Red Tide

LoveReading4Kids Says

First book in The Vampire Empire duology, Curtis Jobling’s Red Tide boasts all the drama and conflict of the sagas that were once woven into the cultural fabric of its richly-evoked setting, Shetland’s island of Unst in 900 AD, with a mob of rampaging Viking vampires ramping up the stakes.

Once home to the Picts, this area “had been colonised; these islands belonged to the Vikings now”, though on Unst, Norse and Picts live alongside each other, as embodied by the friendship between 15-year-old Norse girl Hilde, whose lineage “reaches back to the golden age of gods and monster”, and Cormac, the Pictish blacksmith's son. Their connection cuts through cultural differences, including the worship of different gods.

Having grown-up hearing about her mother’s legendary deeds as an invincible shieldmaiden, Hilde longs for adventure, declaring near the start of the story, “My life couldn’t be much worse. I’m already stuck on this rock when there’s a world out there waiting to be explored”. Soon enough, though, a world of adventure comes to her when the Harrowed Men invade her island, ushering in all the violence and turmoil you might expect a band of bloodthirsty Viking-warrior vampires to make, and then some.

The writing roars and rages, but it’s also measured and undulates with emotion, which makes Red Tide likely to appeal to a broad range of readers, from fans of myth-based fiction, and supernatural stories that veer from well-trodden paths, to those who relish rollicking history-based romps that tell of brutal battles.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen is a writer, reviewer and workshop presenter whose lifelong love of books began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
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