In the midst of the Viking Age, the kingdom of Norway is crumbling under the divisive rule of Eirik Bloodaxe. Into this weakened nation comes a ruthless invader from the south, armed with a powerful weapon the world has never seen. Total conquest is at hand when a young woman and her allies rise to oppose him.
Raven’s Child owes its inspiration to two books written nearly eight hundred years apart: the Heimskringla (circa 1230), by Snorri Sturluson and The Winter Fortress (2019), by Neal Bascomb. Sturluson recorded the early history of the kings of Norway, including Harald Fairhair, Håkon the Good, and Eirik Bloodaxe, on which the characters of this book are based. Bascomb tells the story of the heroes who sabotaged the Nazi heavy water plant in Norway, during World War II. The sabotage in Raven’s Child is based closely on the events as described by Bascomb.
Three other books should also be cited for their contributions to Raven’s Child. My conception of the route of the Vikings from Scandinavia to Istanbul owes much to Blood Feud, by Rosemary Sutcliff and The Thirteenth Warrior, by Michael Crichton. I could not have described Ying-Liu’s journey from Shangxi to Istanbul without the help of Valerie Hansen’s scholarly book, The Silk Road.
Raven’s Child is available in e-book format on Amazon.