Booklog: Warriors of Ethandun (Browne)

[nebroadwe]

N.M. Browne, Warriors of Ethandun

Dan has managed to return a dying Ursula to the twenty-first century in time to save her life, but finds himself arrested for her attempted murder. Ursula, recovering, refuses to implicate him and a timely visit from a disguised Taliesin presents Dan with the opportunity to escape by returning to the past. He refuses, but Taliesin leaves him with the means to do so in the form of a glass orb. Discovering this, Ursula begs Dan to use it, as her longing for magic has left her unable to readjust to her own time. When he does, they are swept separately into the attempted Danish conquest of an Alfredian England. Ursula loses herself to the magic, is captured by the Danes and worshipped by them as Freya, while Dan takes service with Alfred in the marshes, where his berserkrgang earns him the suspicion of Alfred's adviser, Bishop Asser, and threatens to overwhelm him utterly. Trapped on opposite sites of the war and unable to help each other, the two may be doomed, like their old frenemy Rhonwen, to live and die in a time not their own ...

Concluding the Warriors trilogy begun with Warriors of Alavna and continued in Warriors of Camlann, this is not a standalone. It's also not quite as interesting as the initial installments, largely because both Dan and Ursula -- but especially Ursula -- spend much more time as passive pawns of a hostile magical and political environment in this one than they do in the others. (Browne also rides the Christian English misogyny horse pretty hard, when I'd have preferred some greater acknowledgment of its competing tradition of kickass women -- cf. Alfred's daughter Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians.) Dan, in particular, has to keep cramming his well-developed leadership abilities down in order not to outshine Alfred, for whom I could have wished a slightly longer, stronger character development arc. That said, there aren't enough historical novels (much less historical fantasies) set in this time period, which is a shame; there's great unmined material here and Browne does some excellent digging. The plot is crammed full of exciting incident, as usual; the low-key romance (rather shounenesque) is handled well; and though Browne's writing style has not matured, if you've come this far, you know what you're getting and have learned to enjoy it (or at least tolerate it). The end ties matters up neatly and happily; despite its flaws, this is a quick, pleasant read, if not in the same class as its predecessors. Recommended for fans of the previous books.