A Flame in the North by Lilith Saintcrow

Source: NetGalley – I love you Orbit, Thank you!
TL;DR: A difficult read but worth it in every way. A little Lord of the Rings, a lot of vikings, and a fantastic female lead.

Plot: Think Lord of the Rings, without a ring, and the main character is a female Gandalf in a Viking world.
Characters: I adored these characters. Sol, Arn, Eol, just all of them. Every time there was a combat I was worried for all of them and the rest.
Setting: Cold and frigid. I don’t want to go there but by god I want to read more about it.
Magic: I loved the act and idea of the magic but I do want more of it, more description. That’s my one complaint but it’s not going to detract from my rating.

Thoughts:

TL;DR – I LOVED this. It is difficult to read, but I think it’s 100% worth it. Lord of the Rings, with a Viking flavor, and a female Gandalf as the lead is my best comp for this. Love, love, love it.

A Flame in the North tells the story of Solveig who, after her brother kills a man, is traded to another clan for a year and a day. This clan of takes her North, to where she believes is their home, but it is instead the beginning of an epic journey. She and her sworn Shieldmaiden face threats straight from the old ballads as they travel, finding themselves nearly lost in the cold north.

This is a journey book, in the purest most basic form. So if you don’t enjoy journey’s definitely pass this one up. It’s also dense and difficult to read. Lilith Saintcrow takes a very classic style with her writing. It’s meaty and she introduces and uses quite a few new world specific words and terms, and more archaic language and sentence structure at times.

Is all that worth moving through to get to the end? Yes, hard yes. I adored this. It took me so long to read and when I did I almost pre-ordered the audio AND the physical. I wanted the book for my shelf and I wanted to hear it again in my ears. This is a journey of cold you can feel, political maneuvering that will leave you furious and intrigued, and a few moments of heartbreak.

6 out of 5 little squat man rune statues. This is going to be a best book of the year. Pick this up if you are interested.