Berserker (Berserker, 1)
The highly anticipated historical fantasy from Emmy Laybourne, author of the internationally-bestselling Monument 14 trilogy.
Ancient powers. Strong love. Desperate times.
1883. Hanne would give anything to be free of the ancestral Viking curse that overcomes her when she or anyone she loves is in danger. She becomes a Berserker—an elegant, graceful and shameless killer.
When she kills three men attacking their father, Hanne and her siblings must flee Norway and head to the American frontier, on a desperate search for their uncle, the one man who can help Hanne learn to control her powers.
A gripping and emotional story filled with adventure, destruction, longing and redemption.
"Berserker is a triumph, introducing a wholly-new breed of Viking superhero. It's a completely winning, romantic, and heart-wrenching historical fantasy. Your pulse will race from page one of this rich, rugged adventure of a book." —Alyson Noël, New York Times-bestselling author of The Immortals series
"[Hanne's] internal struggle with her brutal nature as a berserker is intensely real and will resonate with readers who feel beset by forces outside of their control. A bloody and fast-paced genre mash-up." —Publishers Weekly
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Community Reviews
Unique concept
Dang! I really love this concept! The Norse mythology was so unique and so well utilized in the story. And yet the rest of the story just didn't really do it justice because the actual reasoning behind the plot felt almost 2nd to something else. Would have loved more focus on the mythology and how this affected the characters (ie their development.)
Slow
This is not a fast-paced story. Even the intense scenes do not really have a sense of adrenaline or thrill to them. They just are. It kind of lessened the intensity and intrigue of the story, which was quite disappointing as it was such a cool concept.
Undeveloped characters
This... is quite sad. The personalities of all the characters were so different from each other that it honestly felt forced. They felt too different from each other. And none of them really felt well-developed, like there were multiple layers to the characters. Honestly, I think this had to do partly with the number of characters followed through the story. At least two of them had no purpose in being highlighted so much and their scenes could've easily been stricken from the book, which would've made for a tighter, potentially faster story.
Predictable
Sorry to say, this story is extremely predictable. I could figure out what was going to happen and when and to whom before it ever happened, which also had a negative impact on my interest in this story. I didn't quite see how the ending was going to happen, it was still extremely obvious it was going to happen. Nothing surprising happened in this story and I kind of wish it had.
Siblings
Look, I get the whole 'unquestioned family love' thing and wanting to take care of your family and what not, but I honestly don't think I could love a family that was this gosh-darn obnoxious. Yeah, yeah. Sissel is only 12, but she is the most annoying 12-year-old I have ever seen in my life, especially given the, oh, I don't know! Life-threatening emergency?! Stop complaining. Or die. Honestly! Her lack of character development (or attempted character development at the very end) was just kind of unrealistic and uninteresting. I was really hoping she was going to die at some point. :/
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