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Published 11th April by Aries, Head of Zeus.
From the cover of the book:
In a world of war and ruin, men and gods collide.436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome's legions, for the Empire is weak. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before.
But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.
Many years later, the Huns, led by the fearsome Attila, have become the deadliest enemies of Rome. Attila seeks the Burgundars' treasure, for it includes the legendary Sword of the War God, said to make the bearer unbeatable.
No alliance can defeat Attila by conventional means. With Rome desperate for help, a one-eyed old warlord from distant lands and his strange band of warriors may have the answers... but oaths will be broken and the plains of Europe will run with blood before the end.
Drawing on Norse mythology and European history, Sword of the War God is an epic historical adventure perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman and Christian Cameron.
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436 AD. The Roman Empire is not what it once was, and its authority is being challenged on more than one front. A Roman army, under the command of seasoned general Flavius Aetius, prepares to do battle with the Burgundians. The Germanic kingdom stands ready to oppose them, convinced that they will be victorious against a foe they have defeated before. However, this time, things are different... the Romans have a new ally in the form of the Huns.
Under the command of Attila and his brother, the Huns' brutality proceeds them. They have heard of the fabled treasure held by the Burgundians and they want it for themselves - especially the legendary Sword of the War God, a talisman that makes the bearer invincible. Unable to withstand the might of the combined army, especially given the dishonourable tactics of the Huns, the Burgundian kingdom is obliterated. Its few surviving people are scatted to the winds, and the treasure is lost in time.
As the years pass, Attila's forces grow in strength and his greedy eyes turn towards the Empire. While he still seeks the legendary sword, there is a chance he can be stopped - but only if new oaths are sworn and former enemies become friends. The Roman Empire needs help from the Burgundians that have risen from the ashes and shaped themselves into a very different kind of people with the aid of a mysterious one-eyed warlord and his strange warriors, but will they ever become allies?
In Sword of the War God, Tim Hodkinson takes what we know about the messy politics of 5th century Western Europe, when the Western Roman Empire was in rapid decline, and weaves in a whopping slice of myth and legend, to create the kind of historical fiction adventure that can only be described as epic!
The story centres on the fate of the unfortunate Burgundians, who suffer a tragic defeat at the beginning of the tale at the hands of the Huns, losing their fabled treasure. In time, the surviving members of the Burgundian ruling and warrior classes come back together after serving the Roman Empire, or as guests in foreign lands, and the threads of Roman desperation, Burgundian transformation, and Hunnish ambition collide in a luscious tangle of family drama, intrigue, uneasy alliances, and good old fashioned betrayal that keeps you very entertained.
The cast of characters is somewhat sprawling, and it takes a while to get a handle on who is who and what their game is, but you soon find yourself pinning your colours to some and wishing grisly ends to others - and Hodkinson contrives more heart-pounding bloody battles, and stomach churning ritualistic murders, than you can wave a legendary sword at before his work is done. But what really makes this book so fresh and exciting is the way Hodkinson inserts some very familiar characters from Norse and Celtic mythology to spice up the action, delving deliciously into Wagnerian heights of delight, and he does it with such subtlety that it is not immediately obvious that these figures might be more than who they claim to be.
I have no intention of giving the game away, as it is so enjoyable spotting the many famous faces from legend who become an integral part of the tale, but there are clues a-plenty in name and deed. In a stroke of genius, these characters drive the story, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, to hint at supernatural undertones to the moments history records. Hodkinson does a lovely job of reflecting on many aspects of the legacy of Rome too, in occasional 'what have the Romans ever done for us' moments.
I promise you will find yourself going down a whole warren of rabbit holes about many aspects of the story before you are done... and if you do not listen to The Ride of the Valkyries at least once, I will be very surprised. I particularly enjoyed the, blink-or- you-will-miss-it, appearance of a very famous legendary King and his wizarding side-kick, during the sojourn to Britannia, which was rather unexpected!
I consumed this novel, flying through the twists and turns all the way to the cracking finale. It has the feel of the first in a new series for Hodkinson, with the whisper of further adventures for our surviving characters. I have my fingers crossed that another book will follow this one in due course. More please Mr Hodkinson.
Sword of the War God is available to buy now in hardcover and ebook formats.
Thank you to Aries for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Tim's more recent writing heroes include Ben Kane, Giles Kristian, Bernard Cornwell, George R.R. Martin and Lee Child.
After several years in the USA, Tim has returned to Northern Ireland, where he lives with his wife and children.
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