Complex dark fantasy. ( )

(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)

I back and forthed about buying this book for the longest time. When it was only newly released I dismissed it mostly because of its cover. But then I read some good reviews of it. But then I read some bad reviews. But then I read a really good review that made it sound right up my alley, and I came really close to buying it then. But then the author came over all passive aggressive on twitter over a mildly poor review of his book, and it turned me right off. Finally my finance got sick of me picking it up and putting it back whenever we were in a bookshop and bought it for me.

And my yes/no relationship with the book was destined to continue, as for the whole time I was reading it I kept changing my mind over whether or not I liked it.

The concept was a tick in the like box, definitely. A Norse king with no sons follows a prophesy to a village where he plans to pillage himself an heir. Problem is, the prophecy promised one baby boy, and he finds two...

However I found it really hard to get into Lachlan's writing style. It was too detached for me, and too often leaned on telling rather than showing. At times it was more like reading a newspaper article than a novel. It was like a man with no personal involvement was detailing something that had happened a long time ago, and the lack of warmth and immediacy really stopped me from becoming invested in the book.

And it really stopped me from caring about the characters, which as you know, is where a book lives or dies for me. It was frustrating, because while in the narrative the characters were treated almost clinically, in the dialogue they shone. Lachlan's dialogue was pretty brilliant, infused with genuine wit and life. Which only made all those stuff outside the quote marks seem all the less so. The MC Vali, for example, had some really funny one liners in his dialogue, yet in the narrative there was hint of him being witty, or being anything at all really.

It didn't matter so much during scenes of high action, and really these were then scenes I enjoyed most throughout the book. Lachlan has the knack of taking complicated battles and making them easy to follow, and exciting to boot. But in the quieter moments where you might expect to see some character development the book was sorely lacking, and action will only take you so far.

By the end I found I was skimming over the text in the barest way possible. I wanted to see how the book ended, but I didn't really care how it ended, if that makes sense.

The unanimous opinoion seems to be that the book's sequel, Fenrir, improves massively upon Wolfsangel. So I may continue on this series, but then again I may not. ( )

Twins are taken from their home to fill a hole in a king's family and starts a spiral that will end with one of them as a werewolf. Gods, priestesses and magic in the mix.

This should have hit several buttons with me but it didn't, I just wasn't engaged by the characters and didn't really care what happened to them. I was curious to see what unfolded but by the end of the story wasn't really pushed to read more. It's not bad and I like the view of magic and the time of change from northern religions to christianity and lacks some modern sniping at religion by the pivotal character.

It wasn't a bad read but it didn't push my buttons. ( )

Excellent evocation of a Dark Ages northern Europe where witches, werwolves and gods are as real to the people as capricious kings and viking raids. At first it was hard to tell if the events of the story were actually supernatural, or the products of self-inflicted physical and mental torments and hallucinogenic mushrooms. I was totally gripped right through. ( )

Every now and then I take a chance on something I'm not really sure I want to read, and it seems a bit unfair to criticise the book for not being my sort of thing if I knew that that was the case before I started it. I felt a bit meh about this novel. Things about pre-Christian Norse beliefs tire me. Though the raid on Lindisfarne from the point of view of a participant who felt the other vikings were all idiots was quite good. ( )