Review: A gorgeous, unexpected triumph. A rare five stars for me.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
So, let me get this straight (as it were): a gay romance novel, set in the Dark Ages, on an isolated rocky peninsula at the northernmost part of the British isles, in an early Christian monastery. With Vikings.Yeah, right. What crazy writer could possibly pull this off?Apparently, the brilliant Harper Fox.I pre-ordered this book - because I am a Harper Fox fan. I am a connoisseur of her broken men, of her exquisitely painted settings, of her deftly woven plots, in which action and emotion and character come together to create a vivid and memorable experience for the reader.  She does not pander to us romantics: she honors us with her books.And, in "Brothers of the wild North Sea," she gives us a startling, enormously daring triumph of historical romance, and manages to touch our intelligence as much as our hearts.Caius, a young monk, eldest son of a local Saxon chieftan, has turned his back on the rough, mindless world of his father's clan. Not quite sure of where his faith lies, he has joined a small brotherhood of monks on the rocky outcrop of Fara, and has found something like contentment.Then the Viking raiders come, and Caius finds his little world shattered violently by these brutal monsters from the East. Until one of them is left for dead on the monastery's beach, wounded by Caius's own sword."Brothers of the Wild North Sea" is an improbably moving and gorgeously written story of great power and beauty. As always, Fox gives us the best writing of anyone in her genre - I can't overemphasize how good a writer she is. There are passages in this book that moved me to tears just with their poetic elegance.  Her careful research into this elusive moment between Roman civilization and the long shadow of the Dark Ages has animated a world about which I knew and cared nothing. The has wrought a plausible love story between two men in a setting that would seem to deny its possibility.This book, for me, is on a par with Ken Follett's celebrated novel of medieval life, "Pillars of the Earth."  Yes, it is targeted at those of us who love m/m romance - but it is so much more than just that.