Shadow of the Wolf (Berserker #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Feb 13, 2016 S.E. Lindberg rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

Viking Age: The Sword and Sorcery group on Goodreads had a Viking Age theme, for fans of books like The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson or Scott Oden's newly released A Gathering of Ravens ...or C. Dean Andersson's Bloodsong! — Hel X 3. I went after 1970’s Berserker series.

Availability: The Berserker series was originally published in 1977-79 under pseudonym Chris Carlsen (real name Robert Holdstock). Since 2014, it has been available as an omnibus paperback edition under Holdstock: Berserker SF ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Nov 09, 2015 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites, fantasy

Chris Carlsen aka Robert Holdstock

Wow! Brutal, savage, raw, earthy, mythic. Unpolished like a freshly flint-knapped piece of obsidian and might just make you bleed if when you pick it up uncarefully. Set in a world like our, in the early Viking Age but with real magic and vengeful Gods. Poor young warrior Harald is cursed by evil Odin to be a Berserker. Very much in the Sword and Sorcery realm and perhaps a precursor to our current Grimdark. this is a swift moving and brilliant little novel whic ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2013 Jason rated it liked it

Actually 3.5 stars.

Chris Carlsen was a pseudonym for writer Robert Holdstock, probably best known for his Ryhope Wood cycle, including Mythago Wood, winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award.

Shadow of the Wolf, published in 1977, was the first of three Berserker novels written under the Carlsen name, the other two being The Bull Chief and The Horned Warrior (currently misidentified here on Goodreads as simply Berserker). It is a bleak and gritty tale. Like many a Viking saga, there is a foreboding Actually 3.5 stars.

Chris Carlsen was a pseudonym for writer Robert Holdstock, probably best known for his Ryhope Wood cycle, including Mythago Wood, winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award.

Shadow of the Wolf, published in 1977, was the first of three Berserker novels written under the Carlsen name, the other two being The Bull Chief and The Horned Warrior (currently misidentified here on Goodreads as simply Berserker). It is a bleak and gritty tale. Like many a Viking saga, there is a foreboding sense of doom that overshadows and permeates the events in the novel, a dread feeling that it is one vast tragedy waiting to unfold over the course of events. The grimness is unrelenting, and there is little hope or joy to be found. The plentiful--and at times graphic--violence is both physical and sexual in nature, creating a mood for the work that is, at some points, almost depressing.

One of the things I most appreciated, beyond some bouts of truly excellent prose (the writing as a whole was a little uneven), was that it accepts its premise without compromise: berserkers are divinely driven; gods meddle in the affairs of mortals; and curses hold real, lasting weight. It doesn't attempt to explain away the supernatural with plausible, natural events, or put them forth with a nod and wink. It presents both the fantastical as well as the unflinching (and sometimes over the top) brutal violence as simple, stark reality.

Note: It also has some brief, fairly explicit sexual scenes, some consensual, some not, that could be offensive to some readers, the writing style of which seems par for the course in some other works of this time directed toward a male audience by publishers such as Leisure Books, Corgi and in this case Sphere, etc. Some seems gratuitous in nature, worked into the plot seemingly by publisher/editorial mandate, but the story treats it with the same unflinching eye and doesn't ignore the consequences, lending it perhaps some air of legitimacy in terms of the story's structure. Could it have been written without the sex? Probably. But it wasn't.

Heavy on actions and the consequences thereof, with an emphasis on gritty survival over true heroics, and splashed across a bleak and oppressive landscape, The Shadow of the Wolf isn't for everyone. I, however, enjoyed it enough to want to read the next one, even if I'm not necessarily chomping at the bit right this moment to do so. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2024 Charles rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

The book begins with a young Viking warrior named Harald Swiftaxe returning home from his first campaign. He finds a village of his people destroyed and a wounded “Berserker” left behind. Berserkers were a real thing in Viking history, devotees of the god Odin, although here they are presented as literally possessed by the spirit of the bear, which makes them nearly impervious to fire and steel. With some help, Harald kills the Berserk and then blasphemes Odin. Bad move.

When Harald reaches his f ...more

2 likes · Like · see review