“A Flame in the North” is the story of a young woman made to pay for her brother’s wrongdoing, only to discover there is more to the story, and bargain, than led to believe. This story is infused with lots of old Norse and Viking mythology and beliefs, set in a Scandinavianesque country at the onset of winter. I enjoyed the mythology and magic, as well as unraveling the mystery.

This book is slow, though. At about 25 percent in, I felt like I should have been half way through or at least further along than it was. The story is written mostly in inner dialogue which may make for the slow pace, and I would have rather enjoyed another POV or perhaps more multi character dialogue at the very least. Fast forward to the end and it felt like many pages were just filler. However, this is the first in a series and what didn’t seem important now may end up being important later.

As a result, the book is a solid three star read for me. I really enjoyed Shield Maiden by Sharonda Emmerichs, and thought this book would be a great one to follow that up with. While Shield Maiden is a retelling, it includes more dialogue between characters, and more action, while also being a standalone novel. A Flame in the North see some action but it comes later and the FMC is typically a bystander, experiencing her own trials.

I recommend A Flame in the North for readers interested in a slower pace fantasy heavy with Viking mythology, Magic, and beliefs, interested in starting a series.

I reviewed this ARC for a fair and honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for this opportunity!

Solveig is a volva, a witch, and as such duty bound to use her magic to protect her home and her people. On the longest night of the year Solveig lights a magical fire to fight the dark. When her brother kills a rival’s son, Solveig is sent as a hostage in reparations for a year and a day, accompanied by her shield maiden Arneoir. As they journey north into the land of darkness, Sol and Arn must fight to protect the light from the dark.
A Flame in the North is a Nordic inspired fantasy full of epic battles, magic and magical creatures that Tolkien fans will be sure to appreciate the depth and rich language.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. This is not normally how I want to start a review, but I think talking about what I didn't like first is important since it may be a deciding factor for other readers. The prose in this book is dense. I looked up an unknown word and found it was unfamiliar because it is no longer used in modern English for the context in which it was being used in the story. It felt like and was an extremely slow read for me.

A piece of this story about which I felt mixed were the frequent references to the future as the main character talks about what was currently occurring in the story. For example, she would refer to what she heard happened to those characters in the future. Sometimes the narrative voice was set looking back from a future time into the present of the story and other times, the narrator was unaware of what would come to pass. I liked the foreshadowing overall. I did wish there was more that had been clearly developed with regard to an overarching plot thread to which the foreshadowing was connected. It's there but felt vague or maybe I lost it amidst the unnecessarily descriptive prose.

Here's what I did like and kept me reading, I liked the characters especially Sol and Arn and their relationship. The world is interesting and what happens with the antagonist/bad in the book and what is foreshadowed to happen felt new. That being said, if I read future books, it will probably be via an audiobook. This book was a long journey both literally and figuratively.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All expressed opinions are my own.

Imgur graphic goes live Feb 13th (Likely will post at least one post after this once pre-order arrives)
Blog post goes live Feb 28th
To be covered in Feb Reads pt 1

TL;DR - I LOVED this. It is difficult to read, but I think it’s 100% worth it. Lord of the Rings, with a Viking flavor, and a female Gandalf as the lead is my best comp for this. Love, love, love it.

A Flame in the North tells the story of Solveig who, after her brother kills a man, is traded to another clan for a year and a day. This clan of takes her North, to where she believes is their home, but it is instead the beginning of an epic journey. She and her sworn Shieldmaiden face threats straight from the old ballads as they travel, finding themselves nearly lost in the cold north.

This is a journey book, in the purest most basic form. So if you don’t enjoy journey’s definitely pass this one up. It’s also dense and difficult to read. Lilith Saintcrow takes a very classic style with her writing. It’s meaty and she introduces and uses quite a few new world specific words and terms, and more archaic language and sentence structure at times.

Is all that worth moving through to get to the end? Yes, hard yes. I adored this. It took me so long to read and when I did I almost pre-ordered the audio AND the physical. I wanted the book for my shelf and I wanted to hear it again in my ears. This is a journey of cold you can feel, political maneuvering that will leave you furious and intrigued, and a few moments of heartbreak.

6 out of 5 little squat man rune statues. This is going to be a best book of the year. Pick this up if you are interested.

This is a Norse-inspired, epic fantasy. It is told in the very traditional epic-style where the main cast travel on their quest, stop and have a battle/fight, then quest and repeat. I enjoy this type of fantasy story though I think it can make a book feel dated. That's not helped here by the writing style, which is very dense. I had to stop and re-read so many sentences just to understand what they meant. It honestly had me questioning whether I was having a stroke at some points and yelling at my Kindle that I swear I speak English... It almost felt like a translation at times because the structure of the sentences was heavily German (i.e. the verbs were pushed to the end of a sentence). I think I am just not smart enough for a book like this.

