By Arthur D. Howden Smith
“I will wait for nothing,” retorted Swain fiercely. “No man ever put such a slight upon me and lived. He shall pay me for it to the bitter end. Ha, he was not satisfied with Jarl Rognvald’s justice! Well, now he shall taste of Swain’s justice.”
Throughout the years Swain Olaf’s son won much fame and honor as a viking-farer. No man ever defied him and escaped with his life, except one: The murderer Olvir Rosta. For decades Olvir has evaded Swain’s sword, but now his pursuer has finally caught up with him. The bitterest blood-feud the North has ever seen will come to an end—but who will survive?
As Deuce Richardson writes in the introduction, “Howden Smith based his tales directly upon what is known as the Orkneyinga Saga, the Norse account of the jarls (earls) of the Orkney isles north of Scotland. From all accounts, Swain was an uncommonly adept viking and he exerted outsized political sway in the Orkneys and Norway. The pulp version of Swain is all that viking adventure fans could ask for. Raise an ale-horn in honor of one of the great pulp fiction heroes, sword-brothers. Skoal!”
Release date: July 2023
Trade Paperback: 9” x 6”, 320 pages, $19.99
Digital: $4.99