Published 5th August 2021 by Aries, Head of Zeus.
From the cover of the book:
The champion of a dead king has nothing left to lose... And nothing more to fear.Hastings, 1066. Styrkar the Dane stumbles wounded and delirious from the corpse-strewn battlefield of Senlac Hill. He has watched his king butchered at the hands of foreign knights, seen his countrymen defeated in battle, and he will not stop until there is a reckoning.
Styrkar embarks on a bloody quest to avenge his dead master, becoming an outlaw in the wilds and earning a fearsome reputation.
When a Breton knight seeks to track down this fugitive and make his own name, he can little envisage the task he has set himself. For Styrkar, the Red Wolf, last surviving housecarl to King Harold Godwinson, will carve the story of his vengeance in Frankish flesh... or die in the attempt.
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Styrkar the Dane, known as Red Wolf, was taken from his homeland as a boy to serve as a slave for Norse King Harald Sigurdsson. He never expected that a twist of fate would lead him to becoming the loyal housecarl and champion of the Saxon King Harold Godwinson, but he learned to love the man who gave him his freedom and taught him how to fight.
When 1066 brings a new conqueror to English shores in the form of Duke William from Normandy, and Harold's army is defeated on Senlac Hill at the Battle of Hastings, Styrkar loses everything he holds dear once more. Staggering from the battlefield, his only wish is for revenge against the Normans that have stolen his future, and he embarks on a one man quest to kill as many of these invaders as he can.
Living as an outlaw, the Red Wolf earns a fearsome reputation, until a Breton knight called Ronan takes it upon himself to track Styrkar down to make a name for himself. What does fate hold for Styrkar now?
This is a story set against an extremely turbulent and bloody period of English history, and you can feel the push and pull of all the different influences that shaped the country at this time right from the word go, with enemies both within and without its borders vying for dominance. Cullen takes us through the transition from Saxons under King Harold Godwinson, to the Norman era with William the Conqueror on the throne, mixing in plenty of shenanigans on the part of Norse and Welsh parties too - all driven by one of the strongest motivating factors there is, ambition. I don't think I have read anything that shows so well how much resistance there was to Norman rule in the years following 1066, and I found it particularly interesting to view things through the eyes of the losing Saxon side - after all, history is normally written from the point of view of the victor.
Styrkar, our sort-of-protagonist, is an unusual character to propel a story of this kind. For a start, he is Danish, by way of Norway, which makes him an anachronism as a Saxon champion. He is a tricky man to warm to, but his role as something of an outsider actually allows Cullen to take a good hard look at the way both sides behave in times of war - no one really comes out of this well, which I think makes it quite an accurate portrayal of the shifting nature of allegiances, the every present risk of betrayal, and the self-serving behaviour that characterises the lay of the land when the game of thrones is in play.
Even Styrkar finds himself engaging in less that honourable behaviour in pursuit of his campaign of vengeance, before he comes to realise that perhaps there might be another way to live. I liked how Cullen highlights that for the people at the bottom end of the social scale it matters little who claims the right to be your king, and you can find yourself at the pointy end of a sword (and worse) from forces on both sides of the conflict merely by trying to survive in troubled times. There is something intrinsically timeless about that!
There is plenty of excitement of the clash of iron in these pages, and Cullen writes about the bloody moments of battle with an intensity that takes you right into the action. He holds nothing back about the brutality of the victorious either, eschewing the notion of romantic ideas about chivalry. This all adds to create an authentic feel to the the backdrop against which he weaves Styrkar's fictitious story. This is very much a page-turner of a historical fiction adventure, and the characters certainly hold your interest throughout its 400 pages with ease, as the plot moves back and forth between Styrkar's story and his Norman enemies. I would really like to have seen an appendix from Cullen talking about the historical context of this novel and what drew him to both this period and the character of Styrkar, as this would have rounded off the book nicely, so it is a shame that this is missing - a historical note is often one of my favourite parts of this kind of book. I did also have a slight issue with the use of Normans and Franks as interchangeable terms, speaking as someone from Norman stock, but admit that is unlikely to bother most readers.
I love a meaty historical adventure you can get your teeth into, and Richard Cullen has crafted a very tasty morsel here in Oath Bound. He also contrives an intriguing ending to this story, which creates a very nice little hook into where Styrkar must go in his next Wolf of Kings adventure, Shield Breaker. I look forward to seeing where the story goes next!
Oath Bound is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.
Find out more about the series and buy the books HERE.
Thank you to Aries for sending me a paperback copy of Oath Bound in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
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