The first book in a brand new series, The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred.
Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.
The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.
The Last Kingdom, like most of Bernard Cornwell's books, is firmly based on true history. It is the first novel of a series that will tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced, Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties, reluctant love and desperate heroism. In Uhtred, he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.
...Continua medieval5c-16c, britain-england, fraudio, historical-fiction, published-2004
Read in October, 2009
** spoiler alert ** Home audio0 - G:\AUDIO BOOKS\back boiler\Cornwell, B\Cornwell, Bernard
Abridged and read by Jamie Glover. First of four in a series.
Click here for Viking Kittens
They are called Vikings when at war, and Danes when they trade.
Normally I am disappointed when an audio book comes abridged but just sometimes that designation is quite alright. I have enjoyed this story immensely just as it has unfolded - it's fast, violent and historically accurate.
Gratuitously violent? I hear you ask.
Let me just say that the Vikings were not renowned for their stamp-collecting skills.
I am hoping that the next three books in this series are also abridged and as much fun.
...Continua medieval5c-16c, britain-england, fraudio, historical-fiction, published-2004
Read in October, 2009
** spoiler alert ** Home audio0 - G:\AUDIO BOOKS\back boiler\Cornwell, B\Cornwell, Bernard
Abridged and read by Jamie Glover. First of four in a series.
Click here for Viking Kittens
They are called Vikings when at war, and Danes when they trade.
Normally I am disappointed when an audio book comes abridged but just sometimes that designation is quite alright. I have enjoyed this story immensely just as it has unfolded - it's fast, violent and historically accurate.
Gratuitously violent? I hear you ask.
Let me just say that the Vikings were not renowned for their stamp-collecting skills.
I am hoping that the next three books in this series are also abridged and as much fun.
...Continuacornwell sets the story in the IX century but repeats much of what he'd written in his Arthurian trilogy: shield walls, barbaric rites, bad catholicism and a heroic warring protagonist.</p><p>good, fast novel, not too original but never banal nor predictable.</p><p>honestly, i dont know if i'll go ahead with the next 2 volumes.
...ContinuaPleasant read set in the year 866 depicting the struggle between the English and the Danes, and the strife between Christianity and paganism. I particularly enjoyed the references to York (“Eoferwic”): “Eoferwic was, and still is, the chief city of northern England. It possesses a great abbey, an archbishop, a fortress, high walls, and a vast market. It stands beside the River Ouse, and boasts a bridge (…)” Well, not much has changed since then, has it?
...Continua
