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Meadowland
In 1037, a senior civil servant of the Byzantine empire faces a tedious journey to Greece, escorting the Army payroll. His only companions are a detachment of the Empire's elite Guard, recruited from Viking Scandinavia. When the wagon sheds a wheel, he passes the time talking with two veterans, who have a remarkable story to tell; the Viking discovery of America.As he records the story, years later, he also considers its effect on the fourth member of the party; a young Norwegian guardsman who went on to become King Harald Hardradi, who died invading England in 1066 ...
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First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Tom Holt
99 books1,186 followersTom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 7, 2014
This book had so much going for it. The author is a really good writer. He exhibits a few flaws when writing an historical fiction of this style, but at the heart he is really good at the art of writing none the less.
Naturally, when you start talking about flaws and faults, you have to attach an aside to that to make it clear that by flaw or fault I mean only in my personal opinion. I would never presume that something I think is a flaw would be a flaw to anybody else. My issues with the book are mine alone and may not be shared by others.
So, having kicked off with a negative, something I am generally loathe to do, let me speak now of these flaws and faults..
Meadowland had a fantastic start, as so many books do. Only it was not the actual writing that massacred that terrific start, it was the style of story it became.
It begins with a young Greek scholar. Stethatus who ..well..let him tell you himself, straight from the pages of Meadowland;
My name is John Stethatus. I was born in the year of Our lord 990. I live in the great city of Constantinople and serve his Imperial Majesty Constantine X, Emperor of the Romans, in the capacity of clerk to the exchequer; which means, in practice, that my world consists of a few streets, a small office, a chair and a table.
I was born in the City, have been outside it only four times, and never wish to leave it again.
And there we have him, John Stethatus. Clerk to the Exchequer, who in the year 1036 is given the burdensome task of carrying the payroll to the troops in Sicily under the protection of a handful of men from the Varangian Guard (sword for hire warriors of Scandinavian descent).
Sounds like the kind of story you like? Thinking that doesn't sound so bad? And so it doesn't. I thought so to. That part of the story was a real blast. The author writes it with humour and cleverness and I thought I'd stumbled upon an under rated treasure.
With the combination of two of my favourite things, Scandinavian warriors and adventure journey, and liberally anointed with some smart humour, I found myself wondering...Where had you been all my life, Meadowland?
Then, just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water, it turned me on my head and dumped me into a completely different tale. The journey story of John Stethatus and his Varangian offsiders changed into a storyteller tale, where the Northern men sat about a fire and told John Stethatus the story of how - together with Leif Erikson - they discovered America.
It was not the tale of these men discovering America that I found flawed - after all, the subtitle of the book is A Novel of the Viking discovery of America - it was the fact that stories within stories is one of my least favourite book styles, especially when done in this way. If someone is going to do it, then they should do it in the first person narration style of, for example, Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series, Christian Cameron's Ill-Made Knight. A narration that has the main character retelling the story of their life from the beginning.
Meadowland was not like that. You spend the first chapters getting to know the Greek clerk and his Scandinavian guards. You enjoy their humour, their camaraderie. You find yourself excited for their journey and wonder (at least I did) on how they will get so off track from their mission to Sicily, that they will end up pushing ashore in the wilds of America.
But they don't get off track. What they do is get off their cart and sit by a fire and then tell the story in a broken up, disjointed manner instead.
I was bitterly disappointed. BITTERLY!
As a novel, it was not bad. It lost my interest when it changed styles and I struggled to read it after a while, but over all it was not bad.
The writing does get modern from time to time and I was uncomfortable with that, as I always am when it comes to historical fiction. Felt the author was sometimes deliberately just writing in his own language because he did not always desire to write in a neutral way. But the humour kept me in there. Sometimes so subtle that if you aren't concentrating you will miss it, it was this author's greatest asset.
For example. Page 83:
“No, that's fine,” Eyvind said. “I could do with a breath of air.” he sighed, then turned back to me. “One thing,” he said. “You may've noticed, we Northerners like to give each other nicknames. Mostly it's because we're an unimaginative bunch when it comes to our regular names. We haven't got many to choose from, and most of the ones we've got begin with Thor-. When four of your neighbours are called Thorstein and the fifth is Thorgils and the sixth is Thorbjorn, it's a damn sight easier to say Red or Fats or Flatnose. Well, that was the occasion on which I got my nickname, and I've been Bare-arsed Eyvind ever since. I just thought I'd mention it,” he added, “in case one of the others uses it, and you're wondering who they're talking about.”
