In the year AD. 922, a refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of
Bagdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors on their journey to the barbaric North. He is appalled by Viking customs—the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness, their cold-blooded human sacrifices. But only in the depths of the Northland does he learn the horrifying truth: He has been enlisted to combat a terror that comes under cover of night to slaughter the
Vikings and devour their flesh....

"Crichton's writing is cinematic, with powerful visual images and nonstop action." —Newsweek