Scott Hackney

Scott Hackney

Icefall

Matthew J. Kirby

Historical Fiction 

Holiday

234

1. I am reading Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby right now. I'm currently at the part where Solveig, Harald (her brother), Asa (her sister), Alric (the story teller) are captured by Gunnlaug her father's enemy. Solveig was sent with her brother and sister to a hidden place in the mountains to be hidden while her father fights a war with Gunnlaug. Soveig's father sent her, her brother, her sister, Ole (a fisherman that was captured in a war and has served her family for years), Per (a warrior who has served her father's military for years), Alric, Bera (a cook who has served as Solveig's mother once she died) and Raudi (the son of Bera and his brother died in battle, he has also know Solveig since she was a baby). Since they had little time to prepare they might not have packed enough previsions to last the winter. They are low on food until Solveig's father sends beserkers who bring more food and troops to guard Solveig and her siblings. Berserkers are her father's personal guard and are great warriors. One day while Solveig is walking in the woods and she thinks she sees a person following her in the woods. Later in the book she has a dream that all her guards die and enemies come and attack the village. As the story progresses someone poisons goat meat that used to be Solveig's goat. The only people that ate the goat were the beserkers. Everyone who isn't poisoned starts accusing each other and gets into a big fight. Eventually all but three of the warriors that got poisoned died. The ones that didn't are very weak, eventually what Solveig's dreams comes true and that is the part I am at.

2. I think that this book could have used better word choice and explained more. I still think it is a great book but it doesn't explain in detail so it is very plain. If it went into more detail I think the book would be less of a holiday book and be much longer. The book has a good amount of suspense and I am finding myself thinking what is going to happen next. It is also very cool how after each chapter there is a little bit of Solveig's childhood. This helps me understand the characters better and know why they act this way or question why they act a certain way. I have never seen this in a book before so it is new to me.

3. I think the theme of this book would be perseverance. Solveig perseveres when her goat is killed, she does this by not making the whole village not eat the goat. She perseveres and doesn't give up hope when the goat was one of her best friends. Another time when she perseveres is when many of the soldiers are dining, she tells them stories and perseveres by overcoming her shyness to tell the soldiers a story. Many other people in the story persevere as well for example when the village was low on food many people ate very little food and still survived. Through out the book many people persevered to stay alive and live another day.  

4. My favorite character is probably Solveig. She is very nice to everybody and she makes everyone feel better. She does this by telling stories to everybody and when she doesn't tell stories she is always trying to comfort people. Her stories lift the mood in the village and make everyone feel less confined and more relaxed. Also she is a very hard working so she is always trying to help in anyway possible. 

An example of this would be when her brother isn't helping but Solveig is helping Raudi pull up carrots from the frozen ground. Lastly she is always comforting her brother Harold and making him feel less scared.

5. I think my least favorite character is Harold. He is always taking things for granted and wont help the people of the village. I think he is just wasted space and eats food that other people could. He is the son of Solveig's father so he is of great importance and is the main person that the soldiers have to look after. Harald is also very cocky, he tries to act very brave when he needs Solveig most of the time. Many times he just goes running to Solveig for her to comfort him and make him feel better. He tries to train to become a soldier but he isn't that strong. He also thinks he will be a great soldier even though he hasn't had any real training yet.

6. I predict that Solveig's father will find out that his children are still at the village when they should be home. I think he will send ships to find them and the two empires will have a battle at the village. I think the winner will be Solveig's father. Then the family will return home to live together and Solveig's father will never leave them out of site.