When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods – and a skrayling ambassador – to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital?
Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is seconded to the ambassador’s bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally – and Mal Catlyn his soul.
File Under: Fantasy [ Midsummer Magic | Skraylings | Double Trouble | Comedy of Terrors ]
This alternate history set in Elizabethan England started off slow. It took about 150 pages until it really gets to the meat of the story: intricate political plots surrounding the strange skrayling race from Vinland. The individual characterisation lacks depth, but the power relations and setting are interesting. I much enjoyed the plotting in the latter half of the book, and the slow revealing of the skrayling's magic was well done.
--- Trigger warnings: violence, poverty, homophobia (two characters are gay, and there are mild to medium period reactions to this), mild transphobia (a cis female character dresses up as a boy and occasionally considers this unnatural), sexual harrassment/threat of rape.
