Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Pub date: 9 November 2022

Icel is a lone wolf no more.
Oath sworn to Wiglaf, King of Mercia and acknowledged as a member of Ealdorman Ælfstan’s
warrior band, Icel
continues to forge his own destiny on the path to becoming the Warrior of Mercia.
With King Ecgberht of Wessex defeated and Londonium back under Mercian control, the Wessex
invasion of Mercia is over.
But the Wessex king was never Mercia’s only enemy. An unknown danger lurks in the form of
merciless Viking raiders, who set their sights on infiltrating the waterways of the traitorous
breakaway kingdom of the East Angles, within touching distance of Mercia’s eastern borders.
Icel must journey to the kingdom of the East Angles and unite against a common enemy to ensure
Mercia’s hard-won freedom prevails.

I’ve loved every single one of MJ’s books and this is no different. Getting to know Icel as a young man turned warrior has been a roller coaster ride, full of battles, sadness and laughter.

MJ has a fantastic way of creating characters that mean something to the reader, there’s a few in Warrior of Mercia, not just Icel that I held my breath for when they were in danger and that’s not even including the horses! Every horse has a personality which makes the narrative so much more realistic.

If you are a fan of battle scenes then MJ is the author for you, the descriptives of battles are so incredible you can hear seaxes clashing on shields in your mind.

This is the 3rd instalment but you don’t have to read the previous two (though I recommend you do, they’re brilliant) and once again Mercia is in danger. I never reveal spoilers but this had me on edge, page turning, wanting to know if everyone will survive….

Danger doesn’t always come from outside, something Icel knows well, so he must be alert whether at home or out with the warband.

This book is filled to the brim with historical facts weaved into fiction, bloody battles and humour. MJ has been a favourite author of mine for a while now and based on this will remain so.

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century
England, and in Viking Age Denmark. They were raised in the shadow of a building that they believed
housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia – so their writing destiny was set. The first novel in
their new Anglo-Saxon series for Boldwood Son of Mercia was published in February 2022.

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