From pagan prince to Christian saint. From fratricide to forgiveness. From darkness to light.
In the year 969, as Princess Olga lies dying in Kyiv, a child is born in the deep forests among witches and volkhvs—Vladimir, son of Svyatoslav and the slave-girl Malusha. Cursed at birth with a golden serpent amulet by the sorceress Veda, he is destined to become the Prince of Rus'. But the path to the throne is paved with brother's blood.
Set against the sweeping panorama of 10th-century Eastern Europe—from the misty fjords of Scandinavia to the golden domes of Tsargrad—this epic historical novel tells the true story of Vladimir the Great: the warrior, the lover, the killer, and finally, the baptizer of Rus'.
Driven from Novgorod by his brother Yaropolk, Vladimir raises a Varangian army and reclaims his birthright. He takes Polotsk by force, claims Rogneda as his wife, and watches as his brothers fall one by one. Haunted by the serpent that burns his neck and the faces of the dead, he plunges into a life of excess—hundreds of concubines, constant warfare, and the blood sacrifice of pagan gods.
But when envoys come from Bolgars, Germans, Khazars, and Greeks, each praising their own faith, Vladimir faces the greatest trial of his life. A Byzantine philosopher speaks of a God who forgives even thieves on crosses. A grandmother's dying candle still flickers in memory. And a thousand years of history hang in the balance.
From the sack of Korsun to his own baptism in its waters, from the shattering of Perun's idol in Novgorod to the mass baptism in the Dnipro, Vladimir the Red Sun traces the epic journey of the man who transformed a pagan nation into Christian Rus'. It is a story of violence and tenderness, betrayal and redemption, darkness and the light that conquers it.
