Lament of the Blacksmith’s Son

Grandsons
of Vikings who founded Russia learn duty, bravery, betrayal and faith as they
battle Turks who try to push them into the sea. Death makes an inexperienced giant
with a legendary axe the Nordic leader, but his berserker mentality leads them
to certain death. Swift horse archers battle stolid shield walls in Lament
of the Blacksmith’s Son, the powerful sequel to Ballad of the
Blacksmith’s Son. 

Crossing the abandoned
battlefields on a mysterious quest, a young Dane re-lives the war but finds
only hints of the truth. What happened to the blacksmith’s son? Following a
trail of the dead across the Baltic, he finds only wrecked taverns and rogue
longboats—until he meets two survivors who point the way.

After thirty years
in the Army and the high school classroom author Rick Taylor drew on his
experience to write YA historical fiction that entertains while teaching
leadership, honor and self- determination. His Christian and Jewish characters
ask hard real world questions in face of desperate times, but they don’t always
survive the answers. Love, God, and Evil battle in a war, a tragedy, and a mystery
that doesn’t end until the final page.

And readers are
invited to help write stanzas of the ballad.