I found this hardcover on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro post office lobby, while dropping off some books of my own. I'd read this years ago, and was glad of another release copy.

It's not quite up to Terry Pratchett's work in the fantasy/parody category, but I found the book very entertaining in its own right. Holt has taken the world-as-it-is and dropped some blithely unselfconscious Viking heroes in the middle of it, and proceeded from there. It started a bit slowly, but by the time the characters had met each other and the plot was underway things began to zip along very satisfactorily.

Here are some random quotes, not necessarily in the order they appear in the book, just to provide some flavor:

"[The ship] was an indescribably beautiful thing, with the perfection of line and form that only something designed to be functional can have, lean and graceful and infinitely menacing, like a man-eating swan."

***

"When the wolf turned back into a middle-aged stark-naked businessman in mid-air, Arvarodd was surprised but pleased."

***

"Only a permanent adolescent would devote hours of his valuable time to laying a spell on a Morris Minor so as to enable it to burn off Porsches at traffic lights."

***

"When Danny had recovered from the shock of impact, he tried to open his door, but a man in a grey suit with a helmet covering his face opened it for him and showed him the blade of a large axe. If this was the Milk Marketing Board, they were probably exceeding their statutory authority."

There were quite a few laugh-out-loud bits in this one, and a number of slowly-dawning realizations as to what the characters were about to land in.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the book, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I plan to leave this book at Pemberton Park this afternoon; hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2017 Spooktacular October release challenge. ***