THE VIKING THRONE

The author sent me an autographed copy of his novel to read and review:

What would you do if a giant sperm whale swallowed you? That’s just one of the obstacles JB Michaels’ protagonist, James Henihan, has to overcome in this swashbuckling novel. It’s JB’s first adult fantasy as he shifts away from numerous bestselling YA novels. It’s not an easy task. In any event, the path from YA to adult fantasy seemed a little cumbersome for the author. As I read the novel, more chapters seemed to be written in YA prose than chapters employing adult language. The killings were too fast without enough time for the reader to say to himself, "Way to go!" He needs to elongate the violence like Bernard Cornwell does, the king of death in battle. My two other piddling complaints are that the reader didn’t get any background on what happened during The Great Calamity (global warming?) or where the mages came from and how they made some humans into sirens. Did I enjoy this story? Yes, but with a glitch. I’m reviewing this novel essentially as an advanced YA novel with sporadic adult situations (if that makes any sense).

Earth is now a “blue planet of vast roiling seas.” Somehow mages turned some of the population into sirens, who now populate the oceans. The story opens with siren James Henihan (a little hungover) realizing that his daughter, Maggie, is missing after she warned him of someone wearing scuba gear swimming outside their home. Maggie gets captured as James and his wife, Imogen, give chase. Maggie and Imogen disappear. James gets captured and locked up in a underwater tank. Behind James were more tanks with captured sirens. With a communicating device on the tank, a man in the incarcerating vessel above them speaks, “I am Admiral Montgomery (Monty). You will be taking orders from me now...if you cooperate willingly, then rewards will be due...should you act the belligerent brute as you are now, punishments will be inflicted upon you.” Apparently, while James and the other sirens slept, scuba divers attached an electric shocking device to their necks. Monty shocked James with his remote to prove his point. What does the Monty want from his imprisoned sirens?

It soon becomes obvious...Monty wanted the captured sirens to fetch for him underwater treasures, “Dear sirens, you have been chosen for your unique skill sets and knowledge of the deep. You will swim to the submerged grounds of the Donington estate and salvage the physical monies stored below. It is my estimation that there is a vault of gold and silver bullion.” Monty had no thoughts of releasing the men after they secured the treasure...there are more valuables to be recovered from inundated cities. James takes up with three other sirens who were also caged and reluctantly diving to retrieve treasure for Monty: Jacob, William and Pierce, who along with James, belonged to the Siren Guard. This goes on for months on end. James is riddled with guilt, “What happened to Maggie and Imogen? What had I, James Henihan, done to lose my family? I’d failed to protect them. To see to it they were safe. I had failed. What good was I.”

During their many dives for treasure they will come up against banshees (“they float in wispy robes and scream until one goes deaf”), an extinct underwater dinosaur, giant whales and squids, et cetera. On page thirty three, James swims into a underwater cave and sees signs of an epic Viking battle. He finds a Viking boat. “The contents of the boat were evermore impressive. In the center of the boat was a throne. A throne with two spires and a raised headrest that shined in the beam of my torch. I carefully swam closer to the Viking throne to examine the shiny object. It was a green stone inlaid into the throne itself. The color was vibrant in the light, and the inside of the stone seemed to swirl as if the stone contained magical properties.” Okay, you had a thirty three page taste of JB's novel, now go out and buy your own copy.

The writings of JB Michaels (see my review of 12/09/2017 for his novel The Elixir) reminds me of another excellent YA author, Rick Riordan (see my review of 2/10/2013 for his novel The Lightning Thief). They both have a young protagonist in a series of novels. JB has Bud Hutchins and Rick has Percy Jackson. Now, would I like to see more of JB doing adult novels? Yes, the problems that I found in The Viking Throne are very fixable. They might not even be a problem for another reviewer. But I sensed the YA genre trying its best to squeeze into JB’s Viking novel. I highly recommend this rousing first novel of a new series.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Are there authors who have written in more than one genre? Yes indeed! Quite a few actually:

J.K. Rowling, the children’s and Harry Potter legend also released her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy in 2012 to mixed reviews.

Stephen King writes in many genres, for example: horror novels (It and Carrie), mysteries, (The Colorado Kid) and gothic fantasies (The Green Mile).
 
Neil Gaiman writes in many genres including poetry. Examples of his novels are children's (Chu’s Day), poetry (Blueberry Girl), and adult (The Ocean at the End of the Lane). And I almost forgot sci/fi (InterWorld).

The list also includes noted writers; such as, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, and Anne Rice.