Reviews tagging 'Death'

All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie

5 reviews

brogan7's review

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adventurous challenging inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This book is based on sagas and legends, so it's a different tone to what I normally read.  I enjoyed the flow of it, though, the adventure aspect and the mysterious sense of never really knowing what's real and what's not.  Eyvind is not a magician but manages to enact magic...  (I loved the section where Hoë'lün just doesn't look at a magical being she doesn't want to acknowledge is there, and therefore it doesn't have to exist to her.)  
Different, interesting, strange...sadly patriarchal in its interests and approach, but for the story that it is, it fulfilled my requirements for something completely outside of the ordinary.

"What has a horse to do with a ship?  In a ship, a horse cannot hold on.  A horse cannot row or trim sail or bail out water.  A horse has no business on the sea at all.  Horses were carried here, cold and sick and protesting, in open boats, frost riming their manes, from Norvegr and the Forøyar, from Irland and Hjatland and the Suthreyar." (p.10)
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saintmaud's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

quite nice actually...
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careinthelibrary's review

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adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

The blurred line between history and magic made this fun and enchanting. Probably not for the average reader but for history and folktales nerds, this is really cool. Felt like a story you'd hear over a wooden bowl of stew in front of a crackling fire with your hearth companions (or heorþgeneatas if you're fancy). 
There are some statements of anti-albinism, audism, and ageism expressed by characters in this. To me, it's meant to express the ableism of the harsh period where disability and age are seen as a burden on communities but heads up. 
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jennikreads's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

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kjulie's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This is a poetic story about an Icelandic trader travelling through Europe and Western Asia in the early ninth century. His primary objective is to buy horses to bring back to Iceland, but this isn’t a story about trade. It’s also not a story about travel. I think the best description would be to call it a magical history. It’s beautiful and subtle, suggesting depth and tradition. There was, however, a bit of a learning curve while reading, specifically in regards to the names of peoples and places. Sarah Tolmie is a scholar, and it shows; she has provided readers with language that doesn’t immediately draw upon preconceived stereotypes or “historical” narratives. I found myself looking up certain place names in order to orient myself as I read, but it didn’t draw me out of the lyrical writing, and it made the reading experience even more rich. 

Thank you to Tor Forge and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 
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