After like a foot and a half of books -- thousands of pages -- the journey to Vinland is finally imminent as Thorfinn and his crew return to Iceland. Sigurd's father, Halfdan the Chainer is the final obstacle between Thorfinn and his dream of founding a peaceful country on the western edge of the ocean, far from the wars of the Eurasian continent.

Domestic drama is the word of the day in this nearly action-free volume. Relationships are made and remade as the characters confront each other emotionally or philosophically.

A transgender character is introduced, seemingly just for shock value and comic relief at first, but she is quickly and warmly welcomed and accepted by the main characters. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the twelfth volume in the Vinland Omnibus series. I bought a copy of this book.

Thoughts: I continue to really enjoy this series. This series is less violent than previous volumes and the first part focuses more on Sigurd and Gudrid and how they resolve their issues. Then we move back to Thorfinn's hometown and watch Thorfinn work on finally (truly finally) starting his journey to start a new nation in Vinland.

This was one of the more upbeat Vinland Saga volumes and was also quite a bit shorter than previous volumes. We waited for this for two long years and, while I still really love where the story is going, I did expect a bit more progress. Hopefully we only have to wait a year between volumes for the next Omnibus.

I continue to love the detailed illustration and the history here. I also love the updates on Thorfinn's journey, which does a good job of recapping the rest of the series in a concise and easy to follow way.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really enjoyed being able to continue with this wonderful manga series and revisit this world. This is one of my all time favorite manga series. I would highly recommend this whole fantasy manga series if you are looking for an excellent historical fantasy series. The quality of this manga is amazing and Thorfinn's journey through life is highly entertaining and satisfying to read about. ( )