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The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

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Rowan
Bibliophile
Posts: 1462
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I love history, but it's boring in school. Historical fiction brings it alive for me.
Preferred HF: Iron-Age Britain, Roman Britain, Medieval Britain
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The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

Post by Rowan » Tue May 26th, 2015, 1:11 pm

By this point in the series - book five - it seems like the same people are doing the same thing over and over making the plot rather predictable. Uhtred still wants to return to his home in the north to retake the fortress from his uncle, but cannot because he keeps getting himself tied to King Alfred. The Danes are still trying to capture all of Wessex, but cannot because they lack a sense of organization. Alfred still wants to unite all of what will eventually become England, but he cannot because of the Danes. It's the same song and dance.

So why continue reading the series? Because I, for one, want to see Uhtred succeed and return to his family home. He's done so much for others and gets precious little in return. Even though Uhtred is the fictional character in a very real time, I have rooted for him from the beginning. :) I also think that our lives can sometimes be a bit repetitive, especially when we keep trying to do something or get somewhere and other things get in the way. History, in some way, is just telling that story and following the repetition until we get to where we want to go.

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In a clash of heroes, the kingdom is born.

At the end of the ninth century, with King Alfred of Wessex in ill health and his heir still an untested youth, it falls to Alfred's reluctant warlord Uhtred to outwit and outbattle the invading enemy Danes, led by the sword of savage warrior Harald Bloodhair. But the sweetness of Uhtred's victory is soured by tragedy, forcing him to break with the Saxon king. Joining the Vikings, allied with his old friend Ragnar—and his old foe Haesten—Uhtred devises a strategy to invade and conquer Wessex itself. But fate has very different plans.

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