Then he ducked his head under the low doorway and went out.
It is hard to inject genuine and subtle humour into one's writing and Thomas Holt does it with great success. I see he writes dark comedy novels under the name Tom Holt. I can see him doing that and I expect they would be funny stories if this book is anything to go on.
I would try this author again. No shadow of a doubt. While his storytelling style was no favourite of mine, his writing did quite charm me.
Naturally, when you start talking about flaws and faults, you have to attach an aside to that to make it clear that by flaw or fault I mean only in my personal opinion. I would never presume that something I think is a flaw would be a flaw to anybody else. My issues with the book are mine alone and may not be shared by others.
So, having kicked off with a negative, something I am generally loathe to do, let me speak now of these flaws and faults..
Meadowland had a fantastic start, as so many books do. Only it was not the actual writing that massacred that terrific start, it was the style of story it became.
It begins with a young Greek scholar. Stethatus who ..well..let him tell you himself, straight from the pages of Meadowland;
My name is John Stethatus. I was born in the year of Our lord 990. I live in the great city of Constantinople and serve his Imperial Majesty Constantine X, Emperor of the Romans, in the capacity of clerk to the exchequer; which means, in practice, that my world consists of a few streets, a small office, a chair and a table.
I was born in the City, have been outside it only four times, and never wish to leave it again.
And there we have him, John Stethatus. Clerk to the Exchequer, who in the year 1036 is given the burdensome task of carrying the payroll to the troops in Sicily under the protection of a handful of men from the Varangian Guard (sword for hire warriors of Scandinavian descent).
Sounds like the kind of story you like? Thinking that doesn't sound so bad? And so it doesn't. I thought so to. That part of the story was a real blast. The author writes it with humour and cleverness and I thought I'd stumbled upon an under rated treasure.
With the combination of two of my favourite things, Scandinavian warriors and adventure journey, and liberally anointed with some smart humour, I found myself wondering...Where had you been all my life, Meadowland?
Then, just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water, it turned me on my head and dumped me into a completely different tale. The journey story of John Stethatus and his Varangian offsiders changed into a storyteller tale, where the Northern men sat about a fire and told John Stethatus the story of how - together with Leif Erikson - they discovered America.
It was not the tale of these men discovering America that I found flawed - after all, the subtitle of the book is A Novel of the Viking discovery of America - it was the fact that stories within stories is one of my least favourite book styles, especially when done in this way. If someone is going to do it, then they should do it in the first person narration style of, for example, Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series, Christian Cameron's Ill-Made Knight. A narration that has the main character retelling the story of their life from the beginning.
Meadowland was not like that. You spend the first chapters getting to know the Greek clerk and his Scandinavian guards. You enjoy their humour, their camaraderie. You find yourself excited for their journey and wonder (at least I did) on how they will get so off track from their mission to Sicily, that they will end up pushing ashore in the wilds of America.
But they don't get off track. What they do is get off their cart and sit by a fire and then tell the story in a broken up, disjointed manner instead.
I was bitterly disappointed. BITTERLY!
As a novel, it was not bad. It lost my interest when it changed styles and I struggled to read it after a while, but over all it was not bad.
The writing does get modern from time to time and I was uncomfortable with that, as I always am when it comes to historical fiction. Felt the author was sometimes deliberately just writing in his own language because he did not always desire to write in a neutral way. But the humour kept me in there. Sometimes so subtle that if you aren't concentrating you will miss it, it was this author's greatest asset.
For example. Page 83:
“No, that's fine,” Eyvind said. “I could do with a breath of air.” he sighed, then turned back to me. “One thing,” he said. “You may've noticed, we Northerners like to give each other nicknames. Mostly it's because we're an unimaginative bunch when it comes to our regular names. We haven't got many to choose from, and most of the ones we've got begin with Thor-. When four of your neighbours are called Thorstein and the fifth is Thorgils and the sixth is Thorbjorn, it's a damn sight easier to say Red or Fats or Flatnose. Well, that was the occasion on which I got my nickname, and I've been Bare-arsed Eyvind ever since. I just thought I'd mention it,” he added, “in case one of the others uses it, and you're wondering who they're talking about.”
Then he ducked his head under the low doorway and went out.
