The good people at Baen Books are selling my early novels. Buy them here, and consider giving them as gifts to your discerning family and friends for whatever holiday is just around the corner. All of the novels are available here.
"Action, adventure, and the sheer fun that reading can be... Deeply, profoundly Christian, but in a bold, battling way." - Gene Edward Veith, author, The Spirituality of the Cross.
What is better? To impersonate a Christian priest for a Viking chieftain, or remain a slave? Aillil of Ireland doesn't hesitate. But he'll soon have reason to question his choice.
In a Norway wracked by religious and political change, his master Erling Skjalgsson is fighting obstinate heathens, old family foes, and new challengers:
A blacksmith struck by lightning, who sees things that shouldn't be seen...
A slave who longs to be hanged, and wants Aillil to do it for him...
A dead man who walks again...
The Year of the Warrior has been re-released in paperback!
Publisher's Note: The first part of this novel was previously published as Erling's Word, making The Year of the Warrior as two-book novel.
Order ebook from Baen
In the year 1001, King Olaf Trygvesson is dead, but his sister’s husband, Erling Skjalgsson, carries on his dream of a Christian Norway that preserves its traditional freedoms. Rather than do a dishonorable deed, Erling relinquishes his power and lands. He and his household board ships and sail west to find a new life with Leif Eriksson in Greenland. This voyage, though, will be longer and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It will take them to an unexplored country few Europeans had seen. Demonic forces will pursue them, but the greatest danger of all may be in a dark secret carried by Father Aillil, Erling’s Irish priest.
Order West Oversea from the original publisher and read some interviews and reviews.
Hailstone Mountain is an H. Rider Haggard-esque story, in which Erling is struck by a curse that could kill him slowly. In order to break the curse, he must sail north (along with Father Ailill, Lemming, and others) to confront the source of the magic face to face. Meanwhile, Lemming’s niece Freydis is kidnapped by her relatives from up in Halogaland, and it’s not a nice kind of family, so she must be rescued. And that sets off repercussions that could destroy the whole country. Erling must join forces with a bitter enemy to stave off a monstrous horror.
Get your copy through Amazon: Hailstone Mountain (The Erling Skjalgsson Saga)
"Lars Walker shows brilliance in taking us into the skulls and skins of those incredibly daring... men and women of the ancient world." - Hal G. P. Colebatch
In a land divided, Erling Skjalgsson rules the West-land of Norway in peace and justice. But a rumor is abroad in the land, songs and tales of a man of destiny coming from across the sea, a man who would be king. In The Elder King, can Erling keep a fractious alliance of chieftains together long enough to defend their freedoms from an ambitious princeling whose ruthlessness knows no limits, and who believes himself the instrument of God?
Meanwhile, Erling's priest, Father Ailill, must balance his clerical vows against his growing love for a woman on the run, a woman with a dark secret and a bizarre fate.
Meanwhile, in the mountains, the Elder King waits. He is ancient. He is wise. He is powerful. And he is entirely mad. In the face of his deadly plan for the whole world, bitter enemies must put aside their differences and make a last stand together.
You can get The Elder King in ebook and paperback.
It's 1022 AD. In Norway, the balance of power is poised between two mighty men — King Olaf, full of new ideas about central government, and Erling Skjalgsson, defender of the old democracy. Two worlds are watching as they contend — the familiar world we live in, and the unseen world around us, full of witches and elves and the dead who walk in the night.
Erling is fighting for survival, and for the future of the land. The steps he must take aren't always gentle ones. At his side is his Irish priest, Father Ailill, concerned that Erling might gain the world and lose his soul. Concerned, also, about Erling's nephew Asbjorn, a proud young man inclined to cut corners with the law.
King of Rogaland is available in ebook and paperback.
The loneliest game in the world - the game where one man stands alone against a sea of foes, with no defense but the sword in his hand and the right on his side. That's the Baldur Game.
For years, Erling Skjalgsson and King Olaf Haraldsson have struggled over the future of Norway. Will it be a free land, or will kings make the laws? Now King Knut of Denmark, fresh from conquering England, is offering Erling mighty support, in return for his allegiance. But can Knut be trusted any more than Olaf?
Meanwhile, Father Ailill, Erling's Irish priest, has acquired an adopted daughter with second sight. And, to his great distress, he's attracted the attention of the Finwife - a cruel mermaid creature who wants him for her everlasting slave.
The Baldur Game is the final chapter of the Saga of Erling Skjalgsson. The action ranges from Norway to England, to the Baltic Sea, Scotland, and the lands of the Russ.
