PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Family history (he is half Norwegian) inspired GILES KRISTIAN to write his first historical novels: the acclaimed and bestselling Raven Viking trilogy - Blood Eye, Sons of Thunder and Odin's Wolves. A long-held fascination with the English Civil War then led him to chart the fortunes of a family divided by that brutal conflict in The Bleeding Land and Brothers' Fury before co-writing Wilbur Smith's No.1 bestseller, Golden Lion. In his recent novels - God of Vengeance (a Times Book of the Year), Winter's Fire and now Wings of the Storm - he returned to the Viking world to tell the story of the rise of Sigurd Haraldarson and his celebrated fictional fellowship. Giles Kristian lives in Leicestershire.
Nobody writes Viking adventures with the panache, power and sheer plausibility of Giles Kristian . . . with supreme skill and a genuine passion, Kristian weaves what little we know about the religion, culture and codes of Dark Ages Scandinavia into a novel that grips like a limpet on the rocky Norwegian coast and rings absolutely true from first to last. The book plunges you into a gore-drenched, glory-decked time of treacherous jarls and lethal shieldmaidens; a time of dark magic and human sacrifice, of wild hunts and vicious feuds, a time of blood-letting and betrayal. But it is also a time of comradeship and selflessness, when the bonds forged between men, and women, can endure beyond death. It's a time you may never want to leave. * ANGUS DONALD * What more could we ask for than a thrilling conclusion to Giles Kristian's epic saga of vengeance and betrayal? Written in his glorious poetic prose with the lift and lilt of the waves beneath every sentence, the sense of the gods pressing in on each page, this remains Viking writing at its best: thrilling in its truest sense, heart-rending, and, yes, glorious... * MANDA SCOTT * This concludes, in magnificent fashion, Giles Kristian's mighty Viking saga . . . with this marvellous trilogy complete, now is the time to immerse yourself in it, beginning with God of Vengeance. -- Kate Atherton * SUNDAY EXPRESS * 'Warrior-like and bloody, homely and heartfelt, ranging across oceans, yet nestled around hearth fires, Giles Kristian's writing transports you through the Viking world as the thrum, rhythm and holler of the battle field rings out from the page. Wings of the Storm isn't simply an historical novel - it is the glorious embodiment of a time of adventure and passion, of dying old worlds and thrilling new encounters.' * DR JANINA RAMIREZ * A fitting end to a trilogy that fans of Bernard Cornwell should devour. The big set-piece battle that completes the book is one of the best that I have ever read. -- Antonia Senior * THE TIMES *