It is hard to inject genuine and subtle humour into one's writing and Thomas Holt does it with great success. I see he writes dark comedy novels under the name Tom Holt. I can see him doing that and I expect they would be funny stories if this book is anything to go on.
I would try this author again. No shadow of a doubt. While his storytelling style was no favourite of mine, his writing did quite charm me.
December 21, 2012
I liked this about a fifth as much as his Alexander at the World's End. If that... I think he knows the Greek world intimately and can muck about with it; whereas he's not at home with Norse, so he can't write satire on them. This is droll, but it isn't satire. In his Greek books you can find incisive, savage humour -- along with serious concerns and a bit of profundity. None of that here. Maybe, in the 2nd half and towards the end.
I knew this tale from another novel (The Ice-Shirt, which I can rec) and he didn't value-add, as a writer. Fine if you're new to the events themselves -- though of course, this is the humorous version.
Disclosure. At p. 322 I couldn't go on and jumped to 400 to read the last 38. The joke is how his life's dull and circular (him, them if you like) how he can't escape journeys to Meadowland where he doesn't want to go -- but it was dull for me too. I only read most of the book because I know what he can do.
I knew this tale from another novel (The Ice-Shirt, which I can rec) and he didn't value-add, as a writer. Fine if you're new to the events themselves -- though of course, this is the humorous version.
Disclosure. At p. 322 I couldn't go on and jumped to 400 to read the last 38. The joke is how his life's dull and circular (him, them if you like) how he can't escape journeys to Meadowland where he doesn't want to go -- but it was dull for me too. I only read most of the book because I know what he can do.
May 27, 2010
The superb matter of fact and darkly ironic style of the author in serious mode is in clear evidence here and while the book had a lot of stuff familiar to me starting with the names of the main protagonists and their farm culture, I thoroughly enjoyed this recreation of the Nordic exploration of America.
December 4, 2017
A “Thomas Holt” novel is code for Tom Holt novel without mythopoeia (term coined by Tolkien). When Tom Holt moves away from the parody of old legends, he used to write a second string where he would put seemingly ordinary characters into a deeply interesting decade of genuine cultural history and let that person relate the sights and sounds of that era to the reader. I particularly clink with the Greek ones. A few books of this series are thin and gappy, so you’d only read them once, then at the other extreme they have tons of historical research behind them, act as beacons in the memory and you feel good just running your finger along their spines. If you only read ebooks on the commute, try running your fingers along complete strangers’ spines for the same effect. The common factor is that all of these books depict real historical movements, headline people who really lived, then that framework gets infiltrated and illuminated by fictional, vulnerable members of the public who’ve been caught up in the endless eddies of fate and whom you feel might expire at any time. Just as they’re getting the hang of their time period and looking comfortable, history again drop-kicks them into a new situation and that sense of Fate picking on people propels the journey. That’s the Thomas Holt histories in a nutshell.
Meadowland is an example of Holt’s inconsistency and an increasing lack of direction after his early burst of confident quality and occasionally glorious bitter-sweet humour. The reason for the diluted soup is, I think, his background is that of a thoroughly-read classical scholar, so books about these ancient civilisation topics usually reflect that depth of learning, but not all of them – that happens when he departs from his best study areas. I think he’s been exposed to the idea that the Scandinavians discovered North America first (probably in a conversation across an anvil somewhere), thought that would make a really good subject for a book, but, of course, we know almost absolutely, totally, utterly, guessingly, a whole heap of shrugging nothing about it. No expedition records, runes, sagas, zip, just a few post holes and signs of what might possibly have been metalwork activity on a small island in Nova Scotia (see YouTube). By contrast, the records and cultural legacy of Greece and Rome are endless, even their historians are famous and we still use their phrases. Although Ancient Greek script looks like skirmishing ringworm, we still quote from it. The challenge in Meadowland was, therefore, to make the story up from absolute scratch, in the absence of the framework of facts he’d worked from previously.
Couched in campfire storytelling style, the writing is familiar and friendly, easy to read but there’s also a sense of enthusiasm having been lost for the project. The plot is realistic enough, perhaps too realistic. Meadowland is a tale of the kind of necessary onboard friendships that break up when the business agreement ends. It’s also a thrust of opportunistic colonisation, which was what the Vikings from Norway and latterly Greenland did when they found a new pitch that had more attractive prospects for agricultural exploitation than their fjiordy homeland. Five hundred years before Columbus, did the Vikings pitch and yawl in a creaky boat and on some frosty morning drag it up the distant shores of Vinland? Historians and Americans care about this but don’t speculate that the any of these explorers survived and contributed to the native gene pool, so it’s really all academic.
