Garth Pettersen. The Swan's Road. Tirgearr, 2017. eBook.
The Swan’s Road is
local writer Garth Pettersen’s enjoyable historical action adventure novel, a
balance of armour and amour, following the travels of a Danish youth, Harald, on
the Swan’s Road to Rome, in 1027 AD. A fast-paced, character-centred tale with
cinematic scenes of accidents enroute, encounters, ambushes, arm-to-arm combat,
in the context of familial and romantic longings. Loyalties are contested and
identities in doubt as Harald rushes to meet up with his father King Cnute at
the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Personally, I also enjoyed the author’s Historical Notes at
the end of The Swan’s Road, about the
process of researching and writing, the historical accuracies and additions,
and the careful vocabulary choices consistent with the development of the
language used in Engla-lond at the time. Looking forward to Garth Pettersen’s
next installments about the politics of Europe and the romance of Harald and
Selia.
