Blood Will Follow: Jo Fletcher Books, January 2015, 266 pages, cover photo by Arcangel Images. Blood Will Follow is the second book in the Valhalla Saga. The first book, Swords of Good Men competed in the Battle of the 2014 Books, falling to Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson in the second round. Kristjansson is an Icelandic writer now living in London.
The Valhalla Saga pits Vikings with traditional beliefs in the Norse gods such as Odin and Thor against followers of the "White Christ," including King Olav. In Swords of Good Men, King Olav and his men won a battle for the town of Stenvik. As Blood Will Follow opens, a dangerous man named Valgard convinces Olav to march north to engage the other Norsemen immediately, rather than waiting for springtime. Meanwhile, the adventurer Ulfar and blacksmith Audun march away from Stenvik. They have been granted immortality by a witch, something they both regard as a curse. Ulfar decides to head home (Ulfar seemed like the primary protagonist in the 50 pages I read of Swords of Good Men, but he has appeared onstage only briefly so far in Blood Will Follow.) Audun trudges forward without him, eventually finding shelter with a strange old man.
Hexed: Pyr Books, May 2015, 278 pages, cover art by Larry Rostant. Hexed is the opening volume in the Sisters of Witchdown series, which is based on Michael Alan Nelson's Hexed comic books.
In the prologue of Hexed, a teenage girl named Gina is terrified from having seen an old woman in a mirror in a haunted house called the Worcester House, which she visited with friends. She runs home, and her policeman father tries to comfort her. But the old woman has followed and reaches through another mirror for Gina. Then in the initial chapters, we meet our young protagonist, Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves, Lucifer for short. The policeman gets a tip that Lucifer is knowledgeable about phenomena like this and begs her to help find his daughter. Lucifer starts by questioning Gina's boyfriend David, from whom she learns that Gina had recently been to Worcester House.
The Battle: I'll confess I was not especially looking forward to this battle. I had previously read 50 pages into the first book in Kristjansson's Valhalla Saga and it didn't much grab me. And Hexed looked a lot like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer rip-off, a number of years after that would have sounded like a fresh idea. But I was pleasantly surprised by the opening 25 pages of both books, both of which have strong openings. I'm taking that as a reminder of just how many talented authors we have in the SF/F field.
In the last Battle of the Books match-up, I complained that the opening of one of the contestants didn't pull me in because it was busy recapping earlier volumes in the same series. Impressively, in Blood Will Follow, Kristjansson recaps the story so far in his series in a way that helps advance the new story elements:
The day fell into a steady rhythm: heave rough wood, hammer, nails, move on. Audun had to admit that the old man was an excellent worker. There was no fuss, minimal talking, and no stupidity. The old man did what needed to be done and never got in his way. Thank the gods for every man who isn't an idiot, Audun thought. Then he grinned. That would be the kind of thing he'd have muttered under his breath crossing the square in Stenvik, before . . .The old man Fjölnir proceeds to force the tale out of Audun, letting new readers know more about the story to date, while also revealing the old man as someone more powerful and dangerous than we realized.
"What happened?"
The question came out of nowhere and broke the quiet.
"I . . . what?"
"Tell me."
Audun looked at the old man, who just looked levelly back at him with his one good eye. "There . . . um . . . there was a siege. Around Stevnik. Someone called Skargrim surrounded the city." Fjölnir nodded at the mention of the name. "A lot of good men died."
That scene in particular set a strong tone I thought would be difficult for Hexed to match. But the opening scene of Hexed, in which our missing girl Gina is abducted by a witch who reaches for her through a mirror, is effectively chilling. And I'm finding our young protagonist Lucifer spunky and tough but also sympathetic and funny. In this scene, for instance, she tries to interview Gina's boyfriend, who is playing basketball. One of the other players (Ethan) objects to Lucifer interrupting the game and calls her a "bitch." She bets him five dollars she can score on him in five seconds:
As soon as Greg started counting down, Lucifer raised the ball straight over her head. Ethan reached out to snatch the ball from Lucifer's hands, his arms uncoiling as quick as vipers. When he grabbed the ball, Lucifer let go and twisted her hips as hard as she could, bringing her shin up between his legs.After reading 25 pages, I'm enjoying both these books, but the wry sense of humor puts Hexed over the top.
There was a dull, wet sound of bone on flesh. The impact lifted Ethan clear off the ground, and he cried out with a sharp, brittle yelp. He seemed to hang in the air for a moment, confused and disoriented before falling to the ground in a fetal heap. The basketball fell and hit him in the head before rolling off the court, its bouncing pitter-patter the only sound in the suddenly silent gym.
The other boys erupted in laughter. Lucifer grabbed the five-dollar bill and tossed it down at Ethan who lay on the ground clutching his privates and struggling to breathe. "You win."
THE WINNER: Hexed by Michael Alan Nelson
Hexed advances to the second round to face Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz.
To see the whole bracket, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment