Reviews

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

muse2323's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

3.5

katiebtatton's review against another edition

2.0

The Sea of Trolls follows Jack as he is apprenticed to a Bard and subsequently captured by Vikings and sets off on a quest to free his little sister. The first third of the book was bleak and hard. I liked the comparisons of the Norse religion and early Catholicism, and I enjoyed the Norse tree of life that encompasses all beliefs and truths as well as all negative energy. I loved the three or so pages of Appendix that explained more of the mythology I'm completely unfamiliar with and am interested in reading more about that.

fieldofhats's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There are aspects of this book that I absolutely loved and other parts that I wasn’t a fan of. Firstly, this novel is about 15 hours long and it could easily be 10 or 11 hours, maybe even less. The action slows more often than not, and the character development is slow. The characters are good for the most part, but not interesting enough to justify following them throughout the whole book.

Jack wasn’t an interesting character; he was your basic young white boy protagonist, except less pretentious. The difference is that I enjoyed reading about Jack because he was the catalyst for the magic of this world, which was nothing short of phenomenal. I wish that Thorgil was likable sooner because it took me so long to come around to her. I’m still not sure whether I like her all that much. The bard was a fun character and the twist at the end that he was Boldheart was incredible. Aside from those three, none of the other characters got any real development or were significantly memorable, which detracted from
the story immensely.

The one thing that I absolutely adored was the way Paganism was portrayed in this book. Below is a short essay I did on that subject:

Christianity and Paganism are on full display in this novel, but Nancy Farmer sends a very clear message about which one is valued more in this narrative world. The world of The Sea of Trolls is anchored in how the people of Viking Age Scandinavia believed the world to be. Jotunheim, home of the trolls, is just across the sea, and Uthgard beyond that. Magic is accessed through a connection with the natural world, and the world tree Yggdrassil is the source. These are all literally true in Farmer’s novel, and they are all based on beliefs that the Nordic people held in the pre-christian days.

The magic in this book is very mystical. To use magic, the bard/warrior/wise woman must be in tune with the life force, which is a force that permeates the world through nature. Many of the spells we see early on in the book, like summoning fog or casting a storm away, are reliant upon nature. They are also reminiscent of actual Pagan magic; it’s the kind of magic a skeptic could brush off as coincidence. A storm clearing out right as it starts to get bad is unusual, but not impossible, so it can’t be magic. However, every character treats it as if it is real magic, and the prose does not indicate that there’s room for skepticism. Later on in the book we do see Jack perform more fantastical spells that look more like what you might typically see in a fantasy novel, but they aren’t treated any differently from the others. This validates Pagan magic and affirms the view that Farmer is placing Paganism at the center of this world.

In the latter part of the book, when Jack is at the pinnacle of his journey, he sees the world tree and says, “I know what this Tree is. It’s pure life force. It’s being chewed on and nibbled at and cut with axes, but it never dies because it’s the earth itself. … There’s the Islands of the blessed, where the great queens and heroes go. … and there’s High Heaven for Christians like me and a lot of other places I don’t know about. Yggdrassil contains them all.” Jack is a Saxon christian who does not believe in the same gods that the Norsemen do, but his magic is reliant upon Yggdrassil, and within Yggdrassil is the christian heaven. It’s very common in modern Norse-inspired fantasy fiction for there to be a christianized element to the mythology – the idea that there is one god who rules over the Norse pantheon is a popular one but Farmer does the exact opposite here. She places christianity under Paganism. High Heaven is contained within the world tree and may only exist because of it.

ansl's review against another edition

3.0

Geen idee wanneer ik het heb gelezen... Ik herinner het mij ook maar vaagjes waar het over gaat.
Pre 2005 ofzo

the_pagan_philologist's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ich finde das Buch mit dreissig noch genauso toll wie mit dreizehn :)

kekeele's review against another edition

4.0

I was tempted to give this 3 stars because of how slow the first half of the book was. At the beginning, I also felt cheated with it being compared to the Lord of the Rings. Oh. But the ending was so good. Jack meeting all the “horrid” things he’d heard about. And making friends with where he was. And becoming the man he was meant to be. Made my heart so full.

“Flying isn’t for everyone.”

breading_books's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

jmitschke's review against another edition

4.0

A very fun and well-written story of a young apprentice Saxon bard who is kidnapped by Vikings and embarks on a quest to protect his sister and survive many foes (bears! trolls! spiders! Picts!). I really enjoyed the details from medieval Christianity, Norse mythology and snippets from medieval lit.

I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes Tolkien and Rowling's epic adventure fantasy stories, or for those who like the historical fantasy series by Pratchett and Pierce.

em_ily_816's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

4.75

liketheday's review against another edition

2.0

There's a lot of stuff happening here, and it's all quite predictable because you can tell it's meant to be a riff on old Norse mythology and whatnot and according to the internet the print book mentions this explicitly at the end, and also mentions that what I felt was a really horrible sort of throw-away joke at the end was actually kind of the point of the book and wow that is neither in the audiobook nor implied by the text itself.
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