War King

Hakon's Saga, Book 3

By: Eric Schumacher

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

It is AD 954, and a tempest is brewing in the North.

Twenty summers before, Hakon Haraldsson wrested Norway's throne from his murderous brother, Erik Bloodaxe, but he failed to rid himself of Erik's family. Now, the sons of Erik have come to reclaim Erik's realm and avenge the wrong done to their father and their kin.

They do not come alone. With them marches an army of sword-Danes sent by the Danish King Harald Bluetooth, whose desire to expand his realm is as powerful as the lust for vengeance that pulses in the veins of Erik's brood.

Like storm-driven waves, the opposing forces collide in War King, the action-packed sequel to God's Hammer and Raven's Feast.

©2018 Eric Schumacher (P)2019 Tantor

Outstanding finale to a splendid trilogy

This was a wonderful read. Finally an author who knows how to bring a great saga to a fitting conclusion, unlike so many contemporary historical fiction authors who extend their hero worship novels on and on and on until the reader is so weary of the repitition that he or she cannot stomach another book in a seemingly endless series. To those authors ( you know who they are and they know who they are), I say enough already. To this author, I say instead thank you. I also must add that the lines of poetry were a real bonus. And I say this as someone who has published epic poetry. I am ready for more works of this quality.

Good read

Nice pacing, good character development over the series. Battles were fairly visceral, and felt somewhat realistic.

Excellent book

This was such a good book. The characters were so well crafted and the whole book wonderfully written. I highly recommend it.

Not bad....

Good little story... plenty of surprises... Although.. the narration.... I just can’t get over how much all three books in the saga sounded like a nature documentary. I swear I’ve heard this guys voice talking about sharks and trees...Though he did try and he did well with some characters at times but it was hard to keep attentive. Not much animation or personality in his voice acting. Good thing the story kept me interested.

Good story but not great

The overall story was good but the author leaves something to be desired as the story begins to repeat itself as each of the battle scenes are very similar. Change the name of the person who they are fighting and those who die and you pretty much have the same battle.

Quit while you're ahead.

I listened to all three books in this trilogy. I got through the first two pretty quickly. This third, and final book hadn't been completed yet, and I was fortunate enough to find the Giles Kristian books (Rise of Sigurd, Raven series) while I awaited War King. The Kristian books are excellent, and quite a bit better written than these Schumacher ones, by the way.

Compared to the first two books in the series, War King is a big disappointment. I have no idea about the circumstances of its writing but it FEELS like the author had a commitment or deadline with the publisher and just cranked something out in order to be done with it. It completely lacks the plot development of the first two. Imagine a storyline where the protagonist is sitting around eating dinner. Then some bad guys sail up, so they have a fight. Really? This is what it is like. The description of wound care exceeds the description of battle. Then, for no apparent reason, the book just seems to end without much thought.

Trust me when I say that you can, and should, quit after the second book. You will be left with a far better feeling and a far better opinion of the author. You don't need "closure," and definitely not this kind of "closure."

Great series, but author killed it in vol 3

I loved the first two books, and the start of the third. The author did a great job of building future relationships and sub-plots. But then in vol 3, all the sub-plots went the way of the dodo bird. He just killed the main character, and ended the series. Very disappointing... had I known what I now know, I would have skipped it.