Legend of the Last Vikings - Taklamakan Hardcover - 2006

From the publisher

A Viking Saga. Action and adventure at the end of the Viking age from Norway across the European Steppe, along the Silk Route into China's notorious Taklamakan desert. The desert so called by locals because those who venture in seldom venture out. Experience ancient peoples, cultures, lost tribes and hidden kingdoms. As well as mystery, action, adventure, love, lust, greed, comradeship and betrayal. Just what one would expect in a Viking Saga. As the Viking age is brought to an end in 1066 with ignominious defeat at the battle of Stamford Bridge, a rag-tag group of Vikings conclude the quiet life is not for them and they decide to go-a-Viking one last time. Retracing a journey of their youth across the European Steppe and down the mighty Dniepr river heading for Byzantium. Enroute a chance discovery in a Kiev library leads them to venture even further afield - to Astrakhan, across the Caspian sea, up the mighty Oxus river, through Parthia and Bactria and along the ancient Silk Route into Asia and Tian Xia (China). Engaged in a battle not of their choosing, they inflict fatalities on the sinister and evil Black Scorpions who want to exact their revenge. Escaping entrapment in a cave, pursued, they flee by night across the Roof of the World and meet the remnants of the "lost" European tribe of Asia, the Hepthalites, who offer them protection in their city, hidden in the Tien Shan - the Celestial Mountains. A place where romance is kindled and love unexpectedly blossoms. During their winter sojourn in the Hidden City they gather more clues, and in the spring continue with their quest, on into the Taklamakan desert. The desert so called by locals because those who venture in seldom venture out. More danger and peril lies in wait for this rag-tag Viking crew as they travel along the Silk Route, the world's first super-highway. At the eastern end of their journey they meet the Lang Ren, the Wolf people of Lou Lan, outcasts thieves and criminals living in an abandoned city in the desert. A city without water. A city about to die. A city in which the final clue to their quest is uncovered. What fate awaits this motly crew and what fate awaits the Lang Ren, a rejected element of Asian society?