That said, the story itself is very good. I think the plot holds up. The characters are interesting. And the world building is solid. I like the Norse inspiration. I think I will come back to this book after some time, and hopefully will enjoy it more. I do believe that there are people who will really love this book. It's just not a good match more me and my current tastes.

Thank you to NetGallet and Orbit Books for providing an eARC of this book.

DNF around 20% - I wanted to like this book, and I really liked Solveig but the writing is rough to follow. The story/writing doesn’t flow very well and it became extremely difficult to keep myself interested.

Really hated the writing style of this book. The premise and characters are good but I could not deal with the stagnant prose. DNF 55%

Most of what I want to describe CANNOT be described without spoilers, I am so sorry, so I will try my best!

You can tell this author wrote, and rewrote, and did many drafts to get it to this high quality, which I appreciate as some books you can tell they didn't try hard. Lilith Saintcrow Tried Hard and Did Well because of it. The narrative unfolded a little slowly but at a consistent pace where it didn't feel like anything was dragging. The expansion on the magical elements of the story made me curious, I always wanted to know more, and I enjoyed listening to Sol's thoughts as she deduced more for herself. I enjoyed the depth of the relationship between Sol and Arn, her shieldmaiden.
I have so much more to say but it is best to go into it without spoilers, best of luck!!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who read The Weaver & the Witch Queen and Bloodsworn Saga and wanted something inbetween!

This is the second Norse-inspired fantasy I’ve read this month! It’s funny how these trends come and go; even as I go through what I though was a fairly randomly-ordered TBR list, I often find myself reading books with strong similarities to one another. I’ve read a decent amount of fantasy fiction that draws from Norse mythology, and have typically enjoyed them quite a bit, so this was an obvious pick for me. On top of that, I love the idea of taking a typical fantasy duo (the hero and his shield) and switching it to a female heroine/witch and her shieldmaiden. I still enjoy the former as well, of course, but it’s nice to see such variety popping up throughout SFF.

This book is a bit tough to review, simply because some of my struggles with the book came down more to my needing to properly categorize the type of book I was reading. Starting out, it was clear that this book was aiming for a specific sort of high fantasy, the kind that uses dense language, both in the vocabulary chosen and in the longer sentences structures used, and also is playing a long game as far as pacing and plotting go. The story takes its time laying out its world, its characters, and even getting to what seems to be the true action of the story.

As I continued to read, at some point it occurred to me to compare this read to “Lord of the Rings,” and frankly, that kind of saved the experience for me. Both books have a similar dense sort of feeling, the kind that can be overwhelming to begin with, and the sort that then pays off later. Similarly, there were a few world-building aspects that were simply dropped in with very little explanation. For example, at one point they refer to the “All Mother” which, of course, seems like a similar character as Odin the “All Father.” Changes like this are, of course, fine, but then I was left a bit unsure as to where I was supposed to be placing this world. Are we in some sort of alternate world where there is an All Mother instead of an All Father? Or is this our world with magic and this is just changed? Things like this aren’t necessarily a big deal or bad, but it does add to the initial challenge with the point of entry to the story. The reader really has to work for it get dive in.

But this slow pacing did pick up towards the end, and this is where the LOTR comparisons worked even better. If read as the rather slow-paced entry to a grand spectacle, a sprawling series, the dense nature of this book is easier to digest. I also really liked Solveig and her shieldmaiden as characters. The author did a fantastic job with these two, balancing their fierceness with the sort of sly reserve that they would need to employ in the world in which they are living.

This is the kind of book that I would definitely recommend for a specific sort of fantasy reader, those who like epic fantasy and are willing to put in the time with denser language and a slow plot. Readers who want to be immediately drawn in to an action-packed story will likely struggle this one. But, like I’ve said earlier, if you like “Lord of the Rings” and can remember some of the slower parts, especially in “Fellowship,” this book does seem to promise an intriguing series overall!

Rating 7: Tough to get into but well worth it in the end, I think.

(Review will go live on March 2 on The Library Ladies blog)

February 2024 is apparently the season for Nordic inspired fantasy! A Flame in the North reminded me of a Norse Lord of the Rings–and I really enjoyed it! The first thing that stood out to me was the style of language in which Lilith Saintcrow wrote the book–it’s a very old fashioned usage, so outside of the plot it also feels like The Lord of the Rings stylistically. It is also written in first person, which feels a lot more to me like a YA POV and can often make the MC feel unrelatable or unsympathetic and whiney with so many me and I statements, but this FMC doesn’t come across any of those ways and often uses a fourth-wall break style to reveal future events or knowledge. I ended up really enjoying the first person POV because it felt like a bard spinning a saga on which they journeyed.

