Teaser Tuesday May 23rd: A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Choice:

A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden.

To the Danes, he is skraelingr; to the English, he is orcneas; to the Irish, he is fomoraig. He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind–the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days.

Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that’s changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir’s vengeance cannot be denied.

Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits.

But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning–the Old Ways versus the New–and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?

Scott Oden’s A Gathering of Ravens is an epic novel of vengeance, faith, and the power of myth.

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Teaser from Page 66 (ARC copy).

Grimnir rounded on her. “Ridiculous, is it? Foolish?” Spittle flew from yellowed fangs; he was on her in a heartbeat, knotting one fist in her hair and dragging her close. “Tell it to the scores of kaunar that bastard betrayed in Jutland, when he led the Spear-Danes against them! Tell it to Hrungnir, my brother, who was murdered by Half-Dane’s hand! The dead don’t clamor for salvation, little fool! They clamor for blood! My brother’s shade shrieks for it, and for vengeance! And that’s what he’ll get, as the gods are my witness!” Grimnir shoved her away. “Peace? Faugh! Keep your Nailed God’s empty promises. I want no part of this milk-blooded world you hymn-singers bring with you.”

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