The Norse word for the Americas was only apparently Vinland (Wineland), which Holt tells us is a mispronunciation of the original Veenland (Meadowland, pastures). The explorers came from an overcrowded island where the grazing was on a thin strip of wire-grass between the rocks and the freezing sea. That’s the premise then; opportunity vs. threat. The body of the writing though is conversational. When a Greek clerk of the Roman Empire is drawn into the tale, which is a pretty radical alien input, he’s disinterested in the superfluous doings of barbarian hirelings. He changes though, finding a certain human depth in those the Empire sees as little more than useful hairy hooligans with an axe-fixation.
That, alongside the predictable clashes between the new colonists and Native American tribes, who are about as easy for the slow and heavy Vikings to spike to a tree as drizzle, makes up about a fifth of the density of information and intrigue that I would usually expect from a TH novel. I have to add a note that there’s one of Tom Holt’s classical history series that has this same plot line too, where Greek colonists are doing okay for a while, then get picked off by nomadic Scythians who object to their presence in that land, thus the colony fails. Both stories are by Tom Holt, but one colony is inspired by Plato and the concept that philosophers should gather adherents and go off to found new colonies which agree to put their intellectual ideas into practice, then this more modern example skips the philosophy and represents the settlement as more of a business venture, with a bit of pillage a village, if the opportunity arises.
Despite my critical words, Meadowland is a good example of conversational, storytelling style contrived around a remarkable missing page of history (or it didn’t happen – you choose). If you ignore the wandering Stone Age tribes who arrived across the land and ice bridge in pre-history, my guess is, by weight of probability, that the Vikings may indeed have arrived in North America first. Like the sea though, the evidence is choppy and the objects that have been “found” and presented to prove the claim have so far all been fakes. Viking means pirate, incidentally, showing that the Norsemen of Scandinavia regarded Vikings as anti-social outsiders, so lack of acceptance is another reason why they had to move on.
Do read this book if you’re intrigued by the subject, want to see what Holt does with the idea and if you would like your imagination to be stimulated. Who knows? You might even be a Viking re-enactor with a straggly beard who calls himself Eric at weekends and normally works in HMV. If so, this is definitely your bag. Go ahead and dismiss this next comment as idle guesswork but (unlike his best books) I might be the only person who has ever read this twice because, I mean, why would you? You get everything useful from this on the first pass.
What is this anyway? A triumph for Thomas Holt or just another idea that he worked through and ticked off his long list? Well, I think the author was interested in the proposal and covered it as best he could but I don’t think there was enough known material as a foundation for his usual enthusiastic and chatty narratives to be spun away from. Mildly dramatic, sort of speculative, with forgettable and expendable characters, this story was otherwise imaginative and had plenty of rufty-tufty human interaction but I don’t think it said anything really new about the subject and there wasn’t enough dramatic welly behind the iron axe to satisfy the audience’s remaining expectations.
Please note: It really, really upsets historical re-enactors if you mention that Vikings wore horns on their hats. Always, always make sure you say this because it honours the ancient Norwegian tradition of the trolls.
Meadowland is an example of Holt’s inconsistency and an increasing lack of direction after his early burst of confident quality and occasionally glorious bitter-sweet humour. The reason for the diluted soup is, I think, his background is that of a thoroughly-read classical scholar, so books about these ancient civilisation topics usually reflect that depth of learning, but not all of them – that happens when he departs from his best study areas. I think he’s been exposed to the idea that the Scandinavians discovered North America first (probably in a conversation across an anvil somewhere), thought that would make a really good subject for a book, but, of course, we know almost absolutely, totally, utterly, guessingly, a whole heap of shrugging nothing about it. No expedition records, runes, sagas, zip, just a few post holes and signs of what might possibly have been metalwork activity on a small island in Nova Scotia (see YouTube). By contrast, the records and cultural legacy of Greece and Rome are endless, even their historians are famous and we still use their phrases. Although Ancient Greek script looks like skirmishing ringworm, we still quote from it. The challenge in Meadowland was, therefore, to make the story up from absolute scratch, in the absence of the framework of facts he’d worked from previously.
