Faith Of Their Fathers : A Saga of Iceland | By Samuel M Sargeant

As someone who is unfamiliar with the history of Iceland or the Scandinavian nations in general, I am keeping my review away from the historical accuracy perspective and present my views based on the fictional version I read.

Faith of their Fathers is told from multiple points of views. It took me a few chapters to figure out who my protagonist is and what is it that I am supposed to root for.

The religious agendas and the politics were of least interest to me. Despite that, the story held my attention and kept going.

The pacing meandered as it delved into each character and their inner musings. Sometimes it was relevant to the story, but it felt like a lot of that could have cut down. The book did feel long and elaborate. However, it picked up pace once we entered part 2. The characters, plotlines and their motivations became more clear in the end.

Arinjbjorn and Freya are two of the central characters in the story. The story did make me care for their fate. However, halfway through the book, these characters seemed to take a sideline and become passive players as the politics took the center stage.

Not that it wasn’t interesting, but it just left wanting more of a character arc for them.
The themes and the setting were immersive. You could feel the harsh weather and the struggles that the common people went through at the time in order to simply survive.

As someone who comes from a completely different school of thought, where different religions and customs have found a way to unite and live within the same law, I felt a disconnect from the idea that in order to achieve peace , all people should be united under a single religion. That is probably a “me” thing. This made the central conflict and the eventual outcome unrelatable to me.

I’ve always loved to discover a new way of life and culture through books. Of course, fictional stories take some artistic liberties, but it opens a window to a world that you’re unfamiliar with. In that regard, I would recommend this book to someone who is oblivious to the history of Iceland. For me, however, the strong set up didn’t pay off as much in the end and it was a long read to get there. Which is why this was a onetime read for me.