Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
As the Black Death rampages across Europe, two creatures of the Elder World clash over the rotting corpse of Christendom ...
Sicily, 1347 AD. A ghost ship from the east washes ashore at Messina. A ship of dead men, and hidden in its belly is a doom like no other: the dragon Ni h ggr, the Malice-Striker, an ancient vessel of destruction from the Elder Days. And while it is no longer the mighty wyrm of Ragnar k, the beast's breath still bears upon it a pestilence, a plague that will echo through the ages as the Black Death.
But the world of Men has a strange champion - another creature of the Elder World: a snarling, spitting knot of hatred, profane and blasphemous, whose ancestors were the goblins of myth and legend; he is a monster in truth, though nevertheless he stands as the last bastion between humanity's future and the cold silence of oblivion. He is Grimnir, and he has hunted the Malice-Striker for more than a century, from the cold wastes of the Baltic to the dank cisterns beneath Constantinople.
Now, as the plague stalks through Western Europe - and as the dread wyrm slithers through Italy, bound for Rome on its mission to devour the head of Christendom - Grimnir must contend not only with the beast's insidious cunning, but with the iron fist of the Papal Inquisition, and the army of a vengeful Sicilian nobleman.
But, it is in the empty halls of the Vatican, in the shadow of St. Peter's throne, where the Doom of Odin will fall . . . and the Elder World will finally meet its bloody end. Only one question remains: will Mi gar r and the world of Men survive this deadly clash of titans?
Synopsis
As the Black Death rampages across Europe, two creatures of the Elder World clash over the rotting corpse of Christendom in Scott Oden's third book in the Grimnir Series
Sicily, 1347 AD. A ghost ship from the east washes ashore at Messina. A ship of dead men, and hidden in its belly is a doom like no other: the dragon Ni h ggr, the Malice-Striker, an ancient vessel of destruction from the Elder Days. And while it is no longer the mighty wyrm of Ragnar k, the beast's breath still bears upon it a pestilence, a plague that will echo through the ages as the Black Death.
But the world of Men has a strange champion - another creature of the Elder World: a snarling, spitting knot of hatred, profane and blasphemous, whose ancestors were the goblins of myth and legend; he is a monster in truth, though nevertheless he stands as the last bastion between humanity's future and the cold silence of oblivion. He is Grimnir, and he has hunted the Malice-Striker for more than a century, from the cold wastes of the Baltic to the dank cisterns beneath Constantinople.
Now, as the plague stalks through Western Europe - and as the dread wyrm slithers through Italy, bound for Rome on its mission to devour the head of Christendom - Grimnir must contend not only with the beast's insidious cunning, but with the iron fist of the Papal Inquisition, and the army of a vengeful Sicilian nobleman.
But, it is in the empty halls of the Vatican, in the shadow of St. Peter's throne, where the Doom of Odin will fall . . . and the Elder World will finally meet its bloody end. Only one question remains: will Mi gar r and the world of Men survive this deadly clash of titans?
Synopsis
As the Black Death rampages across Europe, two creatures of the Elder World clash over the rotting corpse of Christendom in Scott Oden's third book in the Grimnir Series
Skr lingr. Orcn as. Fomoraig. He is Grimnir . . .
For over a century, he has tracked the dragon, N h ggr -- the Malice-Striker -- from the shores of Lake V nern, across the Baltic Sea, through Russia, and down into the Mediterranean; he has hounded the wyrm from Old Muscovy to Messina. And finally, to the Eternal City -- to Rome, itself.
And in Rome, on a cold November night in 1347 AD, on the ruined steps of Old St. Peter's basilica, Grimnir's saga comes crashing to an end. A crossbow bolt, loosed in terror, slays him out of hand. It is a mundane finale to a life spent hip-deep in bloodshed and slaughter, surrounded by steel and savagery and the sorcery of the Elder World.
But Death is just the beginning . . .
Now, on the grim and misty isle of N strond, under the shadows of Ygg rasil, Grimnir is plunged headlong into the twisted Valhalla that is the afterlife of his people. Here, bloody in-fighting, schemes and betrayals are the order of the day. Grimnir is forced to contend with a cabal of witches, with giants and trolls who have never felt the light of Mi gar r's moon, and with his own rapacious kin as he journeys beyond the shores of N strond to find answers. And with every death, Grimnir unravels another thread of a monstrous secret woven at the dawn of time -- one that will turn him from the pawn of unknown gods into the most powerful being in the Nine Worlds. And the most hunted.
For he, alone, holds the key to Ragnar k and the Doom of Odin . . .