The immersive worldbuilding has come to be something I expect from Saintcrow’s writing, in which lore is not often explained, and can be a little disorienting, but just enough backstory was often given to keep me curious for more! I actually ended the book with as many questions as when I began, but I don’t count that as a bad thing–I just can’t wait for the next to come out! I think it’s meant to be a duology, so hopefully the conclusion has all the answers! Regardless, for a book with a lot of travel and journeying, which can become boring and repetitive, I enjoyed the ride! Five stars!

Lilith Saintcrow's A Flame in the North is the first in the authors Black Land's Bane trilogy with the second book releasing in 2025, and the finale in 2026. Norse-inspired worlds are evergreen in fantasy, with a recent resurgence in popularity as seen by the success of Shadow of the Gods and films like The Northman. The quest-like structure of the book and the emphasis on old legends and myths will also appeal to fans of epics like Lord of the Rings.

Female-centered stories are a staple in the genre! A Flame in the North features two smart, capable women--a witch and her shield maiden--who must rely on each other and their own power as they face an unexpected and dangerous destiny. Solveig’s duty to call the flame during the night is her village’s most important duty to stave off the dark. However, after her brother Bjorn kills an emissary from the Northern lands, she ends up being offered as weregild to atone for her brother’s foul deed. She and her shield maiden Arneior must venture north.

As she journeys to her captivity, Sol starts to realize that the Black Land is no myth. The forests are filled with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her magic are shrouded in secrecy. The journey north is slow and painful, which reminded me of the Lord of the Rings saga. Every where they went, the Enemy seems to be stalking them, ready to pounce when they least expect it. Sol's companions from the North include a man who could be an Elder, and several others that shift into wolves.

While you are reading this book, note that Solveig is telling you what happened in the past as a recollection of events. She even hints that her journey is one that likely won't see her returning to her home any time soon, or at all. The author also gives you hints along the way at the beginning of each chapter of things to come. The story is filled with Norse mythology references throughout the story like Odin, Freyja, Thor, Loki, and Hel. Solveig and Arneior are bound together for life, and Arn's story is even more interesting in that she's similar to a Valkyrie.

Much like Tolkien’s writing, this book is rather heavy handed in some cases when it comes to describing things in great detail or spoken dialog which dragged down my rating. The book also ends on a cliffhanger ending, and I will have to think about whether or not to continue. We still don't know what Solveig's real purpose is for being chosen over her brother Bjorn.

This was such a disappointment for me. I was so excited for this, and it was honestly just too heavy into the epic fantasy genre for me to enjoy it. I got about 25% through and just felt like I could not connect to the writing. The language was purple to the point of inaccessible, and there were multiple times when I realized I had no idea what the author was trying to say. Further, the characters were just not interesting. Solveig, the main character, had a lot of thoughts regarding her surroundings, but she did nothing with them. She just observed. We knew little to nothing about her shieldmaid. When I went to other reviews to see if things would get better, it appeared my issues with this book did not change and therefore I decided to DNF.

The lack of character depth could be forgiven if the plot was interesting, but it did not appear that much was going to happen in this book. They were on the road and attacked numerous times, and I do not find this to be exciting. The world building was clearly done in the author’s mind, it was just not translated onto paper well. It was difficult to know how much of norse mythology should be applied, and what the author was creating herself. A lot of words were used from viking culture that had no attempt at a definition, which was frustrating.

It doesn’t help that this book is fairly long, so if you’re getting bored so early on, it makes the temptation to DNF very strong. I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this more.

Thank you to Orbit and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'd like to thank orbit and netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I normally am a fan of Lilith saintcrow so I was excited to read something new by her.

I liked the story in itself, but couldn't enjoy the book. I feel like the writing style was confusing and nonsensical at times. I feel like Lilith was trying to write in several styles throughout.

This one took my by surprise. I'm struggling with exactly how to review it. First off, it's definitely part 1 of 2... the ends feels a little abrupt, but I'm looking forward to what comes next! It's written in a mythic, Tolkien-esque style. I found myself thinking of LOTR a lot while reading, and I don't think I would be wrong in saying it was a huge inspiration for this story. That said, the worldbuilding and the set up are different, and the plight of our main characters (a magic-healer and her shieldmaiden) is a fun take. Though it took me a minute to settle into Sol's way of speaking/viewing the world, I found myself become attached to her and her companions. I'd recommend this one if you're looking for an adventure yet still an internal, character-driven book.

