I admittedly was nervous to start this book. I am a person who likes to invest in the main protagonists relationship and to hear they are rejecting it made me pause. Thankfully I saw someone talk a little bit about it on Tiktok and decided to buy the e-book copy. Let me start off and say I am buying the physical copy to add to my shelf.

While Lagertha seems to have learned a few phrases in Ecbert’s Old English, the show continues to play loose with translation rules. Permalink: This is not about you Floki. It's about our children and their children. It is about our... The angst between these two love interests was what hooked me. The murder mystery kept it going. And the political intrigue.. unreal! This is a slow burn but there is spice - around the 60% mark. It was well written and I appreciated that it was something earned rather than just handed to readers.

Gye Baek, Warrior’s Fate online free

friendship family (it gave me the same warm feelings I got from the ACOTAR “inner circle”, while also being totally unique!) The entire cast was lovable and relatable, especially the main two, Isla and Kai. They were fleshed out and REAL in the same way I felt Feyre and Rhys were real. We get to see how the interact in all different situations, not just with each other but separately as well. I LOVED Isla, and am always excited to find a strong female character than embraces her femininity. This is not about you Floki. It's about our children and their children. It is about our people's future. And I do not want there to be endless conflict between us and the Christians. Ragnar Apparently I took my sweet time finishing this beast of a book. It wasn’t bad, it was just a lot for me personally. If half of it was cut and reshaped a bit, I think we could still get the same tension and mystery. It seems both Kings were having issues with their men. Floki was also questioning Ragnar's decisions. Of course, he's been judging Ragnar since Athelstan came along. This week he was pretty clear it's either their Gods or the Christian one. There can be no reconciliation between the two. In a way, Floki was seeing the future clearly when he said, "The triumph of the Chirst God will mean the death and destruction of all of ours." That's ultimately how things went down.

The faith of some extends to martyrdom. It’s a feature of many religions, even today, that those who die in their defense or according to their rules will reap rewards in the next life. While we see none of the zealotry that tends to be a feature of the former in this episode, the title definitely references the latter. Torstein meets his fate head-on when he all but begs (or as close as a Viking gets to begging) Rollo to drag him to the battlefield so he can die fighting, thus earning his way into Valhalla. His faith (and the content of that faith) is highlighted because his death in the beginning of the battle is in counterpoint to Burgred’s surrender at its end. Of course, while we are intended to see that surrender as cowardly, it also marks out an important difference between the two belief systems: the attitudes of each towards fate and free will. Having monsters and the dog as POV characters works sometimes to enhance the complexity of a character. On the other hand I find it increasingly frustrating when the same event is told several times over from different POVs. Is that strictly necessary? We already got the whole event once, there is no need to waste time with another retelling. It doesn't add to the experience. The characters are not exactly deep thinkers and the events being described are just simplistic action sequences.The only reason it wasn’t 5 stars for me is how the mate bond shaped Isla and Kai through the story. I think it was a lot of build up for nothing in the first part and I remember thinking, that could have been cut completely and it wouldn’t hurt. But that’s just me. What's it all mean? Is Harbard good or evil? What's he want with the women of Kattegat? What's the deal with the dead boys fished out of the sea? With the initial storyline begging for other talented storytellers to tighten their belts and weigh in on their interpretation of the Variant problem and the changed character of the survivors. This branch of the masterwork brings survivors from all walks of life and range of talents. While old soldiers live on in the lives and training of those that follow, the farmer, the cook and the handyman will be the ones to craft new lives from the ruins of the old. Permalink: But do not think I offer nothing in return; I tell stories. Stories about my own travels.... Some will always believe that mutual religious tolerance is impossible. The tension between the Christian Saxons and the Norse Vikings has begun to create problems on both sides as we are shown early on in parallel scenes in the episode. Two of Ecbert’s court (somewhat) hesitantly call their king out for his willingness to ally himself with the Northmen, even to the point of evicting his own people from their lands and giving it to the new arrivals. The fact that they feel strongly enough about this to admit the content of their muttering to him speaks a great deal to how serious a problem his people believe this to be. While any king rules, on one level or another, by the consent of the people, an English court of the time did not have the democratic tone that tended to be more true of a Viking one where anyone could, in theory, speak his mind.

What did you think of "Warrior's Fate"? Will you miss Torstein? Is Floki getting on your nerves? Does Harbard posses special powers? How do you feel about Lagertha and King Ecbert? Your turn friends, please hit the comments and share your thoughts with me.

I loved the way mental health struggles around trauma were presented. It was so visceral and deep. Chaotic and yet, so easy to follow. It felt like my own brain quite frankly. high fantasy (one of the only shifter fantasy romance books I’ve ever read with a truly high fantasy setting and sensibility!)

Even with the points listed above, I rated the book 4.5 stars and rounded up to 5 stars because I just couldn’t rate it 4 stars, it was too good for that.This was one of the most intriguing episodes of the show that I have seen so far. It perfectly mastered the balance between what seemed to me like a fairly realistic portrayal of political drama anno circa 828 and then a very convincing attempt at making sense of "paganism" as well as the clash of cultures. The dialog between Lagertha and king Ecbert of Wessex as well as Ragnar's dispute with Floki were essential for the story's progression - and also a welcome step away from "soap".