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| Silverwood Books March 2019 My thanks to the author for my copy of this book |
After three years in the service of the emperor of the Greeks, Ahl and his Viking friends have become very rich. Now the crew longs to return home with their wealth, their problem is that the emperor will not permit them to leave. They make a daring plan to escape. The route home is perilous as they navigate uncharted seas. They must overcome robbers, storms and hostile strangers as they seek their way back to the Northlands with the riches which they have earned.
My thoughts..
In Bound for Home we meet up with our intrepid adventurers some three years into their sojourn with the emperor of the Greeks. During their time away they have accumulated riches which now allows them the opportunity to return home to the Northlands, and so after meticulous planning they make their escape. However, the sea journey in their ship the Eagle is filled with danger and Ahl and his friends must use their considerable wits to survive in dangerous and uncharted seas.
Right from the start, Bound For Home reads like a splendid adventure and I think in this closing story there is also a real sense of accomplishment as their time in exile shows that the characters have grown from boys to young men who have seen and experienced far more than they could ever have imagined.
On their hazardous return journey to the north the close camaraderie they share is tested to the limit when they take on new passengers and come into contact with the Norwegian Jarl Tryggvason who is a cold and calculating warrior. I especially liked the references to Aenglandi as the crew sail along the great tidal river to meet with King Ethelred in the place known as London.
Bound for Home is imaginatively told to appeal to young readers and there is never a moment when the action doesn't deliver a real sense of exploration and intrigue. I've now been following this story from its beginning in 2015, and to see how the both the story and the characters have evolved over the course of this grand historical adventure has been a real pleasure to observe.
Michael Wills was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight and attended the Priory Boys School and Carisbrooke Grammar. He trained as a teacher at St Peter’s College, Birmingham, before working at a secondary school in Kent.
Twitter @MWillsofSarum
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