If you are a lover of Nordic/viking tales, this epic tale should be your next read! Our main character Solveig and her shield maiden Arneior are a fantastic pair through a world of elemental magic, shape-shifters, and a dreadful evil long-thought vanquished. Much like a classic high fantasy novel, the setting and world building are a main character in this story, and this alongside vivid battle scenes keep the reader engaged in Solveig’s quest.

Thank you NetGalley, Orbit Books and Lilith Saintcrow for the ARC!

I received the ebook ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I had a hard time rating this book. It landed somewhere between three and four stars so I am settling with 3.5.

This author is new to me, but as someone who loves Norse-based fantasy, I was very excited to read this book. The description of the book does well to convey the type of fantasy read it is. This is a journey book- as the story primarily covers a long journey and the travelers. In this sense, the book was definitely a four star read. This book fit the journey category well and hits all the major points that a reader of this genre would be looking for. The journey is portrayed well as a long and arduous task. It is a test and a challenge for the main characters. The reader often feels like they are also part of this journey, exploring new lands and facing the unknown.

I didn't dislike the main characters, but I didn't necessarily love them either. They were reasonably complex characters with interesting relationships and dynamics. However, the characters did not fully "grab" me. I don't feel like I was able to fully connect with them- like there was some personality traits or characteristics missing from them. With that being said, this is a journey fantasy and to me that means that the characters are not truly the main focus of the story- the plot and the adventure are. I would suggest that this is a matter of personal preference on stories that are either character driven or plot driven. I do not feel like this took much away from the overall experience.

The main issue that brought my star review down was the writing style and language used in this story. The author took a unique route which I admire, but the writing style was often a barrier to my enjoyment of the book. Written in a "old-fashioned" or historical way, there were many times in which I had to reread sections and really work to understand what was going on. Because of this it took me awhile to actually become interested in the characters or their journey. I enjoy reading classic literature, so usually an older writing style does not bother me. But this style combined with a magical fantasy setting where there are numerous terms and concepts invented by the imagination of the author led to a confusing reading experience that felt chore-like at times.

This book was ok….

The premise was interesting, but the characters and writing felt clunky. The story was very difficult to get into and I think this is due to the heaviness of the writing.

I wanted to like solvieg and arn, but more often than not Solvieg this Witch of sorts came off as a damsel who needed those around her to protect and ran from fights and her shield maiden had no other personality than to fight and keep solvieg safe.

This book just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you Net Galley and Orbit for the honest reivew.

That being said, I DNF’d this book at 20%. The wording was heavy, and I found myself rereading passages time and time again to STILL not be able to properly absorb what was being said or what was happening.

It could have been a very, very good book. It just…wasn’t to my tastes unfortunately.

This was a rough read, for me. The idea was really cool but I found myself not enjoying the execution very much. The writing was probably my biggest issue with the story. It was overly complicated, which slowed down reading it, and often felt really convoluted. The worldbuilding was my second biggest issue. I can't tell if maybe the story was just a complexity that I don't mesh with, but I really wish it had been a bit more straightforward and complete in explanation. The characters were okay, but because the rest of the book didn't work for me, I couldn't really connect them because I was just so confused/stuck on other aspects of the story. I can see why people will enjoy this--especially if they are a fan of Norse mythology and Vikings, but this just really didn't work for me.

**I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review**

A Flame in the North is an epic style fantasy novel with Nordic undertones. This novel is written in the first person point of view of our main character Solveig (Sol), the first born daughter of the ruling house of her lands. She is given in service to a lord of the North after her Brother kills the Lord’s Son. She must journey north with her shieldmaid, Arn, and a party of Northerns. She soon finds out that her journey is not what she thinks it will be, and the dangers of the North and Black Land are much more alive than anyone had thought.

This book’s style of writing is admittedly difficult to read which made it slow going and I often found myself having to re-read some portions to understand fully what was being said or happening. This may deter some people, however I found this book to be a great read if you can get past the writing style. The characters are very likeable and I love our strong, noble female main character duo. It is a slow to medium paced book with good world and character building.

The journey is full of peril, truth, lies, growth, trials and much more. I really enjoy a book where we can see the struggles of the main characters and the growth that happens throughout the journey. I also love that we get a full range of emotions from our female main character who admits fear in many instances. It also doesn’t end in a terrible cliff hanger, but instead a good spot that you could pick up the next book and be ready to read.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking to for something with strong female characters, epic journeys, and a unique world and magic system. The reading can be challenging and slow going but if the writing/language doesn’t deter you, this is definitely one to check out!