In AD796, sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates.
After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the jewels of the Emirate of Al-Andalus and the true destination of their voyage.
Hunlaf believes the Emir’s lands hold the key to his search, but there are dangerous games at play.
To achieve his goal, Hunlaf and his allies must walk a difficult path where friends and enemies alike are not always what they seem — and where a weapon deadlier than any yet seen could change the future of all the kingdoms in Europe.
A Day of Reckoning by Matthew Harffy is published on 28 September, 2023. It’s the third in his A Time for Swords series.
Find out about the historical background to Hunlaf’s adventures in Al-Andalus: Islamic Spain in the 8th century.
Matthew’s written several more features for Historia about the background to his Hunlaf and Beobrand series, including:
From slave to queen: an extraordinary medieval woman
Battling with history: how to write fight scenes and battles in historical fiction
The power of alliance in the Viking Age
Bebbanburg 2020: the lessons I learned from a seventh-century siege
Read our Q&A with Matthew Harffy
And you may enjoy these related features:
The ways of war at the time of King Alfred by Chris Bishop
Rival kings and the fall of Mercia and
Adding the ‘little’ bits to enrich a story of Saxon historical fiction by MJ Porter
Anglo-Saxon women with power and influence by Annie Whitehead
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War by Edoardo Albert
