Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Sword of the White Horse

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Sword of the White Horse is the newest installment to the Assassin’s Creed novels by Aconyte and the second installment based on the Valhalla game.

The story follows a Celtic warrior defending her people from Vikings raiders infiltrates an ancient sect to save her homeland. In Mercia, 878 witch-warrior Niamh discovers a new order called the Hidden Ones is trying to establish itself in Lunden. The land is already scarred by bloody wars, Viking raiders and clashing cultures. Determined to protect what remains of her homeland, she infiltrates this new group to discover whether they stand with her or against her. But, when Niamh learns the Hidden Ones have stolen an artifact scared to her people, Niamh’s own loyalties are challenged. Casting aside newfound alliances and friendships, she soon discovers that betrayal comes with a heavy price and it will take everything in her power if her gods are willing to survive.

I want to start by saying I was worried I would be biased, I’ve been an Assassin’s Creed fan since the first game but Valhalla is one of my favourites. Norse and Celtic history and mythology have been my passions for a long time so I was excited for this one and thankfully I was not disappointed. Sjunneson does wonders to weave history and mythology together with the world of AC to create a story that is truly her own. Not to mention bonus points for the Arthurian legend links as well!

The novel captures the twisting and turning plot of Assassin’s Creed of trying to work out which sect and organization is truly able to be trusted. The characters are all believable and I enjoyed seeing Niamh struggle morally with the choices she makes and how she processes these. My favourite character, however was not Niamh but I do have a soft spot for Vikings after all.

A wonderful installment in the Valhalla canon and one that captures the setting, characters, tension and suspense perfectly. I think any AC fan will enjoy this but also fans of Norse and Celtic based fiction and mythology. And people who enjoy strong female characters I know I most certainly loved it and cannot wait for more.

Once again thank you for Aconyte and Netgalley for allowing me to review an ARC of this novel for a fair and honest review.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Sword of the White Horse follows Niamh, a witch-warrior, follower of the Lady of the Mists, in a fantasy version of historical Great Britain. She enters into the Hidden Ones as a secret mission to the Lady, but soon finds herself enmeshed in a fairly complex war between religion, race and of course the constant enemy throughout the Assassin's Creed, the Ancient ones. As someone who is Welsh and quite interested in Celtic lore, I always enjoy exploration of the Arthurian themes and legends. Excalibur is the main quest objective with plenty of history and lore behind it.

If you think describing a plot point as a quest objective is a bit weird... you might not realize that this, like all the books in the Assassin's Creed series, is to accompany the video game. I would highly recommend it to people who play the games, but it might not make the same connection with you if you're not a fan of the video game series. There are lots of hidden references and nods to the video game, from jumping off buildings into haystacks to hide, hiding corpses, stealth missions, and overall it has a very authentic video game feel of completing missions, occasionally getting side quests, and coming up against bosses who are harder than usual. As a gamer, I love reading this series of books and smiling at the Easter eggs, whilst also enjoying a simple fantasy tale of mysticism, loyalty and of course, good vs evil. Our main character is a strong female lead and that's excellent to see.

If you go into this with no knowledge of the video game, you may find some of the motivations or actions of our main characters a little odd, and also have no knowledge of the complex universe and backstory, but I still think it would be an enjoyable read.

As a fan of both the game and book franchise I'm giving Sword of the White Horse 4 stars.

An absolutely engrossing page Turner of a book, I read it in one sitting as I didn't want to put it down.The way the author describes dark ages england makes you imagine youwere there along side the characters and situations that were happening...thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC...