On Shute's name [Vinland the Good] will secure attention. But in substance, in manner, it will prove again how impossible it is to pigeonhole that writer. For the first time he has turned the clock back—but used an effectively modern medium for telling an ancient story. Here is the opening chapter of the drama of America's story—the story of Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky—real discoverers of America, but to most school children little known figures…. Shute has chosen a screen continuity technique—with dialogue and vignetted backgrounds as his medium, and done it effectively…. The story itself is a good one—as Eric gets in hot water first in Norway, then in Iceland, and finally goes to Greenland to start a new world. And then his son retraces his steps—and expands beyond his father's horizon to yet more new worlds. An interesting...