Boris Hlaváček Book order

The third and final book in an epic Viking story - a brother and a sister pitted against each as King Harald struggles to hold his kingdom together.

The second novel in this epic trilogy about Ragnvald, right-hand man to King Harald of Norway, and his tempestuous, driven sister, Svanhild.

An unusual Viking saga. Most such fiction is written by men and tells largely of blood-soaked battles, the lopping off of limbs and disembowellings. Hartsuyker's book has its share of violent action as it relates the story of its hero Ragnvald Eysteinsson, who survives a near-drowning by his enemies to hitch his fortunes to the rising star of Harald Fairhair, a teenage warrior and would-be king of all Norway in the ninth century. It also has several strands of narrative - mostly focused on Ragnvald's sister Svanhild as she strives to assert herself in a male dominated world - that are less predictable. This is a novel that creates a more nuanced and richer portrait of Viking society, with its complex web of rituals, laws and debts of honour, than the genre usually provides Sunday Times