posted on 29 Aug 2023

Leif, The Unlucky Viking: The saga of the shooting star by Gary Northfield

Leif is a young wolf who has the most terrible bad luck – everything he touches goes wrong. He’s big-hearted and well-meaning but shockingly clumsy. All this might not be too much of a problem were it not for the fact that Leif is a Viking! And not just any Viking but the first-born son of the Viking leader, Erik the Red. But, as his older sister, Freydis, tells him bluntly:

“You may only be ten years old, but as the eldest male, you are heir to this settlement. Even the gods must know that letting a clot like you one day rule Greenland would be our people’s GREATEST mistake.”

But even though his older sister is determined to show him up, Leif is full of self-belief even as he is causing chaos around him wherever he goes. He will, he knows, get a chance to show that he is as good a Viking as any and better than most.

And he soon gets an unexpected chance to show he can cut it: when Thorbjorg the wizard turns up to tell of a mission that needs to be undertaken, it’s Leif she picks out to be the hero. Thorbjorg tells of a terrible fight that has taken place between the gods, Thor and Loki which has resulted in a splinter of the metal from Thor’s hammer flying to Earth as a shooting star. The shard of metal is so powerful it must be returned to Thor before it falls into more evil hands or the very existence of the Earth will be threatened. It will be Leif’s task to find that shard and return it to the wizard and to Thor.

Leif is joined in his quest by Olaf the duck who becomes his closest companion and later in the great quest he’s also joined by a very very smelly musk ox called Flora and a puffin called Toki. The three are an unlikely and very funny trio of would-be heroes and blunder their way to the place where the shooting star fell. Against all the odds, the chance of actually recovering the fallen shard of metal is in their grasp – that is until the fearsome polar bears turn up. And there’s one especially fearsome bear who just happens to be someone Leif knows well but is in disguise. Who could it be? I’m not telling – obviously: you’ll need to read it for yourself.

This is a helter-skelter, madcap adventure that is peppered throughout with wonderful drawings by the author that add a comic-book touch to the whole package and which add hugely to the fun.

Available from Walker Books, the book is out now and can be obtained from your local independent bookshop – who will be glad to order it for you if they don’t have copies on the shelf.

 

Terry Potter

August 2023