jack Was Eleven When The Berserkers Loomed Out Of The Fog And Nabbed Him. It Seems That Things Are Stirring Across The Water, The Bard Had Warned. Ships Are Being Built, Swords Are Being Forged.

Is That Bad? Jack Had Asked, For His Saxon Village Had Never Before Seen Berserkers.

Of Course. People Don't Make Ships And Swords Unless They Intend To Use Them.

The Year Is A.d. 793. In The Next Months, Jack And His Little Sister, Lucy, Are Enslaved By Olaf One-brow And His Fierce Young Shipmate, Thorgil. With A Crow Named Bold Heart For Mysterious Company, They Are Swept Up Into An Adventure-quest That Follows In The Spirit Of the Lord Of The Rings.

Other Threats Include A Willful Mother Dragon, A Giant Spider, And A Troll-boar With A Surprising Personality — To Say Nothing Of Ivar The Boneless And His Wife, Queen Frith, A Shape-shifting Half-troll, And Several Eight Foot Tall, Orange-haired, Full-time Trolls. But In Stories By Award-winner Nancy Farmer, Appearances Do Deceive. She Has Never Told A Richer, Funnier Tale, Nor Offered More Timeless Encouragement To Young Seekers Than Just Say No To Pillaging.

farmer Moves Far North Of Her Favored Hot-weather Climes For Her Latest Hero-tale, Which Takes Place Along The Various Coasts Of The North Sea In The Late Eighth Century. Drawing Upon History, Norse And Celtic Myth, And Farmer S Own Abundant Imagination, The Story Is Long But Engrossing, A Cruel Tale With A Merry Heart About A Saxon Boy Named Jack And What Befell Him Upon His And His Younger Sister S Capture By Marauding Northmen (and, Later, Trolls). Readers Will Spot Themes And Motifs Familiar From Farmer S Previous Novels, Including Seriocomic Helper Figures, A Ferociously Loyal Sibling Pair, And A Most Adroit Fusion Of The Natural And Supernatural Worlds. The Book Is Effectively Sparing In Its Use Of Fantasy Elements, But When Farmer Pulls Out All The Stops Such As Jack S Encounter With The Three Norns - She Does So With Aplomb And Assurance.