I can’t believe that today is the last day of 2017! I had a lot of great reads this past year, but I think my favorite books that I read were the Sea of Trolls trilogy by Nancy Farmer. I had never heard of these books before I came upon them while browsing in the library. Now they have become some of my all-time favorites, right up there along with LOTR, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. Unfortunately, I didn’t have this blog when I was reading them, but I’ll just give you a quick synopsis here and then a run down on what made these books so good!
These books are set in Anglo-Saxon England at the time when Christianity was starting to replace the old beliefs in the gods and magic. The main character is Jack, who starts out as a mere farmer boy but then becomes the apprentice to a powerful bard (aptly called the Bard by the villagers). An unlikely friend Jack makes in the first book is Thorgil, a shield maiden. In each book, they are whisked off onto an adventure and have to overcome many challenges over the course of their journeys.
Now onto why I love these books. First of all, the world building is on point. It is clear that Farmer did a tremendous amount of research on what life was like in Anglo-Saxon England. You can just tell from the details. Not only that, but she entwines Scandinavian and other mythologies of the area (remember, I love Norse mythology!) together with Christianity, since Christianity was just starting to come to light in that area at that time, as I said above. She does this in such a wonderful and creative way that makes it seem as if yes, there is magic in the world, and yes, there are gods and all sorts of odd creatures, but a great deal of what those things mean to you is how you interpret it. Yes, that storm could be the Odin and his warriors hunting a boar, but also yes, it could just be a storm. This book has a sound setting in the past, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like a historical book. It captivated me just like the Percy Jackson books did. Other books that I have read which are set in the past often bore me with, albeit sometimes necessary (and sometimes unnecessary), disinteresting details about that era which slow down the flow of the action. The distinctive setting of The Sea of Trolls trilogy, however, captivated me and added to the novelty of the book.
I also liked how, while the all the books were certainly connected, there wasn’t an overall goal of “save the world”. The plot revolved on a level dealing more with the main characters’ personal lives, which was a nice change from a bunch of other books that I’ve read. Even though the characters don’t have to defeat some terrible evil that wants to take over the globe, they do have to make sacrifices to save what’s important to them.
Off of that point, Farmer has done a magnificent job with crafting characters who aren’t perfect and have their own struggles, while simultaneously writing their flaws in a way that you don’t get frustrated with them and is also relatable. You care so much about them, that when they try to rescue what matters to them it will feel just as important as if they were trying to save the world. Each character is unique, with a distinct personality that Farmer writes so authentically that you will feel as if you know the characters well enough to have met them in real life by the end of the first book.
I loved all of the characters, but let’s take a moment to appreciate Thorgil. She is quite possibly the most diverse and strong female character in any book I have read, and by strong I mean both physically and in attitude. She is a short-tempered shield maiden, who would like nothing better than to die bravely in battle so that she can join Odin’s warriors in Valhalla. Just a quick tidbit: the Vikings believed that a person could be pretty much anything they wanted to be – it didn’t matter if they were male or female – as long as they were good at it. (This is yet another aspect I like about the Vikings/Norse mythology.) In books with strong female leads who have boyish tendancies, often the character will hate all things girlish or look down on girls who like to do girlish things, which irks me. However, although Thorgil certainly had a boyish flare, Farmer doesn’t shy away from also giving showing a bit of her feminine side a few times. Thorgil’s growth throughout this series was wonderfully written.
I’ve just got to say: READ THESE BOOKS. I feel like they are underrepresented. But if you like stories that are intriguing, funny, magical, action-packed, and heart-felt (I shed a few tears as I read the last pages of the final book because I was just so sad that the story was ending) you need to go read the enchanting Sea of Trolls trilogy right now.
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