Tag: HF Reading Challenge

Book Review – Odin’s Game by Tim Hodkinson

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About the Book

Not everyone will survive, but who will conquer all in Odin’s game? 

AD 915. In the Orkney Isles, a young woman flees her home to save the life of her unborn child. Eighteen years later, a witch foretells that evil from her past is reaching out again to threaten her son.

Outlawed from his home in Iceland, Einar Unnsson is thrown on the mercy of his uncle, the infamous Jarl Thorfinn ‘Skull Cleaver’ of Orkney, who wants nothing to do with him. With few other options, Einar joins a band of wolfskin-clad warriors, becoming a player in a deadly game for control of the Irish sea.

Together they embark on a quest where Einar must fight unimaginable foes, forge new friendships, and discover what it truly means to be a warrior. But as the clouds of war gather, betrayal follows betrayal and Einar soon realises the only person he can really trust is himself. . .

Format: Paperback (496 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 2nd September 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Odin’s Game is the first in the author’s The Whale Road Chronicles series. I’ve actually read several other books in the series (The Serpent King #4, Eye of the Raven #7 and the final book The Blazing Sea #8) but, as if often the case with me, not in the right order or from the very beginning. I’d been looking for a book to match the final category for the What’s In A Name? Challenge hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook – a book with a deity in the title – and was delighted to come across Odin’s Game in my TBR pile.

I wondered if going back to the first book in the series would work given I’ve read later books but in fact I really enjoyed getting to know the young Einar and finding out where his journey began. Yes, there’s no sense of jeopardy as far as Einar is concerned but the same cannot be said for other characters.

When we first meet eighteen-year-old Einar he doesn’t possess any skills with a weapon and seems consumed by doubts and fears. His mother Unn’s past is shrouded in mystery, including the identity of Einar’s father. The fact Einar’s surname is derived from his mother’s name rather than his father’s as would usually be the case, plus his mother’s Christian faith, sets them apart from the rest of the community who worship other gods.

During the Icelandic equivalent of an ice hockey game, we get the first glimpse of the sudden outbursts of rage that will overwhelm Einar from time to time. Although not the trance-like fury of a ‘berserker’, these intense periods of ferocity contribute to him becoming a formidable warrior in later years. Unfortunately, on this first occasion, his momentary lapse in control results in him being adjudged an outlaw, effectively banishing him from Iceland.

From a fairly slow start because of the necessary scene setting, the pace really picks up and then it’s action all the way. Einar finds himself embroiled in the machinations of the rulers of Norway and Ireland, none of whom have any qualms about breaking alliances or turning on those to whom they pledged allegiance. Not even connections through kinship or marriage are sacred.

There are full-on action scenes in which the Wolf Coats prove just what a ferocious and seemingly invincible fighting force they are, leaving a trail of bloody remains in their wake. Einar does his share of the blood-letting too with his newly acquired skill with sword and axe, including a memorable one-on-one battle. And then it’s back to Iceland to save a life and enact revenge. ‘The game is set and we have to play to the end.’

The book is packed with detail about every aspect of life in the period, really helping to bring the story alive and a testament to the depth of the author’s research.

If you’re a fan of Viking age historical fiction where the action comes thick and fast, I can recommend this series.

In three words: Gripping, dramatic, authentic
Try something similar: The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy

About the Author

Tim Hodkinson grew up in Northern Ireland where the rugged coast and call of the Atlantic Ocean led to a lifelong fascination with vikings and a degree in Medieval English and Old Norse Literature. Apart from Old Norse sagas, Tim’s more recent writing heroes include Ben Kane, Giles Kristian, Bernard Cornwell, George R. R. Martin and Lee Child. After several years living in New Hampshire, USA, Tim has returned to Northern Ireland, where he lives with his wife and children.

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Book Review – The Mare by Angharad Hampshire

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About the Book

Hermine Braunsteiner was the first person to be extradited from the Unites States for Nazi war crimes. Hermine was one of a few thousand women to work as a female concentration camp guard. Prisoners nicknamed her ‘the Mare’ because she kicked people to death. When the camps were liberated, Hermine escaped and fled back to Vienna.

