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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
It took me a while to get through this audiobook but I thought it was excellent.
The narrator was good, the information sound, and the writing style was brilliant. If Thomas Williams wrote a historical fiction novel I'd pick it up.
A really interesting look into a facet of British history I didn't know a lot about.
The narrator was good, the information sound, and the writing style was brilliant. If Thomas Williams wrote a historical fiction novel I'd pick it up.
A really interesting look into a facet of British history I didn't know a lot about.
I typically devour historical non-fiction, so I cannot quite work out why I did not connect with this book. The writing is sound (if a little disjointed at times) and the subject matter engrossing, but it took me a long time to plod through and I never felt particularly excited about picking it up. This is not a bad book; it just didn’t work for me.
A great balance between historical solidity and wistfulness in trying to understand these often maligned protagonists.
Last sentence of the book is indicative of the latter: “When we wait by the shoreline, with the sun dipping like blood into the west and the breakers crashing on the strand, we can still hear their voices singing with the tide, the grinding of keels on the shingle”
Last sentence of the book is indicative of the latter: “When we wait by the shoreline, with the sun dipping like blood into the west and the breakers crashing on the strand, we can still hear their voices singing with the tide, the grinding of keels on the shingle”
A colourful, accessible and opinionated history of the Vikings in Britain, whose author handles the period's characters and settings with the same care as his footnotes. He also pleasingly engages with matters of public history, from the split views we have of Viking barbarians compared to Roman civilization, to the appropriation of Viking iconography by fascists. Though reactive to popular, misleading images of Vikings, he doesn't shy from indulging in spectacle in the smart episodes of storytelling which often set the scene of a chapter. Williams writes very well, and this is a swift and easy read.