Viking Warrior by Judson Roberts

New Cover

First things first. The new (indie) cover: ouch. The old (publisher's) cover: looks like it was being marketed to a YA audience. For the most part, I avoid books that have covers with pictures of faces, but I saw the new (terrible) cover first.

Not sure how I stumbled upon Viking Warrior. I've read all of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Series, so I assume it came up in Amazons also-boughts.

This is the first installment of our hero, Halfdan, a thrall that is granted his freedom on his father's deathbed. Although this seems to have been originally marketed to YA, it still has all of the raping, pillaging, and decapitating that we expect in a Viking Warrior book.

It felt like a shorter read, but the characters are well developed and the action is strong. Like Cornwell, Roberts goes in-depth with his description, which I get a flavor for, then unceremoniously skip.

Old Cover

Roberts is a good writer, as evidenced by the fact that I read this in a couple of days (again, it wasn't terribly long). Do not let the cover abominations deter you: I will be reading the next installment of Halfdan, Dragons from the Sea, despite his portfolio of atrocious covers. If you like Uhtred, you should give Viking Warrior a drive.

Bueno, Judson: Fo' stars.


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