On an alternate Earth-like world where magic works and vampires vey for dominant power over man, Leif Anderson and his sister Kira are Sami pre-teens of the Snow Falcon tribe in the northern wilds of Lapland.. Their father is determined to stick to the old traditions of living off the land and herding reindeer. They are taught to resist the warnings of Christian missionaries who insist that Christ is the only way the eternal wrath of their Triune God. Leif most of all is fiercely determine to hold on to his identity as a Sami; he dreams of becoming an adult warrior battling fierce snow-dragons and vampire tribes that threaten his people. He knows what those claiming to follow Christ often did to his people and their ways in the past. But now the Dragthnordr, the northern vampire tribes, have banded together under the leadership of Lord Varth, an educated eastern Vamp Lord, and threaten all the human lands of Skandanavia. Not even the most valiant warriors of Sami legend, it seems would have a chance. Leif and Kira know that only the Christian cross seems to repel the Vampire, and an alliance between Christian and conservative Sami seems inevitable. When a Dragthnordr raiding party decimates their tribe, Kira and Leif are forced to flee. They meet new allies against the undead scourge, and begin a quest for a legendary wizard who dwells in the far north. And a legend that speaks of a magic blade that might actually prove fatal to the God Leif so despises, the One said to show mercy to none save His followers.
Leif the Godslayer is a fantasy, in which I am trying to explore some of my own feelings in regard to religion, specifically the Christian faith. I concieved it originally as a Christian fantasy. It still qualifies. In fact, I'd love it if it went down in literary history as a "Christian classic". But it's not so much to teach people about the faith. Neither is it a strict apologetic work. The hero, Leif Anderson, hates the Christian God for what he feels that god and his followers have treated his indiginous Sami people in northern Sveden. He also dreams of being a hero, such as in the elgends of his people, some of whom were lefendary vampire-slayers. A wizard gives him a vampire -slayer blade that has been rumored to be also capable of slaying Yahweh, the Christian God.
If this sounds just a bit like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, in which the author, an avowed atheist, deliberately sets out to attack the Christian God, and turn away young readers from the Faith, it's no coincidence.
That I am setting out to counter PULLMAN should be no secret. There have been a few others who have attempted to do so, J. P. Taylor among them. My writing is more like Lin Carter than C. S. Lewis (whom Pullman has made no secret of despising), and he (Carter) is often not held in that high regard, derided as an S&S hack. Leif certainly has a sword-and -sorcery sort of vibe to it. Hey, I grew up reading that stuff, mostly in the comics.
The world of Leif Anderson and his sister Kira is most similar to the world of Arak, son of Thunder, a sword and sorcery icon of DC comics, invented by Roy Thomas, the same gent who penned many of Marvel's Conan stories. Arak was a Native American warrior rescued by a wayard viking ship, and raised as a Norseman (Arak being a North American version of Eric), who eventually travels across Europe, joins Charlamane's army, ventures into Asia, evenually returning to his own people. I could go on, but suffice to say Arak's world is essentially our own Dark Ages, only where magic actually works. Leif's world is much the same, only it's called Tharalon, and I've used that setting in at least one other story, about which at present I shall remain silent. One important difference, other than the wizards and dragons, etc., is that the one other quasi-human race that veys for power with humanity on Tharalon is the Vampire. Dwarves lso exist, but are nearly extinct, lvinf in a few mountains regions in the North, and there are no elves, save faerie-elves. A new educated class of Vampire has arisen in eastern Europe, and spread throughout the West, led by the intellectual Lord Varth, and his human and vamp followers. The Northern or Scandinavian Vampire, called the Dragthnordr, are still barbarian, even animalistic, but Lord Varth and his followers have organized them into a conquering army. As a result, the Christian world is panicking. Though the cross repells vampires, they fear the coming of a post-Christian Europe. Because the indiginous Sami or Laplanders have long history of conflict withn the Dragthnordr, who prey upon their reindeer herds, and occasionally the Sami themselves, the Sami on Leif's world are fierce warriors, and have their own heroes, sagas, etc., much like the neighboring Norsemen, some of then latter of whom have returned to their own ways (except for conquering and pillaging). Much of the mythic references in the story are from actual Norse or Sami mythology. As in our own world, the Sami have long suffered persecution by Christians, including one of the Anderson siblings' great uncles, who was burned at the stake for practicing alleged witchcraft. Similar incidents have taken place historically in our world.
Again, this is NOT a straight apologetics story. I do not consider myself a "liberal Christian," ; more of an unorthodox conservative, similar to what I and many consider Lewis to have been. While Lewis is in general praised by conservative Christians, he did hold some unorthodox views, such as Inclusionism, which places him at odds with some of the more orthodox fundementalists. This was brought out at the end of Lewis's The Last Battle, which is something Pullman blatantly ignores, focusing instead on the (false) implication that Susan, one of the main heroines of the Narnia books, went to hell (Lewis himself is recorded as stating otherwise). Yes, leaving one of the major players out at the end, and killing the other characters in order to get them to the the new Narnia, were bad literary moves on Lewis's part. Otherwise, I have no probelm with Narnia or Lewis in general.
A slight spoiler warning, but only slight: The main character's rage against Christianity is understandable, but unjustified. Yes, Leif has been, and is being, terribly decieved throughout most of the story. This is a two-volume series, and I am at work curently on the volume two. The book book leaves the Leif and Kira's situation unresolved. That resolution arrives in the second volume. But how and under what circumstances, I leave readers to discover. Like I said, this is not a straight apologetic work, so some may be surprised, possibly some may offended by what is eventually revealed. I won't say more, save that some of it has to do with what I beleive is my own understanding of God, based on my own spiritual communication with Him.
There are plenty of online sources for further info on the culture and history of the Sami people.
Oh, and a good film on specifically the (fairy recent) persecution of the Sami people in our own history is Sami Blood, reviewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3xkshhwLM