The Jarl is a fantastic novel by Ivan Lagunin, the second book in the cycle “Orcs of Ancient Rus,” in the genre of battle fantasy and alternate history. And in general, gentlemen, paragraph. Big and thick. I was on a full Orc drakkar. Nearly three dozen tusked green-skinned fighters of varying degrees of stink made up the crew of Jarl Rurik. And guess where he was rushing faster than the wind over the cold waters of the Baltic? East—to the glorious city of Ladoga. Nonsense, you say? And you’ll, damn it, be right!