
I've read a number of Viking/Norsemen books over the years and have always been deeply fascinated by the rich cultural history and folklore of this famed race of people. Fate, however, was the first of these books that I'd read from a child's / young adult's perspective and that alone was enough to grab my attention.
The basic plot revolves around the Children of a little village called Ribe, who are tasked by the village elders to search for and return seven mythical and magical arm rings that will protect the village from invaders. The rings are well hidden all over the Scandinavian archipelago and well guarded. It will take some cunning, some courage and no small amount of magic for these children to succeed in their task.
This book, Fate, is just the story of the search for the first of these arm rings. I am assuming that each search will take up a further book in the series.
I found the writing style very straightforward and easy to read. The only difficulty I had was with names, but that's my failing, not the authors.
As a young adult story, with plenty of good messages in it and a ton of excitement, I thought this a great introduction, by Woolley, into the Children of Ribe series. It does want me to read book two and discover what happens next to this disparate group of young people. A good job from this author.
