I remember when I first learned that Jim Nelson was writing a new series of books about Vikings in Ireland. And, although I like Vikings and Ireland, I also remember wishing he'd stop.

Truly, I just wanted Nelson to keep writing more books in his various ongoing series, such as Brethren of the Coast, The Confederate Navy and Revolution at Sea. These books were great, and I badly wanted more of them. Why, I remember thinking, is he gallivanting off into uncharted waters to write about vikings?

Well, it's been a few years since then, and Nelson is still writing them. And ... I don't want him to stop.

Sure, it took me a little while to get around to the adventures of Thorgrim Ulfsson, aka Night Wolf, along with his son Harald, his pet berserker Starri Deathless, and other Norse warriors whose viking raid on the Irish coast has led to a seemingly unending series of travails on the Emerald Isle. But once I started, I couldn't stop. This novel, A Vengeful Wind, is the eighth book in the series.

Following hard on the heels of Loch Garman, A Vengeful Wind finds Thorgrim and his men still landbound at his temporary longphort, working to repair his small fleet of longships enough to get them back to Vik-Lo, where he intends to reclaim his position as jarl and accept his god-imposed exile in Ireland. But then an opposing force of Norsemen land across the bay at Loch Garman, and the two groups go about their business and ignore each other ... until Brother Becc, the warrior turned monk who nurtures a deep hatred for heathens -- Thorgrim in particular -- leads an army of Irishmen to wipe out these new interlopers. Thorgrim takes his men to their rescue and, soon, the two reduced bands of Norsemen are united and preparing to leave the region for good. But then Becc leads an even larger army against them, and things quickly go badly for the viking band.

This episode in particular reminds us that Thorgrim is a very fallible protagonist. The losses he suffers at Becc's hands are a direct result of Thorgrim's stubborn refusal to take advantage of an easier, cleverer but, in his mind, more humiliating course of action.

Meanwhile, there's a whole other story of intrigue, murder and political maneuvering going on across the water in Dorsetshire, in southwestern England. This subplot takes up a great deal of the book, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what the connection between the two stories was until the plots suddenly began to merge at page 240. Suddenly, it all made sense!

There are, now, a whole new group of characters and power struggles to come to know. Ironically, just when Thorgrim came to terms with remaining in Ireland, his fate, the whim of the gods or, more probably, the vagaries of the weather forced him across the sea to England. Whether or not he remains there for long -- or if he returns to Ireland or Norway, or finds some new destination -- remains to be seen, but the conclusion of A Vengeful Wind indicate he still has more to do among the Saxons.

Either way, I'll be reading.

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