What do You think about Odinn's Child (2005)?
"Odinn's Child" is the first in trilogy of books about life of Thorgils Leiffson. Unlike Bernard Cornwells Saxon series novels, this book can't stand on its own - it ends when reader expects true action to begin.Thorgils, orphan, is moving from one family to another and during his early years he comes in contact with old beliefs of Norsemen, encounters Skrelings (North American natives), lives with Irish druids, sails through treacherous northern seas, visits Iceland, Grenland, Vinland and Ireland.Story is never boring - there is always something going on. But again it ends up when it gets most interesting - when Thorgils escapes from Ireland and goes back to Iceland. Book should be treated as a sort of a introduction to Norsemen culture at the time and Thorgils' character.I am looking forward to "Sworn brothers" and "King's man".
—Zare
Excellent series. Like others here have said though, it is, a hard book to get into. When i first started to read the trilogy I gave up... but, a month or so later, bored with nothing currently to read, I picked it up again.And I am truly glad I did!!, i perservered and after say the first 100 pages, where it introduces you to many characters and there backgrounds, woosh!! I stormed through the rest of the book and on through the others too!!Odinns Child, and the following two books in the series give a wonderful insight into the lives of the vikingsHighly reccomend this book!
—Wulfrun Andy
In Odinn’s Child by Tim Severin, the old norseman Thorgils tells the long tale of his life. The story begins with Thorgils birth, and follows him to many strange places, including the famed Vinland.It was difficult for me to enjoy this book at first. The story seemed to move very slowly, without any apparent central plot. This changed when I realized that the book does not really tell a single tale, but many of them, with only the thin connection of the storyteller. And in these episodes of the life of Thorgils, Tim Severin artfully includes a lot of historical information about the time and cultures.If you are looking for a strong adventure or action novel, Odinn’s Child will leave you disappointed. But if you enjoy a historical novel in a very verbatim sense of the word, written in the tradition of norse sagas, you have found your book and series.
—Jorgen Schäfer
