The Year Of The Warrior

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and Refreshing... Year of the Warrior Succeeds
Review: I feel that the publishers did this book a diservice by naming it the Year of the Warrior, as well as marketing it as a "swashbuckling, slice-and-dice adventure story" (see the picture on the front cover). I picked up this book as a quick weekend read, not really expecting much and found a rare jewel. This book reminds me of Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator. It is deep, moving and draws you into a world of moral dilemma and search for meaning. The book is intelligent and as a man who searches for meaning myslef, i found this book really resonated with my own struggles. A definate recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It's a rousing adventure story with great characters. The men and women portrayed, while flawed, are interesting and help draw you into the story.

The author paints a wild and untamed world with danger around every corner. The type of world I love to read about. Also, the struggles the characters go through to understand their world and their relationship within it is intelligently done. It's a good tale of spiritual journey.

Once you start this book, you'll finish it quickly. I look forward to more tales about Erling and Ailill. Nice Job!

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I wasn't expecting much from this book. Happily, my expectations were far too low. This book was just plain fun. It was also incredibly thought provoking, and an introduction to a part of history about which I know little.

I'm not going to say much about the book, because I think you should read it, and don't want to give any spoilers. But I will say that "Father" Aillil is a very good main character. He is a human being, with human failings and weaknesses, who manages to grow, to learn, and to become a better person, all the while giving us a good perspective on what's going on around him. While I don't agree with him on everything (to start with, I'm not even a Christian :-) ), his thoughts and beliefs brought me new things to think about. A truly wonderful gift from the author.

Buy it, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I wasn't expecting much from this book. Happily, my expectations were far too low. This book was just plain fun. It was also incredibly thought provoking, and an introduction to a part of history about which I know little.

I'm not going to say much about the book, because I think you should read it, and don't want to give any spoilers. But I will say that "Father" Aillil is a very good main character. He is a human being, with human failings and weaknesses, who manages to grow, to learn, and to become a better person, all the while giving us a good perspective on what's going on around him. While I don't agree with him on everything (to start with, I'm not even a Christian :-) ), his thoughts and beliefs brought me new things to think about. A truly wonderful gift from the author.

Buy it, you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy at history's hinges
Review: I'm writing my Erling Skjalgsson books on a schedule -- each appears exactly 1000 years after the real dates of the events described in the book. So THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR is a fantasy story set in actual history -- Norway at the first millennium. It was a time of tremendous change -- a new religion and a new political order were coming to power.

THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR tells the story of Father Aillil, priest to Erling Skjalgsson of Sola, one of the most powerful men in Norway. Aillil is a reluctant missionary, and a priest only by accident -- or God's will, depending on your viewpoint.

There's a certain amount of danger in writing about Vikings. As much as past historians may have shortchanged the Vikings because they were pagans fighting Christians, modern historians glorify them (ironically for the same reason). I have an opinion of my own, and I employ it shamelessly -- I think paganism is a bad thing (at least an inferior thing) which may be followed by good people. And I think Christianity is a good thing which may be followed by bad people. This presents enough conflict and ambivalence for a whole series of books -- which, by the way, I intend to write.

It should be noted that THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR is a double volume, including the previously published work, ERLING'S WORD, in a slightly revised version. I hope this is acceptable to those who've already read EW. The price is the about same you'd have paid for a single volume.

Rating:
Summary: About THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR
Review: It all started with a Viking raid: When he is captured and forced into slavery, Aillil the Irishman must pretend to be a priest or die. Better to be a high-value priest than a low-value corpse, he thinks, and so it happens that a failed novitiate (he loved women too well) is taken up by Norway's first Christian lord, Erling Skjalgsson to bring the Word to his people.

Ironically, though "Father" Aillil is as phony as a three-dollar psalm, he and he alone must convert a fiercely pagan people to the gentle teachings of Christ-and they don't want to hear about it. Nor do their "gods," who are all too real, and all too liable to do something horrible to those disturbing their divine peace.

It's going to take a miracle for Aillil to succeed, or even survive, but fortunately God (the one true God, not those pagan demon creatures) is on his side. . . .

Note: Part of this novel was previously published as ERLING'S WORD.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent look at religious issues
Review: My husband and I have read books aloud together for years, and science fiction and fantasy is our favorite genre for this purpose. Our latest completed endeavor: "The Year of the Warrior" by Lars Walker.

Not only is this book great entertainment, which is what a good fantasy novel should be, but it offers a complex and unflinching look at various religious issues (i.e. the conflict between following the teachings of Christ while forcing others to submit to the same).

Through the eyes of the book's narrator, Father Aillil, Walker offers a first-hand look at an intriguing period of history - the supplanting of Pagan beliefs by the spread of Christianity, in this case in Norway.

As the old beliefs and gods conflict with the new, Father Aillil must wrestle with his own inner demons and come to grips with his own secret sin.

I fear to say more may give away too much. Suffice to say, I encourage you to buy this book. Read it with someone you love, and it may provoke some very thoughtful discussions.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Fantasy
Review: This book is one that makes you think, and takes no easy answers. Alill seems like a real person, facing difficulties every day and his own weaknesses while trying to explain God to a Pagan people. Also, Erling is a great character, and there are a lot of fun and varied supernatural situations that he faces. It's good stuff.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Too many recent fantasies seem to have been written by authors who know other recent fantasies -- and that's about all they have to draw upon.

Not Lars Walker! Walker is telling his own story -- and what a storyteller he is -- but his imagination is drawing on a much richer compost than (it seems to me) most authors command. Walker knows the Icelandic sagas, and has adapted the terse saga style for the modern fantasy reader. Thus he provides us with a series of memorable supernatural incidents -- pagan gods, werewolves, ghosts -- and battle scenes, but he doesn't "write them up" in pulp magazine style. You may find yourself going back and reading again some of these scenes, to savor how really eerie or violent they are. His locales are generally convincing; they do not seem to have been invented by a writer who is making things up as he goes along.

There's human depth here, too. Walker gets me interested in characters without halting the story for extended patches to "work up" the description of the person. Here are men and women with blood in their veins.

I'm teaching an undergraduate course on modern fantasy. If I'd known of this book in time to include it in the reading list -- where it would have been in the company of Tolkien, Le Guin, and Peake -- I'd almost certainly have done so. I would have liked to include an example of really worthwhile swords-and-sorcery fantasy -- and that's what we have here!

Rating:
Summary: Heroic fantasy that stands out from others
Review: Too many recent fantasies seem to have been written by authors who know other recent fantasies -- and that's about all they have to draw upon.

Not Lars Walker! Walker is telling his own story -- and what a storyteller he is -- but his imagination is drawing on a much richer compost than (it seems to me) most authors command. Walker knows the Icelandic sagas, and has adapted the terse saga style for the modern fantasy reader. Thus he provides us with a series of memorable supernatural incidents -- pagan gods, werewolves, ghosts -- and battle scenes, but he doesn't "write them up" in pulp magazine style. You may find yourself going back and reading again some of these scenes, to savor how really eerie or violent they are. His locales are generally convincing; they do not seem to have been invented by a writer who is making things up as he goes along.

There's human depth here, too. Walker gets me interested in characters without halting the story for extended patches to "work up" the description of the person. Here are men and women with blood in their veins.

I'm teaching an undergraduate course on modern fantasy. If I'd known of this book in time to include it in the reading list -- where it would have been in the company of Tolkien, Le Guin, and Peake -- I'd almost certainly have done so. I would have liked to include an example of really worthwhile swords-and-sorcery fantasy -- and that's what we have here!