It is 922 A.D. The refined Arab courtier Ibn Fadlan is accompanying a party of Viking warriors back to the north. Fadlan belatedly discovers that his job is to combat the terrors in the night that come to slaughter the Vikings--but just how he will do it, Fadlan has no idea.

Exiled from his homeland of Norway as a boy, Erik Thorvaldsson wants nothing more than to honor his father's legacy and to figure out where he belongs in the world. Navigating natural disasters, violent clashes, and banishment, he seeks his fortunes in an Iceland on the brink of change. When a conflict over property erupts into violence, Erik is outlawed from the country for three years and sets off on his greatest challenge of all: sailing west into...