EC2
09-12-2008, 06:16 PM
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell.
Uhtred begins his life as Osbert, second son of Eoldorman Uhtred of Bebbanburg, (Bamburgh in Northumbria) but when his older brother, Uhtred, is killed by the Danes, Osbert becomes the heir and takes on his brother's name. The Danes are threatening to overrun England and one by one the Saxon lords are being forced to submit to their rule. Uhtred himself is captured by the Danes and following the death of his father, is raised as a hostage and fosterling by Danish warlord Ragnar the Fearless who teaches him the warrior's art.
Due to shifting loyalties and plots on various behalfs, Uhtred later joins Alfred of Wessex, the last Saxon leader holding out against the Danes.
Alfred is a pious Christian and Uhtred, raised as a pagan is not particularly enamoured of him, but circumstances, the wiliness of others (including Alfred) , and Uhtred's own naievity keep him by Alfred's side. Uhtred also by now has a Saxon wife and son, and they too hold him to his loyalty.
The novel's climax sees Uhtred tested in a shield wall encounter with one of the greatest of the Viking lords, but this is only the beginning of Uhtred's story... (so readers of the review can suss that he survives the encounter, or there wouldn't be any more novels about him!)
I enjoyed this story. The pace is fast and strong and there are some beautiful moments of prose despite the page-turning swiftness. The politics are explained well and succinctly and never bog down the story. I was always entertained. I don't know a great deal about the period and I felt I was given a reasonable flavour of how it might have been to be a warrior in that time. The women are not fleshed out at all, but then this is not the novel's intent and not the audience at whom it is aimed. I don't feel that Cornwell has the character of Alfred right at all. Even if he is being seen from Uhtred's viewpoint, the comments are still off kilter and feel totally wrong from the little I know. There were times I didn't believe in Uhtred either. A ten year old boy killing a cow with one stroke, (unlikely) but then who can't a few years later chop off a man's head without making a mess of it? There are occasional anachronisms that pulled me out of the story. The reference to someone not being able to keep his breeches buttoned for example - when buttoned breeches weren't known. I also boggled at the notion of a hall fire so large that it took twelve slaves to keep stoked. That sounds like authorial exaggeration to me. Still, these are nit-picks.
Taken as a whole and in general I enjoyed The Last Kingdom, and particularly some of Cornwell's ways with a turn of phrase or an observation. For example 'the three boats danced on the water, propelled by the rise and fall of the silver wings of their oar banks. The sun flashed off the wet blades, splinters of lights, then the oars dipped, were tugged and the beast-headed boats surged and I stared entranced.' He's very good indeed at painting pictures with words. I didn't always find his world credible, but if I pretended to an extent I was reading historical fiction that had a border with fantasy, it worked pretty well.
Verdict. 4 stars, 8.5 out of 10.
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Uhtred begins his life as Osbert, second son of Eoldorman Uhtred of Bebbanburg, (Bamburgh in Northumbria) but when his older brother, Uhtred, is killed by the Danes, Osbert becomes the heir and takes on his brother's name. The Danes are threatening to overrun England and one by one the Saxon lords are being forced to submit to their rule. Uhtred himself is captured by the Danes and following the death of his father, is raised as a hostage and fosterling by Danish warlord Ragnar the Fearless who teaches him the warrior's art.
Due to shifting loyalties and plots on various behalfs, Uhtred later joins Alfred of Wessex, the last Saxon leader holding out against the Danes.
Alfred is a pious Christian and Uhtred, raised as a pagan is not particularly enamoured of him, but circumstances, the wiliness of others (including Alfred) , and Uhtred's own naievity keep him by Alfred's side. Uhtred also by now has a Saxon wife and son, and they too hold him to his loyalty.
The novel's climax sees Uhtred tested in a shield wall encounter with one of the greatest of the Viking lords, but this is only the beginning of Uhtred's story... (so readers of the review can suss that he survives the encounter, or there wouldn't be any more novels about him!)
I enjoyed this story. The pace is fast and strong and there are some beautiful moments of prose despite the page-turning swiftness. The politics are explained well and succinctly and never bog down the story. I was always entertained. I don't know a great deal about the period and I felt I was given a reasonable flavour of how it might have been to be a warrior in that time. The women are not fleshed out at all, but then this is not the novel's intent and not the audience at whom it is aimed. I don't feel that Cornwell has the character of Alfred right at all. Even if he is being seen from Uhtred's viewpoint, the comments are still off kilter and feel totally wrong from the little I know. There were times I didn't believe in Uhtred either. A ten year old boy killing a cow with one stroke, (unlikely) but then who can't a few years later chop off a man's head without making a mess of it? There are occasional anachronisms that pulled me out of the story. The reference to someone not being able to keep his breeches buttoned for example - when buttoned breeches weren't known. I also boggled at the notion of a hall fire so large that it took twelve slaves to keep stoked. That sounds like authorial exaggeration to me. Still, these are nit-picks.
Taken as a whole and in general I enjoyed The Last Kingdom, and particularly some of Cornwell's ways with a turn of phrase or an observation. For example 'the three boats danced on the water, propelled by the rise and fall of the silver wings of their oar banks. The sun flashed off the wet blades, splinters of lights, then the oars dipped, were tugged and the beast-headed boats surged and I stared entranced.' He's very good indeed at painting pictures with words. I didn't always find his world credible, but if I pretended to an extent I was reading historical fiction that had a border with fantasy, it worked pretty well.
Verdict. 4 stars, 8.5 out of 10.
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