This story is structured like a documentary. It reads more like a script than a story, and I had a hard time getting used to it. The frequent changes from narrator to interviewer to inserting off screen comments was hard to follow. I eventually got more used to it, but once I hit 22% I DNF'd it. This story, although unique, is not fantasy. It is alternate history, and I tried to give it enough time (1/5th of the book) to reveal it's fantasy elements, but there were none. I know that fantasy is subjective in a lot of ways. One person would call it fantasy, another this, another that. This story had no magic, no plotline, and was basically a rehashing of history that never happened.
Now, that's not to say the idea isn't intriguing. I just really wish the author had written it as a fantasy book. I mean, c'mon! Icelandic tribe with a heavy influence of magic bears? Sign me up. Total bad-ass idea.