Timmy's Review of Seidman by James Erich

Get ready for an adventure you won’t forget. Seidman takes you around Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It’s feels very authentic, which helped me stay in the story. The author did a great job of explaining the scenery and how the homes and farms looked. Seidman was very believable and felt like it could have happened in real life. I’m sure this author spent many hours researching, and it shows in the quality of the story. I’d be curious to know how close Mr. Erich got to what the world and society back then was actually like. 

Seidman is one of a few young adult books I have read that had an interesting and intricate story plot that was not based on romance, but had a romance in the story. Because this historical was written so well, there were a few present day terms used that threw me out of the story a little. 

Kol was a gay Viking kid who starts out living at his father’s farm. He has some magical gifts that lead him to be an apprentice to Alfdis, a sorceress. This takes him away from his unforgiving father to a much nicer home, with a boy named Thorbrand. We watch as Kol and Thorbrand grow together and become lovers. Many things happen in this book—good, bad, and sad—and through it all we watch how Kol grows to become a great sorcerer and fights for what he believes in. While Kol is becoming a sorcerer, Thorbrand is also learning his place in life. He becomes a chieftain and a warrior. Throughout the book the story of Kol and Thorbrand’s relationship was very real. It fit the time period well and was not an easy relationship to have then. Very realistic and in keeping with the story. 

The author did a great job on all the characters. Even though this book is told in Kol’s point of view, you will quickly be pulled into all the characters’ lives. Every character is well rounded and explained so well that I had no trouble envisioning and connecting with them. 

There is SO much more going on in this book (above and beyond the romance), but you will need to read it to find out more on that because I’m a not a spoilers kinda guy. :) I give this book 4 marbles.~Timmy

Seidman is available at

Dreamspinner Press/Harmony Ink Press, Amazon,

Barnes & Noble, and ARe/Omni Lit

About Seidman

In Viking Age Iceland, where boys are expected to grow into strong farmers and skilled warriors, there is little place for a sickly twelve-year-old boy like Kol until he catches the eye of a seið-woman—a sorceress—and becomes her apprentice. Kol travels to the sorceress’s home, where her grandson, Thorbrand, takes Kol under his wing. Before long Kol discovers something else about himself that is different—something else that sets him apart as unmanly: Kol has fallen in love with another boy. 

But the world is changing in ways that threaten those who practice the ancient arts. As Kol’s new life takes him across the Norse lands, he finds that a new religion is sweeping through them, and King Olaf Tryggvason is hunting down and executing sorcerers. When a decades-old feud forces Thorbrand to choose between Kol and his duty to his kinsman, Kol finds himself cast adrift with only the cryptic messages of an ancient goddess to guide him to his destiny—and possibly to his death.

Find James Erich on his blog, on Goodreads, and on Facebook