The Whale Road (Oathsworn, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Nov 13, 2011 Lee Broderick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fiction-historical

Describing a historical novel based around Vikings as being a saga almost seems like a cop-out. A clichéd non-review that damns with faint praise. This really is though: the tale of a legend (I'm assuming, without having yet read the subsequent books) taking his first steps through the making of his story; not only studded with humour but in beautiful, occasionally lyrical, language that is as easy to read as it is a pleasure.

Through the all too brief 350 pages, Orm narrates his own tale with co ...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Bryn Hammond rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: imagined-fiction

This is a might-have-been for me: I might have liked it heaps, but turned out I didn’t, not heaps. I like a lot of the ingredients.

I like that half the crew are maniacs of one description or another; I like that they share one holy – that’s the oath. I like Einar-types: he’s a bastard with charisma, his bastardry equivocal; his crew – and he – come to believe he’s fated. But he didn’t come alive and grab me. Few of them did – until their deaths, where their personalities can find expression, be This is a might-have-been for me: I might have liked it heaps, but turned out I didn’t, not heaps. I like a lot of the ingredients.

I like that half the crew are maniacs of one description or another; I like that they share one holy – that’s the oath. I like Einar-types: he’s a bastard with charisma, his bastardry equivocal; his crew – and he – come to believe he’s fated. But he didn’t come alive and grab me. Few of them did – until their deaths, where their personalities can find expression, because these guys want a saga-death; they choose to be spectacular, like Pinleg (loved him for his death) or that ambition can go wrong. I like that the author writes in the daily persiflage among the crew - except there wasn’t half enough; I’ll have a double dose of that. I don’t care for Orm, through whose eyes we see, so that doesn’t help.

I like the religious rivalry between the new White Christ and the old gods, bubbling away in the background or impinging on the story. I like that there’s a skald in the crew, and that his audience know how to rate a kenning. But I want more here. Give us a few of his lines – not just that bloody onion riddle that we’ve heard too. Does the author fear adventure fans run screaming from poetry? The adventurers doted on it, and were among the world’s masters in battle poetry; for the authentic experience, let’s have the poetry after the battle.

The crew like a fine kenning, our author likes a fine simile - although he seems to drop them further in, not to interrupt his story. These were a great ornament for me. Epic similes are a tradition from Homer and any follower worth his salt, I say, ought to do homage with his own rendition: the similes were original and apt and won my heart, but later on I missed them.

I was excited by the beginning, but I felt he settled down into an adventure formula; my interest trickled away and never did return. I’ll go on with the sequels... like I say, for me, stacks of potential.
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