A really good yarn with constant changes of pace, action and drama as the Vikings sweep on England. It begins a trilogy of bloody and lusty adventures with a terrific hero. Wonderful escapist stuff.
For two years Osric has lived a simple life, apprentice to the mute old carpenter who took him in when others would have him cast out. But when Norsemen from across the sea burn his village they also destroy his new life, and Osric finds himself a prisoner of these warriors. Their chief, Sigurd the Lucky, believes the Norns have woven this strange boy's fate together with his own, and Osric begins to sense glorious purpose among this Fellowship of warriors. Immersed in the Norsemen's world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a blood bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen's world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood and where a young man must become a killer to survive. When the Fellowship faces annihilation from ealdorman Ealdred of Wessex, Raven chooses a bloody and dangerous path, accepting the mission of raiding deep into hostile lands to steal a holy book from Coenwolf, King of Mercia. There he will find much more than the Holy Gospels of St Jerome. He will find Cynethryth, an English girl with a soul to match his own. And he will find betrayal at the hands of cruel men, some of whom he regarded as friends.
Having Viking ancestors himself, Giles Kristian believes that the story of Raven has always been in his blood. Inspired by both his family history and his storytelling heroes, Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden, Giles began writing this thrilling tale of an English boy’s coming of age amongst a band of marauding warriors from across the grey seas. Raven: Blood Eye was published to great acclaim and two further adventures have followed. Giles lives in Leicestershire where he writes full-time.
