While it's not a major stretch of the imagination to envision heavy metal musicians deciding to put down their instruments and start a new career writing blood-thirsty Viking fiction, Boyband singers are another matter entirely. But that's exactly what's happened with Giles Kristian, one time singer of the mid-90s pop group Upside Down, who disappeared into obscurity quicker than you can say 'Orange Orange.'
It'd be easy to feel a bit dubious when first picking up his debut novel, but historical-fiction aficionados have little to be concerned about. Some of his plot devices may be familiar, but Raven: Blood Eye is an excellent start for a whole new Viking saga and is so exciting it could potentially make Internet critics lose days of work simply by not being able to put it down.
Raven: Blood Eye
The story focuses on a young English lad named Osric, who one day stumbles across a pair of Viking longships disgorging a crew of hairy, axe-wielding Norwegians on the British coast. Through a combination of alcohol, violence and misunderstandings, he soon finds himself hitching a ride with them. Initially, he is a captive, but soon he develops a bond with their leader, Sigurd and gradually comes to be accepted as one of them. Before they depart for the North though, the warband find themselves getting mixed up in a nasty border war between two feuding British Kingdoms and the stage is set for a lightning-quick action adventure.
There have been plenty of novels recently where young Englishmen are caught up in similar ordeals, but Kristian crams so much excitement into the pages that he's easily forgiven, even when the blatant McGuffin turns up a third of the way in. He has a spartan style of writing ideally suited to the blood-pumping machismo and by the end of the first chapter it's already engrossing.
Hold The Shield Wall! Historical Viking Fiction
Of course, where this genre ultimately survives is in the authenticity of its battle scenes. Cornwell has long been the master of them, but if Raven is anything to go by, Kristian could provide him with some serious competition. The sword fights on offer here are nasty, vicious little affairs but they are also unbearably tense. One particularly memorable moment comes when Osric and friends make a desperate stand on a hilltop against a horde of angry Welshmen; a heart-stopping mixture of brutality and white knuckle thrills.
Kristian's real ace though is Raven himself. Osric is no unstoppable hero with biceps the size of basketballs and a jaw made of granite. He is a flawed and complex character, entranced by the brotherhood of the Vikings but also tormented with guilt over the destruction of his home town. With his past shrouded in mystery and one of his eyes totally blood red, he also has a slight supernatural air to him which affects his relationships with the others, but doesn't distance him from the reader.
Granted, with the likes of Tim Severin's Viking series, Robert Low's Oathsworn trilogy and Bernard Cornwell's brilliant Alfred The Great books, readers are already well-served with Dark Ages fiction, but Kristian has clearly got a whole new career in literature to look forward to. Fingers crossed it all works out better than his music career did, because this is the most impressive historical fiction debut since a certain Mr. Iggulden decided to write about Julius Caesar. Roll on the sequel.
Bantam Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-593-06162-6
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