Couched in campfire storytelling style, the writing is familiar and friendly, easy to read but there’s also a sense of enthusiasm having been lost for the project. The plot is realistic enough, perhaps too realistic. Meadowland is a tale of the kind of necessary onboard friendships that break up when the business agreement ends. It’s also a thrust of opportunistic colonisation, which was what the Vikings from Norway and latterly Greenland did when they found a new pitch that had more attractive prospects for agricultural exploitation than their fjiordy homeland. Five hundred years before Columbus, did the Vikings pitch and yawl in a creaky boat and on some frosty morning drag it up the distant shores of Vinland? Historians and Americans care about this but don’t speculate that the any of these explorers survived and contributed to the native gene pool, so it’s really all academic.
The Norse word for the Americas was only apparently Vinland (Wineland), which Holt tells us is a mispronunciation of the original Veenland (Meadowland, pastures). The explorers came from an overcrowded island where the grazing was on a thin strip of wire-grass between the rocks and the freezing sea. That’s the premise then; opportunity vs. threat. The body of the writing though is conversational. When a Greek clerk of the Roman Empire is drawn into the tale, which is a pretty radical alien input, he’s disinterested in the superfluous doings of barbarian hirelings. He changes though, finding a certain human depth in those the Empire sees as little more than useful hairy hooligans with an axe-fixation.
That, alongside the predictable clashes between the new colonists and Native American tribes, who are about as easy for the slow and heavy Vikings to spike to a tree as drizzle, makes up about a fifth of the density of information and intrigue that I would usually expect from a TH novel. I have to add a note that there’s one of Tom Holt’s classical history series that has this same plot line too, where Greek colonists are doing okay for a while, then get picked off by nomadic Scythians who object to their presence in that land, thus the colony fails. Both stories are by Tom Holt, but one colony is inspired by Plato and the concept that philosophers should gather adherents and go off to found new colonies which agree to put their intellectual ideas into practice, then this more modern example skips the philosophy and represents the settlement as more of a business venture, with a bit of pillage a village, if the opportunity arises.
Despite my critical words, Meadowland is a good example of conversational, storytelling style contrived around a remarkable missing page of history (or it didn’t happen – you choose). If you ignore the wandering Stone Age tribes who arrived across the land and ice bridge in pre-history, my guess is, by weight of probability, that the Vikings may indeed have arrived in North America first. Like the sea though, the evidence is choppy and the objects that have been “found” and presented to prove the claim have so far all been fakes. Viking means pirate, incidentally, showing that the Norsemen of Scandinavia regarded Vikings as anti-social outsiders, so lack of acceptance is another reason why they had to move on.
Do read this book if you’re intrigued by the subject, want to see what Holt does with the idea and if you would like your imagination to be stimulated. Who knows? You might even be a Viking re-enactor with a straggly beard who calls himself Eric at weekends and normally works in HMV. If so, this is definitely your bag. Go ahead and dismiss this next comment as idle guesswork but (unlike his best books) I might be the only person who has ever read this twice because, I mean, why would you? You get everything useful from this on the first pass.
What is this anyway? A triumph for Thomas Holt or just another idea that he worked through and ticked off his long list? Well, I think the author was interested in the proposal and covered it as best he could but I don’t think there was enough known material as a foundation for his usual enthusiastic and chatty narratives to be spun away from. Mildly dramatic, sort of speculative, with forgettable and expendable characters, this story was otherwise imaginative and had plenty of rufty-tufty human interaction but I don’t think it said anything really new about the subject and there wasn’t enough dramatic welly behind the iron axe to satisfy the audience’s remaining expectations.
Please note: It really, really upsets historical re-enactors if you mention that Vikings wore horns on their hats. Always, always make sure you say this because it honours the ancient Norwegian tradition of the trolls.
June 5, 2024
One of the best of Holt's more serious novels -- the ones where he ditches the mythological burlesque, which wears thin after a few dozen books, and goes instead for real, or mainly real, history. Holt's narrators in these stories are funny, wry, intelligent, cynical and brilliantly entertaining; they recount their adventures in pretty much the same voice Holt uses in the fantasy books he writes under the name K.J. Parker.
"Meadowland" is a story (the Norse discovery of America) within a story (a couple of aging Scandinavian mercenaries reminisce to a Byzantine bureaucrat to pass the downtime on a long journey). The subject matter appealed to the medieval-Greenland nerd in me, but I'd love to see Holt take a shot at almost any genre, from horse opera to Wodehouse-style farce.
