We are introduced to a second setting and protagonist from the Viking world in the second volume of this series, with a journey to occupied Ireland. In the last volume, the Vikings were te conquered people, but the tables are turned here as the Vikings becomes the conquerors and oppressors of the Emerald Isle. We see the brutality of their rule through the eyes of Magnus, a former monk who has turned violent in the hopes of riding the land of Norsemen. His opponent is Ragnar Ragnarsson, a homicide detective of sorts, but the real plottwist comes with Magnus' daughter Brigid. Throughout the story we see her travelling with Magnus, but at the finale it is revealed that the real Brigid left her father long ago and assimilated to the Viking culture. Once again the author has tapped some accurate historical themes while still having a great adventure. ( )

This book, the second in the series, is set in Ireland during the time of Brian Boru. This volume is rather jumbled and vague, with a lot of pretty landscape scenes, lots of gore and battle scenes, but very little storytelling. I'm guessing that our one-man revolutionary force, Magnus, is just hallucinating his daughter Brigid, and has not been in her company in quite some time by the end of the book, but this is really just a guess, because the images and text become more vague and unhelpful, with image sequences that are harder to follow and that leave the story feeling rough and unfinished. The Brigid's War chapter is especially unsatisfying. Is this 'war' Magnus going berserk and killing indiscriminately? Is it an actual war I vaguely recall that there may have been a 'Brigid's War', at least in folk legend, after all, and I know enough about Brian Boru to know some of this book's story is based in historical fact.
But just from this graphic novel, I would be just as ignorant of Irish history after reading this book as I was before. The history gets too muddled and confusing and never coalesces into anything satisfying. But, the landscape illustrations are pretty. ( )

In this volume of Northlanders we follow two new characters and move to Ireland. Magnus is a local who is killing his way through the the Vikings one higher up at a time. Lord Ragnor is the viking lord that has been sent to catch Magnus. Ragnor is trained in forensics (which felt more like extensive tracking skills) and he is able to get a bead on where Morgan is going. The story goes back and forth between Magnus and Ragnor with a couple of stops at the larger war that the Vikings are fighting as the Irish try to fight back as a group as well.

I was unable to get a real grasp of what was going on between Magnus and his daughter and was very confused about the sudden jump Brigid made in age. I can't figure out if Magnus was hallucinating or if there was a substantial jump in time that I missed. I also just felt like I didn't get enough of the characters inner workings to really feel invested in the story this time. I did like the first one enough that I am going to give the next volume a try anyway. ( )

In this volume of Northlanders we follow two new characters and move to Ireland. Magnus is a local who is killing his way through the the Vikings one higher up at a time. Lord Ragnor is the viking lord that has been sent to catch Magnus. Ragnor is trained in forensics (which felt more like extensive tracking skills) and he is able to get a bead on where Morgan is going. The story goes back and forth between Magnus and Ragnor with a couple of stops at the larger war that the Vikings are fighting as the Irish try to fight back as a group as well.

I was unable to get a real grasp of what was going on between Magnus and his daughter and was very confused about the sudden jump Brigid made in age. I can't figure out if Magnus was hallucinating or if there was a substantial jump in time that I missed. I also just felt like I didn't get enough of the characters inner workings to really feel invested in the story this time. I did like the first one enough that I am going to give the next volume a try anyway. ( )

In this volume of Northlanders we follow two new characters and move to Ireland. Magnus is a local who is killing his way through the the Vikings one higher up at a time. Lord Ragnor is the viking lord that has been sent to catch Magnus. Ragnor is trained in forensics (which felt more like extensive tracking skills) and he is able to get a bead on where Morgan is going. The story goes back and forth between Magnus and Ragnor with a couple of stops at the larger war that the Vikings are fighting as the Irish try to fight back as a group as well.

I was unable to get a real grasp of what was going on between Magnus and his daughter and was very confused about the sudden jump Brigid made in age. I can't figure out if Magnus was hallucinating or if there was a substantial jump in time that I missed. I also just felt like I didn't get enough of the characters inner workings to really feel invested in the story this time. I did like the first one enough that I am going to give the next volume a try anyway. ( )