Lament of the Blacksmith's Son

Grandsons of Vikings who founded Russia learn duty, bravery, betrayal and faith as they battle Turks who try to push them into the sea. Death makes an inexperienced giant with a legendary axe the Nordic leader, but his berserker mentality leads them to certain death. Swift horse archers battle stolid shield walls in Lament of the Blacksmith's Son, the powerful sequel to Ballad of the Blacksmith's Son.

Crossing the abandoned battlefields on a mysterious quest, a young Dane re-lives the war but finds only hints of the truth. What happened to the blacksmith's son? Following a trail of the dead across the Baltic, he finds only wrecked taverns and rogue longboats-until he meets two survivors who point the way.

After thirty years in the Army and the high school classroom author Rick Taylor drew on his experience to write YA historical fiction that entertains while teaching leadership, honor and self- determination. His Christian and Jewish characters ask hard real world questions in face of desperate times, but they don't always survive the answers. Love, God, and Evil battle in a war, a tragedy, and a mystery that doesn't end until the final page.

And readers are invited to help write stanzas of the ballad.