"Meadowland" is a story (the Norse discovery of America) within a story (a couple of aging Scandinavian mercenaries reminisce to a Byzantine bureaucrat to pass the downtime on a long journey). The subject matter appealed to the medieval-Greenland nerd in me, but I'd love to see Holt take a shot at almost any genre, from horse opera to Wodehouse-style farce.
May 7, 2018
I am surprised that no one has mentioned so far that this historic novel is written in the K.J. Parker-style (one of Holt's pen names).
When I noticed that after a few paragraphs, I was quite excited because I count KJP as one of my absolute favourites and have read all his books except [Orbit's financial rip-off] 'The Two of Swords" published in 23 instalments.
Sadly this novel has a very repetitive storyline. Though there are nuances in the events, it is the journey of two Northmen sailing from Greenland to America over and over again.
Did I enjoy it? Yes, but an affirmative editor could have turned this into a great book.
When I noticed that after a few paragraphs, I was quite excited because I count KJP as one of my absolute favourites and have read all his books except [Orbit's financial rip-off] 'The Two of Swords" published in 23 instalments.
Sadly this novel has a very repetitive storyline. Though there are nuances in the events, it is the journey of two Northmen sailing from Greenland to America over and over again.
Did I enjoy it? Yes, but an affirmative editor could have turned this into a great book.
June 9, 2021
This was a disappointment. The story as constructed was tedious, and the characters were 21st century Brits, not 11th century Norse. The right author could make this Greenlandic saga into compelling fiction, as Jeff Janoda did in Saga: A Novel of Medieval Iceland, or Sigrid Undset in Gunnar's Daughter. I'm sorry that Mr. Holt did not.
July 4, 2021
In this intriguing book a Byzantine official spends a few down days listening to two Icelandic Varangian Guardsmen tell their story on the discovery of Vinland (Meadowland, they say, not Vineland). It takes a while to get started, both for the official and the reader, but it’s worth listening to.
You get to meet, at second hand, Erik the Red and Leif the Lucky and their family, friends and not friends. You get to see how and why the expeditions failed. And you learn why Harold Hardrada did not conquer the world.
And you get caught up in the story of two old friends (they swap on and off telling the story) and why they stuck together. And as the action picks up speed you start to care.
You get to meet, at second hand, Erik the Red and Leif the Lucky and their family, friends and not friends. You get to see how and why the expeditions failed. And you learn why Harold Hardrada did not conquer the world.
And you get caught up in the story of two old friends (they swap on and off telling the story) and why they stuck together. And as the action picks up speed you start to care.
January 13, 2021
This is different to Holt’s fantasy novels; an historical account of the Viking discovery and settlement of America, spoilt a little by too much modern-day slang. Two sixtyish Varangian guards, Eyvind and Kari, accompany John Stetathus, a middle-aged eunuch clerk, on a journey and tell the story. It's all involving and plausible and based on the sagas. Freydis particularly comes across as a psychopath and the Norsemen seem less violent than usual. There's much of interest about sailing, customs, the new land and Greenland and Iceland
September 24, 2017
I thought this book was historically rich, character rich, dryly humorous, and engaging. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the historical details, but they were more plausible than most books of this culture and time period.
November 19, 2023
Fun retelling of the Saga of the Greenlanders. The frame narrative of two Viking companions telling the story to a Byzantine accountant is especially nice and motivates an entertaining ending. It’s too bad Holt/Parker has never written a straight-up Byzantine novel.
November 16, 2017
Absolutely brilliant. Unexpected and very pleasant reading
May 9, 2022
A favourite author rewriting one of my favourite sagas. What more could I ask for? 5⭐️
November 10, 2012
I'll preface this with a statement that I've never been a fan of history. I have a vivid memory of complaining to a friend about having to learn it in school. These days, I've come to terms with its importance as part of the national curriculum, but I still would never come close to counting myself as any kind of "history buff".
How is it then, that I come to be reading historical fiction? And not just once, but twice (three times, if you count The Walled Orchard as two separate books)! The answer: Tom Holt. The more I read by him, the more I desire to read more of his books. He nestles snugly between my love of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams and his books are consistently good. Sometimes so good you just have to put off all those important things you're meant to be doing (sleeping, eating, getting dressed like a civilised human being) so you can carry on reading.
