Johanne Hildebrandt

The Unbroken Line of the Moon tells roughly the tale of the first dynasty of Sweden from the point of view of Queen Sigrid the Haughty (who may or may not have been real). It is very loosely based on history, but the history is so debated and mixed with myth that it is hard to tell what really happened anyway.

There are aspects of the book that will make it a love it or hate it read- it is unflinchingly brutal in its depiction of Viking battles and culture, it can easily be read as anti-Christian, and the protagonist is rather un-likable. Stick with me though, because you are going to think I didn't like the book, when I really thought it was excellent and challenging.

The book is brutal. It should probably have all sorts of content warnings- rape, incest, extreme violence, slavery, human sacrifice. Pretty much if humans do something terrible, it is in this book. I actually started reading it twice. The first time I put it down because the brutality was just too much, but upon revisiting it, I found the story worth pursuing in spite of it all. The author is a well-known and award winning Swedish war correspondent. She covered the wars in Iraq and Bosnia, and I feel like this has given her a critical eye to the horrors of war especially as they are wrought upon women. Definitely not for everyone, but if you give it a chance there is much to learn. I think that there is an argument to be made that not enough books are available by women with an intimate knowledge of war and that tell stories of the impact of war on women. This book is one of these rare cases, and it is fascinating because of that.

The book can be read as anti-Christian because it is told from the point of view of the Norse people as they fight for their culture against Christianity. The protagonist is an extremely devout worshiper of Freya and this propels the plot. A second important character is possessed by a lesser Norse deity and is driven to pursue violent revenge on the Christian priests who wronged her. The characters hate the Christians and the Christians are portrayed as demon-possessed worshipers of evil. Many are brutally murdered without remorse. But you know what- so what? Christianity has indeed wrought many horrific things throughout history, including on the Norse, so it is kind of refreshing to hear history told from the point of view of those who were on the non-Christian side. As far as the way that the Norse pantheon is treated I found it to be a very compelling way to treat religion in fiction. You never doubt that the characters have devout and unwavering faith in the Norse gods, and believe their actions to be guided by Freya and the Norns. Nevertheless, in every situation there is a way to read the story so that all of the supposedly supernatural events can be explained by human action. I think writers who want to know how to weave the supernatural into their stories could take a masterclass from Hildebrandt.

Finally, the protagonist is not very likable. She is based on a historical/mythological figure named Sigrid the Haughty, and she lives up to the name. She is proud, she is vain, she is insufferably self-righteous, she commits heinous crimes to protect herself and her children. And she is fascinating. You want to find out how she climbs from a farm girl to a powerful queen. Sometimes folks complain that there aren't enough good female antiheroes because people don't like to read books about unlikable women. Well, if you are one of those critics and want to read a book about an unlikable woman, this is a good one.

In the end it is absolutely amazing how these parts that could be so off-putting are woven together into a story that is compelling, thoughtful, and you want to read more of. In the end, I liked it, and I would read the next book (which comes in English in October 2017), but I would only recommend it to people who I thought would appreciate it in spite of the rough parts.
… (más)

As others have noted, this book has a fair amount of sex and violence, including rape. Some of the violence is graphic enough that it made me cringe. That said, it didn't feel gratuitous. It made sense in the context of the world and was not trivialized. With that disclaimer, on to the rest of my review.

I really enjoyed this book. Sigrid has the fate of her people in her hands as well as a fate given by the gods. She has to navigate the conflicting claims of family, faith, politics, and love in a world where violence is the primary source of power.

One thing I particularly appreciated was that Sigrid was not modernized for the sake of the reader. Hildebrandt wrote unapologetically about a heroine and a society that had many horrible traits, including slavery and human sacrifice. Avoiding romanticizing Sigrid or her world contributed significantly to the quality of the narrative.… (más)

I quite enjoyed [b:The Unbroken Line of the Moon|31136094|The Unbroken Line of the Moon (Sagan om Valhalla #4; Valhalla #1)|Johanne Hildebrandt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468717133s/31136094.jpg|42748842]. Estrid, in my view, doesn't fare as well. Because it is clearly setting itself up to have a sequel, some of the shortcomings are excusable. There are certainly many unresolved story lines, but I hope that they'll be resolved later. Where this book fails is that it never can really decide if it's about Estrid or about her mother, Sigrid. Estrid herself comes across as a flat character. When an influential event changes her later in the book, she feels like a completely different character. She lacks the substance to feel like the same person after the change.

There are some great scenes but they are mostly the scenes involving Sigrid. Sigrid continues to be a compelling character. She is strong and independent, but also flawed -- stubborn and quick to anger. I think that the same plot line, and even much of the same text, would have been much more compelling if the book had not tried to make Estrid into the main character, and instead let Sigrid to be the main character. She was really the heart of the book.

I plan to read the next book when it comes out. Despite the faults of this book, there is a good core here.… (más)