Auga, a wandering sorcerer, follows his brother’s fate-thread into the village of Ormsfjoll, where he expects to deliver good news and continue his travels. What he doesn’t anticipate is that to meet his brother he must first contend with the truth at the heart of the volcano that wreaks havoc on Ormsfjoll.

Elizabeth Bear does a lot of worldbuilding and character building with very few words here. Auga is the kind of person I imagine the Viking warriors were like, beneath all the bravado of the sagas. He’s lived long enough to want to leave Viking behind. He’s made his money from raiding but can’t quite bring himself to settle down to farming. He prefers using magic rather than swords and axes, but his is the kind of magic that mixes in a lot of guile, misdirection and pragmatism.

I enjoyed the circling between Auga and his former sea king warband leader turned farmer. It was a fined demonstration of flyting as a negotiation tool.

Auga’s quest is driven by duty to his kin rather than the pursuit of profit and Elizabeth Bear does a great job of conveying the mix of weary resignation and prideful determination that he brings to the task.

The scenes with the dragon at the end were wonderful. I loved the banter, the riddles, the surprises and Auga’s determination to win by his wits rather than by force. 

If you have an hour or so to spare and you’d like to escape into a Norse quest that feels real and is also amusing, then get yourself a copy of ‘The Red Mother’.