Odin's Child Book One of Odd Tangle-Hair's Saga

by Macbain, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780991305865
• ISBN10: 0991305868
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-05-26
• Publisher: Blank Slate Press

Summary

An old grudge erupts into violence as Odd Tangle-Hair refuses to back down from the men he believes shamed his father and betrayed their heritage by turning away from the old gods in favor of the White Christ. But when the violence escalates and Odd's family bears the brunt of it, he must leave his beloved Iceland behind and find his own way in the world. The golden age of Viking conquest is fading when he takes to the seas with his rag-tag crew, but they will voyage to primitive Lapland, war-torn Norway, the magic-drenched forests of Finland, and the borders of Russia, where Odd enlists in the retinue of a renegade prince. Odin's Child is the first of three books in which Odd recounts his life. 

Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and deeply rooted within the oral tradition of story telling, Bruce Macbain has woven an evocative saga that will sweep readers into the past and plant them firmly in Odd's rapidly changing world. 

Author Biography

Bruce Macbain was born in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, he squandered whole days reading science fiction and history. Greek and Roman history held a special fascination for him and this led eventually to acquiring a master's degree in Classical Studies and a doctorate in Ancient History. As an assistant professor of Classics, he taught courses in Late Antiquity and Roman religion—which is a particular interest of his—and published a few impenetrable scholarly monographs, which almost no one read. He eventually left academe and turned to teaching English as a second language, a field he was trained in while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Borneo in the 60s.

Macbain has written a series of historical mysteries set in ancient Rome, (Roman Games, 2010,  and The Bull Slayer, 2013) featuring the senatorial letter-writer Pliny the Younger as his protagonist, assisted by other literary figures such as the poet Martial and the biographer Suetonius. He also does a bit of book reviewing for the Historical Novels Review and Foreword magazine. Odin's Child is the first in his Viking series, The Odd Tangle-Hair Saga.