Two powerful men, united by faith, enemies forever in their struggle over power. Each of them may be the death of the other as they careen along their final, deadly course to glory everlasting.
"The Baldur Game is full of the serious delights characteristic of the earlier books of the Saga of Erling Skjalgsson: thought-provoking, funny, hair-raising, deeply moving by turns - or even at the same time! A fine conclusion worthy of its predecessors." - David Llewellyn Dodds, Inklings scholar, author of Arthurian Poets: Charles Williams
The Baldur Game is available in ebook and paperback
"Many are the years and uncounted the miles since the White Northerners took us from our home in Connaught... And I, against all hope, have stood before kings. I have seen a saint made and had for a friend the greatest hero since Cu Chulainn..." His name is Ailill - liar, failed monk, impostor priest. Brought to Norway to serve the chieftain Erling Skjalgsson, he must wrestle with the old gods and his own God; with mortal men and the mysterious underground folk, in the turmoil of a nation being born. But the greatest enemy of all may be himself....
Besides being a novelist, I’m a Norwegian translator. I’m very proud of the recently released work, Viking Legacy, by the Norwegian scholar and historian Dr. Torgrim Titlestad.
Viking Legacy is a groundbreaking book that makes two controversial claims. First, that the Icelandic sagas provide useful information that can be useful to historians, if handled with caution. Second, that we owe our western ideas of democracy at least as much to Viking legal tradition as to ancient Athens.
I might also mention that Erling Skjalgsson, the hero of my Viking novels, is a prominent character in this work. I first became acquainted with Prof. Titlestad though our mutual interest in this larger-than-life saga character.
In the near future, suicide is a constitutional right. Tom Galloway is an ordinary single father, just trying to keep his rebellious and depressed daughter from going to the Happy Endings Clinic. The last thing he needs is a ninth-century Viking time traveler dropping into his life. But Tom is about to embark on the adventure of his life. One that will change the world.
I originally wrote Death's Doors several years ago. As I did with Wolf Time, I simply sighted along the lines of current cultural trends and imagined what the world would be like a little way down the road. I deal with two cultural developments. One is assisted suicide. I’m sure some readers will say that a constitutional “right to die” would never be extended to minors, and certainly not without parental consent. My answer is, “Yeah. Remember how well that worked with abortion.”
The other is the worldwide expansion of Islam, particularly in Europe, but also in America.
Gene Veith says, "It’s suspenseful, exciting, and wildly imaginative, both in the author’s story telling and in the way it stimulates the reader’s imagination."
Chris Anderson has everything. He’s the son of the richest family in town. He lives in a beautiful, loving home. He even has a fairy godmother.
Chris Anderson also has nothing. He was born with a deformed arm, and when he gets angry he sees visions that terrify him.
At the turn of the Twentieth Century, in a nation wrestling with faith and science, tradition and change, Chris will be forced to confront his own nature, and learn the meanings of freedom, love, and the grace of God.
Buy Troll Valley as an ebook here.
Read excerpts at Brandywine Books
All Will Sverdrup wanted was to play Hamlet in an amateur production. He never counted on getting sucked back in time, into the body of the original, historical Hamlet in 6th Century Denmark.
His fellow actors (along with the real Hamlet) never expected to be transported to an alternate universe where Shakespeare's play was real -- with them perfectly placed to live (and die) their parts.
But that's what happened. Now they have to decide -- do they play their roles out, all the way to the bloodbath at the end, or do they try to break the play and save their lives?
The play may be stronger than they are. And if it's not, there's always the giant, tentacled monster that hitched a ride with them, a complication Shakespeare never foresaw. Read an excerpt
REVIEW: Dale Nelson says he looks forward to more
Visit my author page on Amazon to see what other readers are saying.
There's something unnerving about the October north wind. It makes a wolf in the wilderness turn southward, in search of dangerous prey. It gets inside people's ears, opening their minds to bizarre ideas. It gets under their skin, inclining them to violence.
Of course there's the comet too, a spectacular one, tracked by ordinary people in back yards, and not-so-ordinary cult members at the top of a makeshift observatory.
Something's gushing into Epsom, Minnesota. A witch in her quiet house feels it with dread. A young disc jockey feels it with confusion. A world-famous Norwegian peot greets it with triumph. And Professor Carl Martell listens to its song with worry - because Martell cannot tell a lie, but he knows one when he hears it. Read an excerpt
Lars Walker, author of historical fantasy and viking reenactor, is the subject of larswalker.com. You can write him directly at lars@larswalker.com. You may be able to reach him right now by commenting on his blog, Brandywine Books. Header photo of ships on the water by Marit Synnøve Vea.