Hello Fellow Journeyers,
Next up is the second installment in The Last Viking trilogy after The Golden Horn: The Road of the Sea Horse. As ridiculous as this title may sound, the story is not so.
An alternative title to this story could be, "The Road of the Hated King." I've learned two things after reading this story. 1. Being a good, virtuous Viking king would be nearly impossible. And 2. Just because you're the protagonist, doesn't make you a hero. Harald's story is a tough one picking up directly after The Golden Horn, and little is there in terms of noble virtues shown. This may sound cliché, but in The Golden Horn, I wanted to like Harald. He was an aspiring person, driven to fulfill his heritage and become a king. In The Road of the Sea Horse, he achieves this, becomes ruthless, kills or defeats all those who oppose him from his goals, and all with very few redeeming factors. His most compelling reason is "for the good of a united Norway."
That being said, since he becomes a more action based character in this book, I found myself far more invested, even if I didn't like what he chose to do. Especially in terms of how he treats his wife(wives), friends, and allies. Instead of being mostly exposition-based storytelling like in The Golden Horn, Anderson chose to show far more than tell and the story benefits from the rawness and liveliness of the historical Viking setting. While The Golden Horn was a fairly boring and straightforward story of battles, The Road of The Sea Horse shows many interlaced stories of conflict. King fights king, traitor gets betrayed, and would-be friends become enemies.
It works for the most part, but loses the importance of overall narrative. Also, a side benefit of this story is that Anderson chose to implement his trademark descriptions and intricate setting details that really breath life into the harsh lives of the Vikings, so that's a definite plus. I think that I could've enjoyed this story immensely had the characters been more investing, intriguing, or have depth to them; the lack of intimacy really causes a lot of the emotional investment to suffer.
The last thing I have to say about The Road of the Sea Horse is that the ending was anticlimactic. There was a final voyage in the final chapter that gives the introduction to the next book, but we already know what motivates Harald, so it didn't seem to really yield anything worth valuing much.
Recommended For: those who enjoy historically accurate Viking stories. Not much in terms of fantasy, so this is not my regular cup of tea.
★★★ 2.5 Stars - The Road of the Sea Horse improves the storytelling of Harald Hardrede by implementing better writing techniques. That being said, I still do not enjoy the highly meticulous historical fiction aspect to the story that for me, drags it down quite often. That being said, the story is a step up in terms of progression and intrigue after The Golden Horn.
Let me hear from you! If you like what you read, want to hear more thoughts on this book, other reviews, or talk book recommendations and Essential Reading, leave a comment below.
Rating system:
★★★★★ 5 Stars: It was amazing; I loved it. Read this book; it is definitely Essential Reading!
★★★★★* 4.5 Stars: It was fantastic, I really loved almost every aspect of it.
★★★★ 4 Stars: It was very good and worth reading; highly recommend.
★★★★* 3.5 Stars: I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this story, but it was lacking in certain areas.
★★★ 3 Stars: It was good, but could've been better or improved upon significantly.
★★★* 2.5 Stars: I wanted to enjoy it. Certain aspects were good, it was worth finishing, but many issues.
★★ 2 Stars: It was okay, I didn't feel strongly about it.
★ 1 Star: I did not like it. It was not worth finishing or I did not finish it.
*I round up based on the system on Goodreads. Also, there is no 1.5 Stars because it does not seem to have enough differentiation.
