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A review by katiehicks
The Golden Wolf by Linnea Hartsuyker
4.0
4.5 stars
In my review of The Half-Drowned King I compared this series to the show Vikings, and wrote that all my favorite things about that show are captured in these books. In this, the finale of the trilogy, we get what I always found to be the most complicated and fascinating aspect of the show: seeing characters we love be terrible parents. I was a little slow to get on board with this when I realized how much of the story was going to be given over to Einar and Freydis at the expense of Ragnavald and Svanhild, but in a story that takes place during such a dynamic and turbulent time, it becomes necessary to see not only these characters, but their legacies as well.
Obviously, I am sad to see how some character's stories ended, but pleasantly surprised about others. I even think this installment had the best pacing- probably due to the number of characters. The first two books slowed down a lot in the middle, but in this one whenever one character's story began to slow down, another's was picking up. I was frustrated with some character's decisions, but I also see how their past actions kind of painted them into a corner and they were left with no good options. This is actually one of the coolest aspects of this book-- we have now known the characters for so long that we are able to see the far-reaching consequences of things they did when we first met them in the first book.
My one gripe about this story, which is not really a gripe at all, is how Einar's bisexuality kind of falls off later in the story. Obviously, he is still bisexual even when he is with women, and he will be bisexual for his whole life- but he stopped really thinking about it halfway through the book. Again, bisexual people are allowed to date and even marry people of the opposite sex and it doesn't make them not bisexual anymore (which is why this isn't really a gripe, and overall I appreciated that there was any sort of bi rep at all), I just wish it had been a bigger part of his character throughout the story since it so rare to see bisexual characters in historical/ fantasy stories.
In my review of The Half-Drowned King I compared this series to the show Vikings, and wrote that all my favorite things about that show are captured in these books. In this, the finale of the trilogy, we get what I always found to be the most complicated and fascinating aspect of the show: seeing characters we love be terrible parents. I was a little slow to get on board with this when I realized how much of the story was going to be given over to Einar and Freydis at the expense of Ragnavald and Svanhild, but in a story that takes place during such a dynamic and turbulent time, it becomes necessary to see not only these characters, but their legacies as well.
Obviously, I am sad to see how some character's stories ended, but pleasantly surprised about others. I even think this installment had the best pacing- probably due to the number of characters. The first two books slowed down a lot in the middle, but in this one whenever one character's story began to slow down, another's was picking up. I was frustrated with some character's decisions, but I also see how their past actions kind of painted them into a corner and they were left with no good options. This is actually one of the coolest aspects of this book-- we have now known the characters for so long that we are able to see the far-reaching consequences of things they did when we first met them in the first book.
My one gripe about this story, which is not really a gripe at all, is how Einar's bisexuality kind of falls off later in the story. Obviously, he is still bisexual even when he is with women, and he will be bisexual for his whole life- but he stopped really thinking about it halfway through the book. Again, bisexual people are allowed to date and even marry people of the opposite sex and it doesn't make them not bisexual anymore (which is why this isn't really a gripe, and overall I appreciated that there was any sort of bi rep at all), I just wish it had been a bigger part of his character throughout the story since it so rare to see bisexual characters in historical/ fantasy stories.