Hello everyone!
The Ring Breaker is a new book by one of my favorite authors, Jean Gill. I don't say that lightly. She is currently the only author in my blog's hall of fame. I will examine Plot, Character and Polish, and then assign a grade.
PLOT
Ring Breaker is a historical fiction chronicling the coming of age of Skarf, a skald in 12th century Orkneyjar (part of Norway). A skald is a type of poet, reciting tales of the Norse gods and ancient heroes or events that they themselves witnessed. This is more than simply records of battle, far from it, though Skarf does not realize this at first. Indeed, the definition of a "saga" and what is worthy to be immortalized in a skald's verse is a major story thread.
It is kind of meta-fiction, if you think about it. Skarf is the skald of this story, and his training and talent is in telling stories. So, Miss.Gill is telling the story of how Skarf learns to tell stories of others, which he does by learning from grown men famed for their poetic skill, who transform the events that he lives through into saga by the way they frame the events through words and lore.
The plot here is Skarf's life as he grows up, his trials and tribulations, and his relationship with Hlif, who is the local ruler's ward and housekeeper. This means that there is no single string of events or plot line that runs through the whole book. Instead, there are distinct events that begin and end. At several points, there are time skips of years, and plot threads are dropped or introduced. The plot may seem to flounder at times or appear directionless but fear not. Miss. Gill knows what she is doing. This is Skarf's life, after all.
The climax here is surprising. Its essential nature has all the necessary elements presented and developed, but the event itself is not something I expected. It is truly a climax worthy of a skald.
CHARACTERS
Skarf is our protagonist. He is an orphan who is adopted/mentored by a veteran skald to be one himself. He has something of a love-hate relationship with this profession, for various reasons that I won't state here (spoilers!). It's funny how much he tries to distance himself from the life of a skald, only for events to force him back on that path.
He grows from a young boy to a young man, which means Miss. Gill has to emulate him maturing over the course of many years, along with all the missteps, swings of opinion, and confusion that comes from that. If I were to plot it out here on a timeline, it would look like nonsense, but the way it develops makes total sense.
I have some special fondness for Skarf because I am a novelist myself. I can totally relate to his frustrations with his verses.
Hlif is our leading lady, Skarf's love interest. Her first meeting with him lingers in my mind. It is epic, in a quiet way, if that makes sense. She is believed to be "cursed" because her father killed a man who would later be recognized as a saint. Now she is the ward of the local ruler because she is an orphan like Skarf.
The way she reacts to her image as a "cursed girl" shifts and develops much like Skarf's does to being a skald. Also, like Skarf, she has similar awkwardness and swings of opinion, and her own knowledge of divine lore. I want to call her a Tsundere because of how much trouble she gives Skarf despite (because of?) her budding affection and interest in him.
She also calls herself his "Valkyrie", which is both sweet and kind of ominous.
It is difficult to name a villain here. There are definitely antagonists, and one character in particular is a nasty piece of work lacking in morality and prone to violence, but in terms of "the villain of the story", there isn't one. Just like this story is about story-telling, so too does perception of a character change based on the story that Skarf tells himself about them.
POLISH
This story looks good. I didn't see much in the way of technical errors. There is a setting map at the start. Most impressive is that Miss. Gill uses Norse spellings for personal names and places. As she says, it does give a more "authentic feel".
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Ring Breaker by Jean Gill" an A+
Click here for my previous book review: The Gamemaster's Book of Non-Player Characters
Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
Thank you for your enthusiasm, compliments and for such a perceptive review. I'm glad you think I pulled off some of the tricky structural decisions. Working with a time-line of many years with a boy growing to manhood inevitably has time jumps and I thought a lot about how to convey this.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.I must admit I wasn't expecting the temporal scope of this story, more like a single adventure. But, like I said, you made it work.
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