenced as much by Thomas Hardy as the Ring of the Niebelungs. On a larger scale, we get to understand why the Norsemen did not dominate Europe and establish lasting colonies in North America. There are probably a number of reasons for their decline: their Greenland colonies were lost when the weather got colder, Christianity was incompatible with a life of conquest and bloodshed, and their victims got better at resisting (Alfred the Great). However, the inadequacy of their justice system really stands out in The King of Vinland's Saga. Violations of the law even killing, required compensation in property. Ultimately, this was unsatisfying to victims. Putting a market value on human lives strikes modern readers, if not torte lawyers, as immoral. It is also easy to see how an unsatisfied victim would want revenge and how one killing could lead to a series of revenge killings, perhaps on an increasing scale. The Norsemen could not work together for an extended period of time without a better system of justice.

Mirsky does explore several aspects of life in Greenland and North America as it might have been 1000 years ago and does it convincingly. For the most part he does not use "Dances with Wolves" political correctness in dealing with the Skraelings. Some aspects of the Skraeling culture are better than the Norse culture but it's not universal. I did have a few small bones to pick with him, however. I have known several descendants of the Skraelings and they are quite a bit bigger than Mirsky's Skraelings. Also, his description of Vinland leads me to believe that it's further south than archeological evidence suggests. And I didn't get a real sense of where the Norse colonies in Greenland were located geographically until after the end of the first section. However, these are minor quibbles in view of Mirsky's ambitious efforts. I hope this novel is successful but that it doesn't encourage a raft of successors. In one novel, Mirsky has said all that needs saying.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story, Strange Prose
Review: The King of Vinland's saga is a gigantic tale. I don't mean that the book is large (although it is) I mean that the book truly deals with a grand story. The book tells the story of a young man making war with his family and freinds, crossing a hostile ocean, settling a continent, battling with and against entire races of Indians, and becoming entangled in romances with royalty and nobility. If you can name something exciting, odds are someone in this book does it.

However this story isn't just a list of exciting events cobbled together to form a book. It all works well together as one cohesive and compelling tale.

I found the style in which the prose was written to be far less compelling than the story itself, though. I am by no means a scholar in sagas, or viking legends. Perhaps that is why the language used in this tale seemed so forign to me.

Although Mirsky was writing in English I found the terse, bare writing style and the wordy, clumsy sounding dialog difficult to relate to. Unlike other readers who found the prose very poetic, I was never able to quite find the rhythm or "get it." I just kept thinking, 'This book is not written in the way that people talk.' It does not even seem to be written in the way that modern people write.

I suppose that is the point, though. This book is probably very successful in it's aim to duplicate that saga story telling language. However, I was not moved by that style. In fact the language often distracted me to the point where I found it a chore to read through parts of the book. (Although other parts were so exciting that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.)

This is a good book which tells a story full of excitement and daring exploits. However, readers used to more modern language (like me) may find the writing style to be quite a shock.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! Breathtaking!!
Review: There is a dearth of fine historical writers, and when you find one you tend to go on an on with wonderful, marvellous, outstanding. So I will trot them all out to describe this bold work of Viking lore in the tradition of Eric the Red and Lief Erickson. This is full adventure Saga set in Greenland, coastal Canada and Maine in the US, and is based in ancient Norse Myth and Lore, a period that is often neglected. It is especially interesting because it depicts "first contact" between the Norsemen and the Indians of the US. The story unfolds centring around a man, with his two feet in two separate cultures and his love for a woman from each. It is based on the little known work of Edward Reman,a Scandinavian sailor, who putting forth the idea Vinland's directions were misinterpreted and by his reckoning put it off Grand Manaan Isle, off the Maine Coast.

This is a very sweeping saga, that brings to life a period that was thrilling, but alas, suffering from the lack of neglect. The Norse were one of the biggest influences in Europe, British Isles and into the US, supposedly visiting the US long before Columbus, and yet there is little done about it, so little fiction or history. So when a special gem like this comes along it's like a beacon in the darkest night.

Stuart W. Mirsky has a feel for the period, and is very able to give you his vision. Highly recommend this wonderful tale!!

So if you enjoyed Eaters of the Dead,and want something MORE... you will love this!! Also, I highly recommend Maggie Davis' Winter Serpent. Another excellent Viking Fiction.

Rating:
Summary: The beginnings of America?
Review: This book, once you get into the story, is very intriging. It is a little hard to get used to the prose it is written in, but keep going and you are hooked. It is often said that the Norsemen discovered America, and after reading his book, I could believe it and the hardships that took place must have been unbearable by todays standards. He keeps all the characters and relationships moving, and is interesting up to the very end. Too bad there wasn't a sequel written.

Rating:
Summary: An undiscovered saga?
Review: This is a marvellous book! Mirsky has captured not only the story-line, but the prose style of the Old Icelandic sagas, which I have read and translated into both English and German: the sentences which begin in indirect discourse and then shift into direct quotes, the dry, understated prose style, the frequent citing of proverbs. . .
It is almost as if the author has found an previously unknown saga squirreled away in a Minnesota attic and translated it into vivid modern English. If you have any doubts about the vitality of the narrative, read the account of the fight against the hostile Skraelings, pp. 339-378. It's hard to believe that this is not some real occurrence told by a skald who accompanied the Icelanders on their epic voyage.
Buy and read this book!