Iron Heart

A Viking in the royal city of the Franks and a summer war that no one expected... Mercenary, brawler and adventurer Harald knows that, unfortunately for him, he can be good at bad things. Sometimes so good that it's laughable, but there's nothing to laugh about here. The first is unwanted involvement in politics, and that's something Harald usually tries to avoid like a cross. But when politics is balanced by the more than pleasant reward of an interesting commission, Harald's curiosity betrays him. Moorish ambassadors are only lost once in a lifetime, and what would break the back of another man Harald takes as a challenge. Then there is the fulfilment of a dark premonition. What at first appears to be an interesting search through the streets of Paris turns into a nightmare of flames, pain and difficult decisions over the course of two hot, tense and extremely hectic days. Nothing comes for free and Harald has to walk over dead bodies, because staying behind in a world that is changing faster than anyone expects means only one thing: certain death.

Reader reviews

"Iron Heart is, pardon my French, a fucking blast."

"It's more realistic. There are no overtly positive heroes or villains, and being positive means you can't expect anyone to turn out well. The wheels of power will grind everyone down indiscriminately."

"The pace of the story constantly builds up the suspense for the reader and makes him want to turn the next page. Martin Sládek manages to draw the reader into the adventure in an authentic way. He keeps the reader intrigued until the very end."

"...description of the final battle - a treat. It's as if Ridley Scott had directed it."

Author's comment

The Iron Heart has undergone a journey worth of Xenophon. It used to be a massive story, written with such enthusiasm that the publisher rightly rejected it. I hadn't had time for it for years, and only returned to it after the publication of Time Lords. I felt the story was worthwhile and deserved attention. The original plan to cut it down to half its length proved pointless in the first few paragraphs, so I kept the skeleton and wrote new meat, which turned out to be the best decision. Setting the story in just two days allowed the plot to take off quickly and stay in the momentum - the fates of Harald, Maynhard and Galswinth de facto wrote themselves, I just put letters on paper. I wrote the first two thirds in my comfort zone, but because I kept expecting more from the stories and myself, I had to step out of that zone at the end. To reveal more would be to spoil the surprise, and for that reason I also recommend not reading any reviews beforehand.