The Sea of Trolls

Nancy Farmer

Doorstop-sized fantasy series are a dime a dozen these days. Readers of doorstop-sized fantasy series are at least as numerous. Those readers may have missed The Sea of Trolls, the opening shot in Nancy Farmer's newest series, because it's marketed to the Young Adult market. I would encourage them to go looking through those cracks and seeing if a copy fell through-- it's well worth retrieving.

The Sea of Trolls focuses on Jack, an apprentice Bard who finds himself, as they say, with greatness thrust upon him. His mentor is attacked by a Nightmare and left witless, after which Jack and his sister Lucy are captured by Olaf One-Brow, a northman of exceptional size (and ferocity in battle). Jack has to pit his nimble mind against the unreasoning strength of the Northmen to survive and find his way home.

The book doesn't have the breadth of the series you're used to, but we're only four hundred fifty pages into the series, folks-- that's half the size of a George Martin, two-thirds of a Robin Hobb. There will be, I'm sure, ample room for growth (if you were convinced this was going to be a standalone, the last two chapters should have put you right...), and what's here is quite wonderful as an adventure in itself. Rather than turning to the usual Germanic/Middle European mythological world for her swords and sorcery, Farmer turns to the Norse, and wears it on her sleeve as much as any author since Tolkein. A refreshing change form the norm.

Well worth looking into for fantasy readers of all ages.