Reviews

Hammerfall, Vol. 1: While the Serpent Sleeps by Boris Talijancic, Sylvain Runberg

kfanni28's review

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3.0

Usually I can get it right, really. I pick and start books that I end up liking.
I started optimistic, because I used to love the show 'Vikings' and this brought me back to that.

There's a glossary at the front which is great! A full handy page of explanations for example the naming of people, lands and gods, which I enjoy because of my fascination with Norse mythology.

We're in 8th century Europe, with the svears (swedes (vikings), as they came to be called later) raiding a monastery at the coast of Northumberland (England). This attack was the beginning of a long and gory war between the Angles and the Norsemen.
The story continues in the land of the svears, where young Harald is to be wed to the beautiful Lina at the Jul celeration. Before the wedding could take place, the banished warrior Björn attacks the town with his men, kills Harald's father and takes the others as slaves.

This one was not for me but simply because for some reason the art style as a whole didn't win me. But what I can say is, there's a lot of action scenes, and I liked the use of colors.

remembered_reads's review

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4.0

Hammerfall is the first volume in a tale of 8th-century Viking raids and religious shifts, and contains all the set pieces one expects from such a setting. The book opens with a battle sequence followed by a chase scene, and the action continues with only a few breaks for a wedding night bookended with two short scenes of exposition via dialogue.

The art is wonderful. Both the motion conveyed in the action sequences and the detail in the "wide-angle" panels are equally detailed and well-rendered. There's a panel with several men on horseback at the top of a cliff looking down on a snow-covered valley and another of a carriage falling through ice that are absolutely stunning work.

The translation by Tom Imber avoids a common issue in BD translations and manages to capture the feel of the original without leaning too far into the melodramatic.

An entertaining romp!

The edition I read was an e-ARC via NetGalley.
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