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From Publishers Weekly

In this promising first of a new saga, alternate-history maven Turtledove (Ruled Britannia) depicts a Bronze Age society in transition. A growing gap in the glacier that has formed the Raumsdalian Empire's northern border for millennia allows Count Hamnet Thyssen and Trasamund the jarl, of the nomadic Northern Bizogot, to become the empire's Lewis and Clark. They and their entourage, which inconveniently includes Hamnet's unfaithful ex-wife, Gudrid, depart the empire's capital city, Nidaris, to explore what lies beyond the glacier and search for the fabled Golden Shrine. On the way, a formidable and attractive (if unbathed) Bizogot shaman, Liv, joins the expedition—and Hamnet under the animal hides. If the Raumsdalians and Bizogots don't always get along, their culture clash is nothing compared to the threat they face on the other side of the glacier: the Rulers, a tribe of imperious, mammoth-riding warriors. A vivid setting and strong characterization bode well for future installments. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

The Raumsdalian imperial capital Nidaros was originally a mammoth-hunter's camp at the edge of a great glacier. The glacier retreated, and city, then empire, grew. The glacier remains, out of sight beyond the northern horizon but not, with the houses of Nidaros built to withstand frigid northern blasts, out of mind. A chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots brings to Nidaros word of a narrow gap that has opened in a supposedly endless wall of ice, revealing new lands and new beasts. Are there new people? The emperor sends Count Hamnet Thyssen, an old soldier recently, painfully divorced, to explore. Rather than the fabled Golden Shrine beyond the ice, he finds enough blood, toil, and ignorance (also a few sympathetic women) to convince him that empire and Bizogots need to develop new defenses fast. Neither welcomes his counsel, and he'll have his hands full in subsequent books. Readers familiar with late imperial Rome will recognize the period and peoples Turtledove adapts. Not top-drawer Turtledove, but a solid actioner with an ironically attractive protagonist. Frieda Murray
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