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The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell's epic novel opens in A.D. 866. Uhtred, a boy of ten and the son of a nobleman, is captured in the same battle that leaves his father dead. His captor is the Earl Ragnar, a Danish chieftain, who raises the boy as his own, teaching him the Viking ways of war. As a young man expected to take part in raids and bloody massacres against the English, he grapples with divided loyalties -- between Ragnar, the warrior he loves like a father, and Alfred, whose piety and introspection leave him cold. It takes a terrible slaughter and the unexpected joys of marriage for Uhtred to discover his true allegiance -- and to rise to his greatest challenge.
In Uhtred, Cornwell has created perhaps his richest and most complex protagonist, and through him, he has magnificently evoked an era steeped in dramatic pageantry and historical significance. For if King Alfred fails to defend his last kingdom, England will be overrun, and the entire course of history will change.
Review
Once again Cornwell delivers, this look at Saxon and Viking england is a brilliant peice of writing, if you like the Warlord series then this is for you, To me this is like a continuation of that series, with just a jump in time.
This time the saxons are the put upon local and farmers etc.. the barbarians are Viking raiders, who.. seem fed up with raiding and now want to settle, the saxons have grown complacent and fat..ripe for a strong race to take over.
A brilliant look at the only king to be called Great ..Alfred the great, the man with the vision to united England into one country.
Pale Horseman
Wessex, in the late 9th Century, was the last English kingdom. All the rest had fallen to the Danish Vikings. Now the Vikings want to finish England, and they assemble the Great Army which has only one ambition -- to conquer Wessex. Uhtred lives in Wessex, though he has small love for it and none for King Alfred. Yet fate, as Uhtred learns, has its own imperatives, and when the Vikings attack, Uhtred finds himself on Alfred's side.
The Pale Horseman, rooted in the real history of Anglo-Saxon England, tells the astonishing and true story of how Alfred fights back against his overwhelming enemies. Alfred and Uhtred make unlikely allies, yet the two forge an uneasy alliance that will lead them to where the last remaining Saxon army will fight for the very existence of England.
The Pale Horseman is enthralling as both a historical and a personal story, a novel of divided loyalties and desperate heroism. The Washington Post calls Bernard Cornwell "perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today", and The Pale Horseman is yet another masterpiece of historical and battle fiction that gives life to one of the most important and exciting epochs in the history of the English people and culture.
THE LORDS OF THE NORTH by Bernard Cornwell
Format: Hardback
Pub date: 22.05.06
Imprint: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0-00-721968-7
Buy them direct from the Harper Collins site
Synopsis
The year is 878 and Wessex is free from the Vikings.Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, helped Alfred win that victory, but now he is disgusted by Alfred's lack of generosity and repelled by the king's insistent piety. He flees Wessex, going back north to seek revenge for the killing of his foster father and to rescue his stepsister, captured in the same raid. He needs to find his old enemy, Kjartan, a renegade Danish lord who lurks in the formidable stronghold of Dunholm.
Uhtred arrives in the north to discover rebellion, chaos and fear. His only ally is Hild, a West Saxon nun fleeing her calling, and his best hope is his sword, with which he has made a formidable reputation as a warrior. He will need the assistance of other warriors if he is to attack Dunholm and he finds Guthred, a slave who believes he is a king. He takes him across the Pennines to where a desperate alliance of fanatical Christians and beleaguered Danes form a new army to confront the terrible Viking lords who rule Northumbria.
‘The Lords of the North’ is a powerful story of betrayal, romance and struggle, set in an England of turmoil, upheaval and glory. Uhtred, a Northumbrian raised as a Viking, a man without lands, a warrior without a country, has become a splendid heroic figure.
Review
What can I say about this book that has not already been said? Its fantastic, great, marvellous...all been said already!
This book is up there as one of my personal fav's for 2006 so far. The series as a whole reminds me of his Warlord series, in fact I see this almost as an extension of that series, In the warlord Series we followed the Britons fighting the Saxon invaders, the brits having settled down to a semi farming society, the Saxons hungry for decent farming land them selves to settle on ad grow fat.
The fact was they did, they won in the end and settled down to an idyllic (for them) lifestyle, but in this new series they are the ones under attack as a new breed The Vikings, come armed for war and looking for a land where they can settle down and grow fat! (what goes around comes around)
Bernard Cornwell portrays all of this in his own amazingly well written style, his characters are fantastic, you have a real affinity with them and find that you have reached the end of the book in no time what so ever, and are searching for the release date of the next book...(details of that to follow as soon as I get them)
so to sum this up...BUY THE BOOK NOW!! and if you have not read the WARLORD series then BUY THAT TOO!! (use the link at the top of the Lords of the north details and Harper Collins and their fantastic staff will sort you out with the books!!.
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