But this isn't a normal Tom Holt book. This is a Thomas Holt book. That means he's reigned in the humour and he's messing with history rather than reality. In no way is this detrimental to the book. He's still a master of imaginative metaphors, without having to make them funny. More importantly, he's still a master storyteller.
The story is framed as being told by two ageing Norsemen, telling it while they wait for their cart to be fixed. The way Tom's written it, you can feel yourself sat there with them. Their voices are authentic and nuanced; you long to fall into the book and to really be there, listening to the story being told first-hand.
The period(s) of history in question were something I only had passing knowledge of before I picked this up, so I can't be one to nitpick details. But if there's anything to really be picked at, you should put it aside and let yourself enjoy this book for what it is; a fantastically told story of an amazing adventure that really happened.
How is it then, that I come to be reading historical fiction? And not just once, but twice (three times, if you count The Walled Orchard as two separate books)! The answer: Tom Holt. The more I read by him, the more I desire to read more of his books. He nestles snugly between my love of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams and his books are consistently good. Sometimes so good you just have to put off all those important things you're meant to be doing (sleeping, eating, getting dressed like a civilised human being) so you can carry on reading.
But this isn't a normal Tom Holt book. This is a Thomas Holt book. That means he's reigned in the humour and he's messing with history rather than reality. In no way is this detrimental to the book. He's still a master of imaginative metaphors, without having to make them funny. More importantly, he's still a master storyteller.
The story is framed as being told by two ageing Norsemen, telling it while they wait for their cart to be fixed. The way Tom's written it, you can feel yourself sat there with them. Their voices are authentic and nuanced; you long to fall into the book and to really be there, listening to the story being told first-hand.
The period(s) of history in question were something I only had passing knowledge of before I picked this up, so I can't be one to nitpick details. But if there's anything to really be picked at, you should put it aside and let yourself enjoy this book for what it is; a fantastically told story of an amazing adventure that really happened.
September 11, 2011
"Meadowland" is a fictional history of the eleventh-century Norse sailing expeditions and colonizations of Greenland and Iceland, as well as the failed colonization of the North American coast (New Brunswick), as told by two old Norse soldiers, Eyvind and Kari, to a Greek clerk in Byzantium, along with the exiled Prince Harald.
The tale is handled simply and deftly, with a naturalistic story-telling style reminiscent of Boccaccio's The Decameron.
There's wit, romance, action and politics, acts of great treachery and heroism, all explained by two very well-traveled old men who've orbited around each other for so long that they finish each others' sentences. The story captures their perspective and experience, which casts doubt on the value of the stay-at-home clerk's vaunted classical Greek and Roman education.
The book's major flaw is a grinding fatalism. You know from the beginning that these two old soldiers have lived miserably - they've barely survived their astonishing journeys, and been spit out the other side to linger as retired Varangian mercenaries for the Byzantine Empire. Nonetheless, they lived to tell the tale, unlike most of their companions.
This isn't deathless prose, but it's still an enjoyable voyage through a story that would otherwise be one of the unexplained footnotes of history - why the Vikings didn't conquer America, even though they were the only Europeans of their time who could reliably find it.
The tale is handled simply and deftly, with a naturalistic story-telling style reminiscent of Boccaccio's The Decameron.
There's wit, romance, action and politics, acts of great treachery and heroism, all explained by two very well-traveled old men who've orbited around each other for so long that they finish each others' sentences. The story captures their perspective and experience, which casts doubt on the value of the stay-at-home clerk's vaunted classical Greek and Roman education.
The book's major flaw is a grinding fatalism. You know from the beginning that these two old soldiers have lived miserably - they've barely survived their astonishing journeys, and been spit out the other side to linger as retired Varangian mercenaries for the Byzantine Empire. Nonetheless, they lived to tell the tale, unlike most of their companions.
This isn't deathless prose, but it's still an enjoyable voyage through a story that would otherwise be one of the unexplained footnotes of history - why the Vikings didn't conquer America, even though they were the only Europeans of their time who could reliably find it.
September 5, 2016
I have been fascinated with the Viking discovery of America, and in particular with the character of Leif Erikson, for a long time. So when I heard of Tom Holt's Meadowland, I practically ran to order it on Amazon and spent the days until its arrival biting my nails. Of course, with such a degree of anticipation, it is perhaps a little predictable that I experienced a certain disappointment.
