Sixth and last book in Turney’s Wolves of Odin series is overflowing with adventure, as anyone awaiting this novel is about to find out. I rarely follow series, but Turney brings something new to his character portrayals each time he ventures out with Halfdan Loki-born’s dragon ships. Each book follows the last, whilst all can easily be read as standalones because Turney seamlessly interweaves any exposition readers need to know, without interruption to the current adventure.

Halfdan and the wolves are on two missions – one, to retrieve Sea Wolf from Harold, called Harðráði and two, revenge against the priest Hjalmvigi. This novel explores three political plays for Scandinavian thrones – Harðráði’s after Norway; Onund’s hanging on to Sweden and Sveinn Astridarson covets Denmark. Diplomatically, Harðráði’s methods don’t involve much talking (read fighting, killing, looting, burning.) But his warlike attempt to lure his nephew, Magnus out of his stronghold at Niðaróss (Trondheim) fails, and he sends Halfdan and his warriors to make a deal.

I always enjoy how Turney tackles difficult scenes– in one novel, the building of a dragon ship is captivating; in this novel a ferocious deadly storm in the Norway coastal straits and a narrow fjord is edge-of-seat brilliant. Although an example appears in more detail in a previous book, I was once again engrossed in the overland portage of the ships. Five stars and highly recommended for Viking lovers. Satisfactory conclusion to the series but I still hope to see more of Halfdan when he gets the itch to travel again.

I went into reading this without fully realizing it is the finale of a saga. That being said, I still enjoyed the story and didn't feel too left out. I was expecting this to be along the lines of "HILD," which I had a decent time with, but at some points felt like a text book. "KINGS OF STONE AND ICE" read more like an epic fantasy, and had some cool historical notes. For instance, it never crossed my mind that the Gospels were originally written in Greek, yet Rome is the seat of the Holy Empire, and now during the rise that would cause some Christian conflict. The story pulled you along while showing how the world changed, pushing out the old traditions in favor of the cross. Right, or wrong, it showed how all humans just want to belong to something and the politics that normally could that endeavor. Following Halfdan while seeking revenge for himself and his wolves, was a fun tale. I'm happy I got to read it