Many years later, she met Russell Ryan, an American man holidaying in Austria. They fell in love, married, and moved to New York, where she lived a quiet life as an adoring suburban housewife, beloved friend and neighbour. No-one, not even her husband, knew the truth of her past, until one day a New York Times journalist knocked on their door, blowing their lives apart.

The Mare tells Hermine and Russell’s story for the first time in fiction. It explores how an ordinary woman could descend so quickly into evil, examining the role played by government propaganda, ideology, fear and cognitive dissonance, and asks why her husband chose to stay with her despite discovering what she had done.

Format: Paperback (320 pages) Publisher: Northodox Press
Publication date: 19th September 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Given its subject matter, The Mare is a book I may not have chosen to read had it not been shortlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. How glad I am that I did though because, for me, it was the most impressive book on the shortlist. I even tipped it as the winner although, in the end, it lost out to Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter (also a terrific book).

The Mare is the fictionalised account of the life of Hermine Braunsteiner who served as a prison guard in two concentration camps during WW2. It alternates between the points of view of Hermine herself and her husband, Russell Ryan. Each gives us a very different impression.

Russell meets Hermine in 1957 at a hotel in Austria where she is working. From the very beginning, he is besotted with her. She takes the driving seat in their relationship, whether due to genuine affection for him or because he offers a convenient gateway to a better life. He navigates the complex process of obtaining a marriage licence and facilitating their move to America. Their conventional married life is upended in July 1964 when they are confronted by allegations about Hermine’s past. Russell is unwavering in his support even as damning evidence is revealed during her trial for war crimes. You ask yourself, did he so want to believe the woman he married was not capable of such evil that he accepted her assurances she didn’t do the things she was accused of?

Hermine’s first person narrative takes us through her early life to the annexation of Austria by Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War. She takes a job in a brewery, then in a munitions factory before learning from a German officer with whom she is besotted about a job in a newly built women’s prison. The prison is Ravensbruck. She’s told its purpose is to ‘re-educate criminals through hard work,’ an explanation she naively accepts. (She’ll later tell Russell she only took the job because it was better paid.) Initially, she is shocked by the violence meted out to prisoners. Soon, though, it’s she who is threatened with punishment if she doesn’t ‘toughen up’ and praised for physical violence against prisoners. Eventually, she willingly carries out the acts of brutality that earn her the nickname ‘the Mare’.

One of the most chilling thing about Hermine’s account is her increasing nonchalance about the things she is witnessing and doing. She complains, ‘It doesn’t matter how many prisoners we gas, more just keep on coming’, as if they are a logistical inconvenience rather than fellow human beings she’s consigning to a horrific death. Acts of unspeakable brutality are treated as commonplace or justified as ‘necessary’. And as time goes on she even takes pride in being recognised by her superiors for her ‘efficiency’. It’s disturbing to enter the mind of someone capable of such despicable acts but somehow you can’t look away. You want to understand how someone could get to the point where they lose all concept of humanity. The author makes you confront that question.

The brilliance of the book’s structure is that we get to see the contradictions between Hermine’s own account of her actions and motivations, and what she tells Russell about her wartime experiences: the omissions, the obfuscations, the downright lies. Even more so at her trial when she continues to dispute the evidence of multiple individuals who witnessed her cruelty although we know what they are saying is correct because she has already told us so herself.

It’s possible I overuse the word ‘thought-provoking’ in my book reviews but I genuinely think it’s justified here.

The Mare is an unflinching exploration of humanity’s capacity for violence.

In three words: Powerful, dark, compelling
Try something similar: The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

About the Author

Angharad Hampshire was born in Manchester in 1972. She has worked as a producer for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service in London, honorary lecturer in journalism at the University of Hong Kong and regular contributor to the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She has a Doctor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney. Angharad currently works as a research fellow at York St John University and teaches on the Creative Writing MA. She lives in York with her family.