Don't get me wrong; the book is entertaining, well-written, witty and informative - definitely a worthwhile read for any lover of historical novels and of the Viking exploration age in particular. But the ultimate impression I came away with is this: the author took a fabulous, great, epic story and turned it into a merely pretty good book.
What bothered me most was the fact that the story is told from the POV of two ancient geezers who never really existed and about whom, therefore, I didn't care one bit. What I really wanted was some deep, first-hand insight into the minds of Erik the Red, Leif Erikson, Freydis Eriksdottir - all those legendary characters mentioned in the sagas. No doubt it is more challenging to write in first person when stepping into the huge shoes of Leif Erikson, but this, in my opinion, is what could have turned this book from passably good to really great.
So, overall, I feel I cannot give it more than 3 stars.
Don't get me wrong; the book is entertaining, well-written, witty and informative - definitely a worthwhile read for any lover of historical novels and of the Viking exploration age in particular. But the ultimate impression I came away with is this: the author took a fabulous, great, epic story and turned it into a merely pretty good book.
What bothered me most was the fact that the story is told from the POV of two ancient geezers who never really existed and about whom, therefore, I didn't care one bit. What I really wanted was some deep, first-hand insight into the minds of Erik the Red, Leif Erikson, Freydis Eriksdottir - all those legendary characters mentioned in the sagas. No doubt it is more challenging to write in first person when stepping into the huge shoes of Leif Erikson, but this, in my opinion, is what could have turned this book from passably good to really great.
So, overall, I feel I cannot give it more than 3 stars.
July 17, 2015
In 1036 a fretful Byzantine civil servant and three Varangian guards are stranded somewhere in the northern Peleponnese when the axle of their wagon breaks. As they wait for help, the guards tell a story: a great tale of adventure and discovery (or, more accurately, the story of the poor sods who had to do all the hard work). In their younger days, these men Kari and Eyvind formed part of a ship's crew, driven off course in a storm, who stumbled across a great island on the edge of the world - which they named Meadowland. Telling the story of the Vinland voyages, this novel takes a look at the hard graft of trying to found a colony so far from home, and the dark threat of a country where all is not as rosy as it initially seems. It's a perfectly good novel, with a couple of endearingly chatty narrators, but it lacks some of the flair and confidence of Holt's classical-era novels, which I prefer.
For a full review, please see my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/20...
For a full review, please see my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/20...
May 15, 2008
It's a cheeky book in that it bends the lives of the two main characters into improbable shapes to get them onto every expedition to Meadowland from Greenland and keeps them together throughout their lives. I didn't mind that part of it as it's the trick that allows the tale to be told.
The story felt realistic to me. How much of that is just the result of good research and how much is the effect of good story telling I'm not sure. I'd vouch for the story telling and I'd guess that the research has lead to an accurate picture of the lives of the Norse at the time.
All of Holt's main characters worked for me, the voices sounded right, the attitudes were believable and the story, if you accept the comment above, was only incredible if you didn't remember that it is basically true.
There is a very nice twist to the end that I really enjoyed.
The story felt realistic to me. How much of that is just the result of good research and how much is the effect of good story telling I'm not sure. I'd vouch for the story telling and I'd guess that the research has lead to an accurate picture of the lives of the Norse at the time.
All of Holt's main characters worked for me, the voices sounded right, the attitudes were believable and the story, if you accept the comment above, was only incredible if you didn't remember that it is basically true.
There is a very nice twist to the end that I really enjoyed.
December 31, 2015
I loved this book. I loved the device the author used to tell the story, the ways he allowed the two Norse characters to end up together for all those journeys, and those characters telling of the story. Gruff, wry, humorous. Very different than I was expecting for some reason. Absolutely loved it!
December 8, 2015
A good read & a good laugh! It does help if you know your history mind. What really amused me was the way the two old squadies treated their new recruit, a certain Prince Harald (this is where you need to know your history).
April 6, 2009
A great viking story!
May 22, 2012
I hate Freydis so much.
April 25, 2012
I can't say how historically accurate this book is, but it's an interesting read.
July 5, 2015
Outwardly a romp through Greenlander half-hearted attempts.
More thoughtfull latterly.
Pulled you along with the narative.
More thoughtfull latterly.
Pulled you along with the narative.
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