Day Of The Vikings

"Uh-oh, he's starting with a 'but...'". Sadly, yes. I thoroughly enjoyed this novella, as I have all the others in Penn's ARKANE series, as rollicking good fun, fast-paced entertainment. In a topic area I like, the intersection of spirituality, history, psychology. Well-researched, readable. With a kick-butt hero (female heroes are called hero, just like female actors are rightly called actor) in Dr. Morgan Sierra, a character I want to learn so much more about.

But...

There's something missing in this book, and I don't just mean the page count nor the inevitable structural differences between a novella (this) and a full-length novel (the original trilogy of novels and arguably also "One Day in Budapest"). It's taken me about a day to put some solid thoughts and now words to it. What's missing is the whole set of support that Morgan supposedly has, the ARKANE-verse, so to speak.

For 2 and a half books now, her partner Jake is either in hospital, or out of it finally, but we don't even get a phone call or text message between them, even when she's in range. Trafalgar Square is a pretty quick walk to the British Library, but we don't get even an abbreviated-for-novella scene at ARKANE kicking off this expected-pure-academic mission. A moment of tension about "weapon or no weapon" in a "show-don't-tell", perhaps Maretti warning her to stop by the armory but still-wounded, both physically and mentally, Morgan, wants no part of violence today, she just wants to be the academic for the first time in what seems forever. This could have been half a page. Instead, it's just Morgan's excessive inner dialog, which is almost always to herself rather than a reply/analyze/agonize over an interaction in a flashback.

In "Pentecost", Penn set up our new hero Morgan with a rich supporting cast and backup. In "Prophecy" they were mostly still around, and their being whittled down or out of touch served the story. But by "Exodus" we keep hearing about them but not much seeing them, even in flashback. I'm tired of hearing about the risk to Jemma and to Jemma's mom, Morgan's identical twin sister. I want to see some jeopardy again, or see the family dysfunction caused by Morgan taking her secret career as a superspy for the religious analogue of U.N.I.T. or S.H.I.E.L.D. (Pick your universe, though since aliens are handled by "an entirely different unit" I think Joanna already gave us a clue.)

Plus, Jake. First book all this sexual tension. It seems as if Penn doesn't know how to resolve that or if she wants to, so we keep finding ways to keep them apart. Meanwhile Morgan is starting to collect her series of gender-swapped Bond Girl characters.

I'd love to get back to the characters, settings, organizations, which Penn did such a great job of making us care about in the first book, rather than all the "guest stars". This isn't like "licensed property franchise" novels where nothing substantial can happen to Kirk, Spock, the Doctor, or Captain America in the books, because it might impact what happens in the "real series". This is the real series, this is where the stakes and the prime crew are supposed to be. I think Penn maybe even knows this, because near the end Morgan's inner dialog touches on how she needs to get back to her real partner. If even the author's lead character is voicing this frustration, it's well past time for it!

One other thing struck me as unusual for this series, not where I expected it to go. Now that Penn has gone there, I hope she embraces it rather than backpedals. Which is, and this next bit is spoilery so be forewarned

Spoiler
Space
Is
The
Lord's
Work
According
To
ARKANE

This time, the power of religious artifact / ritual is unquestionably genuine. Even with the Pentecost stones of fire, the "demon" transformation in Sedlec, and some of the oddities around the events in the search for the Ark, Penn, and her lead, Sierra, always had an alternate explanation, something that may have been science, even if not quite as we know it. Maybe it was the Lord's work (or the Devil's) but maybe something explicable, someday. At least that was how I read it.

This time it's real. Unquestionable. Too many things that are explainable only by the supernatural. In front of multiple witnesses. And oddly, the first time Penn writes as if the supernatural or divine is unquestionably real, it is the first time she uses a non-Abrahamic, non-monotheistic religion, instead using the pantheon of the Norse Gods.

As a loyal reader, that took me by surprise. What also took me by surprise is that Morgan Sierra, brought up in Israel by a Jewish father, an academic in an Anglican Christian and secondarily Roman Catholic surrounding (Oxford), in a Judeo-Christian-Islamic greater milieu, does not seem surprised by it. Instead it's just more of the supernatural and divine that she has started to accept happens. I get it that Morgan is on a journey that will force her to accept that the stories of God may be real. But I think that she still was expecting HER God, not All-Father Odin, to be the one with the power.

Please don't take this as a pan of this book nor of the series. I totally enjoyed the read. But I do think there could be so much more, and I want Penn to fulfill the promise of the intriguing characters, settings, premises, and themes she has built.