From landscapes to how the buildings worked to the legal system- it’s all working in service to the story. Hartsuyker did a LOT of research and uses details to make the world more textured. Obviously, Ragnvald survives this assassination attempt (otherwise this would be a short book), and ends up with a young Harald Fairhair as he begins to consolidate power. Ragnvald’s father was killed when he was but a kid, and while by law he should have the petty kingdom his father ruled, he and his sister have been living mostly by sufferance with their stepfather. The book opens with Ragnvald coming home from raiding and nearly getting killed by the captain of his ship (on orders from Ragnvald’s stepfather). It’s decidedly dark in comparison to the Viking romances that wax and wane in popularity. It’s a Viking saga of revenge, politics, and nation building. It’s told from the point of view of one of Harald’s dudes, Ragnvald, and his sister, Svanhild. The trilogy charts the rise of Harald and how he became the first king of Norway in the 9th century. The Half-Drowned King is the first in a planned trilogy that is a heavily fictionalized retelling of the Saga of Harald Fairhair, which is one of the parts of the Heimskringla, an Icelandic Saga written in the 13th Century by Snorri Sturluson. Genre: Historical: European, Literary Fiction
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