HarperCollins, 2009
In 1898 a Minnesota farmer of Norwegian descent found a stone covered in runes while clearing land. The translation indicated that eight Gotlanders and twenty-two Norwegians had traveled from Vinland on a voyage of acquisition. Ten of these men were killed, ""red with blood and death." The year was 1362, long before Columbus never reached America. The authenticity of the stone has come under much controversy, some believing it to be real; others believing that Olaf Ohman, the farmer who discovered it, carved the runes himself.
With this slice of history as his springboard, William Dietrich has woven a spell-binding story of sex, intrigue, and exploration in The Dakota Cipher, the continuing adventures of Ethan Gage. While this is not strictly an historical novel – it is too fantastical – there are a number of actual events that add a layer of verisimilitude to the tale. Napoleon's defeat of the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800) consolidated his power and provided an opportunity for Ethan to save the day. The Convention of Mortefontaine (September 30, 1800) ended the undeclared war between France and the United States. Spain ceded the Louisiana Territory to France the next day. Thomas Jefferson's inauguration on March 4, 1801 was the culmination of a particularly nasty election process. His natural curiosity about the West led to the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In 1898 a Minnesota farmer of Norwegian descent found a stone covered in runes while clearing land. The translation indicated that eight Gotlanders and twenty-two Norwegians had traveled from Vinland on a voyage of acquisition. Ten of these men were killed, ""red with blood and death." The year was 1362, long before Columbus never reached America. The authenticity of the stone has come under much controversy, some believing it to be real; others believing that Olaf Ohman, the farmer who discovered it, carved the runes himself.
With this slice of history as his springboard, William Dietrich has woven a spell-binding story of sex, intrigue, and exploration in The Dakota Cipher, the continuing adventures of Ethan Gage. While this is not strictly an historical novel – it is too fantastical – there are a number of actual events that add a layer of verisimilitude to the tale. Napoleon's defeat of the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800) consolidated his power and provided an opportunity for Ethan to save the day. The Convention of Mortefontaine (September 30, 1800) ended the undeclared war between France and the United States. Spain ceded the Louisiana Territory to France the next day. Thomas Jefferson's inauguration on March 4, 1801 was the culmination of a particularly nasty election process. His natural curiosity about the West led to the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The third installment of the adventures of Ethan Gage is just as engaging and funny as the first two. Napolean's Pyramids and The Rosetta Key, set in Europe and the Middle East, were best sellers translated into 28 languages. Dietrich now turns his attention to France and the new United States with an underpinning of Norse mythology and historical reference. Ethan continues the same derring do we have come to expect. He saves Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo. Back in France, he swives Napoleon's randy sister and is nearly killed in a pyrotechnic conflagration. A creative use of the new food, solid chocolate, enables him to escape the ropes which bound him. Later, in the wilds of the mid-west, has a go – or more – with Lady Aurora Somerset, sister of Lord Cecil.
Ethan meets Magnus Bloodhammer in France. He tells Ethan that Norsemen discovered America and left behind an artifact so powerful that whoever finds it could control the future. Magnus enlists Ethan in his quest for this Northern Grail. In this case, the Grail is to be found at Yggdrasil, a giant ash tree that shelters the world. On the last day of Ragnarok (the last battle of gods and men, the end of the world) fires will destroy major characters and the world will be reborn anew. Dietrich has skillfully blended Norse mythology with historical events and people to create a rollicking adventure. Combine that quest with letters from Napoleon to President Jefferson and they are off to America where they meet a number of historical characters, including Johann Jakob Astor, Jefferson, and Meriwether Lewis before his famous journey.
Jefferson asks Ethan to check out the country as he travels west with Magnus and the quest is fully underway through Pittsburg, Detroit, the Great Lakes, the Sheyenne River and down the Mississippi to St. Louis. Dietrich has captured the ethos of the frontier in its mores and language, its flora and fauna. One Pierre Radisson, for example, provides a boast worthy of Davy Crockett and Mike Fink. Many passages help one understand just how difficult frontier life was in 1801.
No one will accuse this novel of exemplifying the great themes of literature, but it does epitomize the best in a fun read that pulls the reader along to the next path among the trees, the next opportunity for Ethan to devise yet another miraculous escape. This is high adventure of the best kind, the kind that makes us sorry to see it end, but hope for another adventure.
This is Dietrich's eighth novel, along with 3 non-fiction works. One of the latter, Northwest Passage, featured the trek of Lewis and Clark. These non-fiction books have clearly provided a wealth of information that informs this latest, but not final, Ethan Gage adventure.
No one will accuse this novel of exemplifying the great themes of literature, but it does epitomize the best in a fun read that pulls the reader along to the next path among the trees, the next opportunity for Ethan to devise yet another miraculous escape. This is high adventure of the best kind, the kind that makes us sorry to see it end, but hope for another adventure.
This is Dietrich's eighth novel, along with 3 non-fiction works. One of the latter, Northwest Passage, featured the trek of Lewis and Clark. These non-fiction books have clearly provided a wealth of information that informs this latest, but not final, Ethan Gage adventure.
