Fin Gall A Novel of Viking Age Ireland Norsemen Saga Series #1 (Audible Audio Edition) James L Nelson Shaun Grindell Tantor Audio Books
Download As PDF : Fin Gall A Novel of Viking Age Ireland Norsemen Saga Series #1 (Audible Audio Edition) James L Nelson Shaun Grindell Tantor Audio Books
AD 852. For centuries the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships, and few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted wherever they went.
Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item a crown. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. With enemies at every hand and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead.
Fin Gall A Novel of Viking Age Ireland Norsemen Saga Series #1 (Audible Audio Edition) James L Nelson Shaun Grindell Tantor Audio Books
I've been a fan of Jim's for a long time, and admit that I prefer his historical fiction to the more studied recent works. Jim has a great ability to develop characters that are believable and then weave a tale with depth and breadth that draws you in. So when I realized that he was starting a new series of historical fiction I eagerly bought Fin Gall and jumped in!So, I started Fin Gall with high expectations and was initially a bit disappointed, frankly there was a "saga of the cavemen" thing going on that was hard to identify with. But Jim's sense of human nature shines through and before long it became yet another page turner that I couldn't put down. He has really set the stage for some great future stories, the level of interplay is on a par with "Game of Thrones" put in a blender with "Downton Abbey". Warfare, sex, intrigue and deception, love, lust, food, drink, and travel.... what's not to like?
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Fin Gall A Novel of Viking Age Ireland Norsemen Saga Series #1 (Audible Audio Edition) James L Nelson Shaun Grindell Tantor Audio Books Reviews
Given the blood-thirsty instincts to plunder that are characteristic of the Vikings, it's something of an achievement to write a novel where such characters are the protagonists (!). I congratulate the author for making Thorgrim Night Wolf an appealing protagonist in a tale where there's plenty of nasty blood-letting and chicanery on all sides.
One feature of the first two novels that helps to raise Thorgrim's character out of the moral muck is his fatherly zeal for the good fortune of his son Harald, a man well-endowed with manly strength and woefully deficient in manly wisdom. Thorgrim's struggles to pass on his own considerable wisdom to his foolish son drives a lot of the plot.
For those averse to soft-porn scenes, note that these pop up here and there in the narrative. They are not difficult to skip over. The author, I'm pleased to report, does not embed information in these scenes which a reader ~must~ have in order to make sense of the plot. These scenes, in fact, can be entirely excised from the novel, and the plot suffers not a whit. They have the character of time-out-for-some-sex in the story, and they are about as helpful to the narrative as a commercial for home-delivered-catheters are to a television spy story. People who want to read about people having sex can find much better fare somewhere else.
One great plus is the author's success in creating an array of supporting characters who feel authentic and are entertainingly colorful. Especially entertaining is the presentation of the Viking beserker Starri Deathless. Starri's single-minded focus on violent combat is a great foil to Thorgrim's carefully deliberate warcraft when he approaches his enemy.
“Fin Gall” turned out to be a wonderful surprise. I was expecting a book focused on Vikings, but Nelson’s novel is as much about the Irish as it is the Norse and Danes. Set in the mid-ninth century, the tale unfolds from the viewpoints of multiple characters, both Viking and Irish, and I think the novel is richer because of it.
The central plot concerns the Crown of the Three Kingdoms, a magical device “forged even before the true faith came to Ireland by some long forgotten druids.” The crown has the power to bring together the warring Irish kings, who, if united, can dispel the Northmen from Ireland’s shores. As one of the main Irish characters puts it, the “future of Ireland rests with the crown.”
The book begins when a Norse longship attacks the Irish vessel that is secretly ferrying the crown to the Irish king of Tara. One of the Norsemen is Thorgrim Ulfsson (aka Thorgrim Night Wolf), the novel’s primary protagonist and a seasoned Viking warrior whose dreams warn him of the dangers of possessing the crown. So, Thorgrim buries it like pirates’ gold, setting up a treasure hunt that will dominate much of the novel.
In short time, Thorgrim and his crew of Norsemen (“fin gall” in Irish) encounter the first of several factions seeking the crown, the Danes (aka “dubh gall”) who rule the Viking settlement of Dubh-Linn. There we meet a trio of Danes who serve as antagonists in the tale the Danish ruler Orm, his treacherous hirdman Magnus, and his craven and conniving henchman Asbjorn the Fat. But we also encounter Morrigan, a beautiful and cunning Irish spy posing as a one of Orm’s thralls.
After being captured by the Danes, Thorgrim and his crewmen soon find themselves trapped between these two fictions the Danes who want the crown for themselves, and the Irish who want to use it to unite the Irish kingdoms. Once the Norsemen escape from Dubh-Linn, the adventure kicks into high gear. The action scenes are wonderfully written, the treachery is thick, and the plot rollicks along with turns and twists.
Amid all the adventure, there is a love story or two. Thorgrim finds himself drawn to the beautiful Morrigan, while his fifteen-year-old son, Harald, falls for Brigit, the Irish king’s daughter. Harald and Brigit’s story alone would make the book an enjoyable read. Yet instead it’s only one of many plotlines that Nelson weaves into the larger tale, making the entire story feel more epic in scope. If you’re at all interested in the Vikings in Ireland, and fun medieval adventures, “Fin Gall” will be well worth the read!
I had high hopes for this book, being about Viking Ireland. The start was very slow and hard to understand. It seems the author was trying so hard to impress everybody with his Irish vocabulary that it interrupted the flow of the book. It made the characters hard to identify with or care about. The pace picked up about three quarters the way through, but by then it was too late, and I no longer really cared. The battle scene close to the end was halting and confusing. Maybe I've just become spoiled by Cornwell's excellent battle scenes.
I've been a fan of Jim's for a long time, and admit that I prefer his historical fiction to the more studied recent works. Jim has a great ability to develop characters that are believable and then weave a tale with depth and breadth that draws you in. So when I realized that he was starting a new series of historical fiction I eagerly bought Fin Gall and jumped in!
So, I started Fin Gall with high expectations and was initially a bit disappointed, frankly there was a "saga of the cavemen" thing going on that was hard to identify with. But Jim's sense of human nature shines through and before long it became yet another page turner that I couldn't put down. He has really set the stage for some great future stories, the level of interplay is on a par with "Game of Thrones" put in a blender with "Downton Abbey". Warfare, sex, intrigue and deception, love, lust, food, drink, and travel.... what's not to like?
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