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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I've always enjoyed Bernard Cornwell. This book seems like a formulaic distillation and seems flat. Does not leave me waiting for an eighth Utred book. I really loved the vigor of the first books in this series.
Cornwell is known for his battle scenes. And they are wonderfully done. But just when I was worried this was simply a detailing of one man's endless, brutal quest, the author pulls out his real skill: breathing life into those grizzled warriors of old. Under the chain mail and behind the brutal deeds is a man with real cares and fears.
Plus: Cornwell writes women who seem real, and men who treat them like real people. Even if they are used as pawns in games of war, the women have opinions, personalities, and their own desires. Thanks, Bernard Cornwell, for recognizing that even in the "manly" world you write about, women existed and were just as real as today's women. It makes your stories stand helm and shoulders above the rest in this genre.
Plus: Cornwell writes women who seem real, and men who treat them like real people. Even if they are used as pawns in games of war, the women have opinions, personalities, and their own desires. Thanks, Bernard Cornwell, for recognizing that even in the "manly" world you write about, women existed and were just as real as today's women. It makes your stories stand helm and shoulders above the rest in this genre.
Yet another amazing Uhtred adventure!!
This one sees Uhtred starting to feel his years, and as a father of two grown sons. This is a different aspect of Uhtred, and yet he retains the character features (some would say flaws) that make him my FAVORITE book-type person to follow: stubborn, hateful, angry, and so absolutely critical of Christianity and its foibles.
The story is gripping, as always. All the characters you love (that are still alive) show up. The stakes are as high as ever. He is battling for the identity of his very nation, which is filled to the brim with people that distrust, misunderstand, or outright despise him.
I will never stop loving Uhtred, and his stories. Bring on the next one, Mr. Cornwell! And fast!!
This one sees Uhtred starting to feel his years, and as a father of two grown sons. This is a different aspect of Uhtred, and yet he retains the character features (some would say flaws) that make him my FAVORITE book-type person to follow: stubborn, hateful, angry, and so absolutely critical of Christianity and its foibles.
The story is gripping, as always. All the characters you love (that are still alive) show up. The stakes are as high as ever. He is battling for the identity of his very nation, which is filled to the brim with people that distrust, misunderstand, or outright despise him.
I will never stop loving Uhtred, and his stories. Bring on the next one, Mr. Cornwell! And fast!!
Another solid addition to this series. Honestly, Cornwell is an incredibly reliable author. Each one provides the suspense, the battles and the requisite annoying priests that make a satisfactory work of historical fiction. It's not proper historical fiction unless you get a little bit angry. Also learning lots about the history of England at the time (hope he's historically accurate - or at least as accurate as is to be expected in a work of fiction!)
Alfred the Great is dead, and his grudgingly loyal pagan warrior Uhtred now serves Alfred's daughter and is foster father to one of Alfred's bastard sons. As the Danes look for weak spots in the fragile alliance of Christian Saxon kings, Uhtred fights what is essentially the Battle of Tettenhall in 910 to preserve a nascent England that he doesn't particularly want. As always, Cornwell is good with warrior cultures and battle scenes, this one has a particularly good shield wall.
I wanted sometimes to kick Uthred's behind: "get going! Don't whine!". Still, solid historical writing from master of genre.
I haven't read any of Bernard Cornwell's books before. To be honest haven't picked up much historical fiction lately either - but I couldn't resist when reading the premise of this Viking-Saxon battle epic.
'The Pagan Lord' is set at a particularly fragile point in time for a divided Britain, what with Saxons fighting Danish Vikings, and Wales and Scotland fighting them both, the country is continuously on the precipice of war, and everyone is fighting to be the next King, or Lord, or for another inch of land.
Uhtred is of Saxon heritage, but spiritually believes in the 'Old Gods' - the Norse Gods, Odin, Thor etc. But although he spends some time fighting the Vikings and some fighting the Saxons, what he really wants is to fight his way back into his ancestral home, and be Lord of his own land, the only part of England under neither Saxon nor Viking rule.
It made for a much more interesting historical tale than a simple black and white 'Clan A is fighting Clan B' type plot. Although I did spend a lot of time wondering whose side Uhtred would be fighting on next, and each battle they fought seemed to get them nothing and nowhere.
Unfortunately, after getting through about 200 pages I found out that 'The Pagan Lord' is acutally book 7 of series - a massive fail on my part. However, I didn't work this out from simply reading the book - I only spotted my error via Goodreads - and whilst the book did allude to past events here and there, they are never things that make a new reader such as myself feel alienated towards the overall plot, and I suppose it takes a well honed skill to enable the reader to pick up the story with ease this far into the series.
I found the ending a little ambiguous regarding Uhtred, but thankfully the historical afterword cleared that up for me.
A few here on Goodreads seem to believe it's not quite up to the standard of the others, but as I can't compare I'm quite happy to hear it; now I can track them down and read them all!
'The Pagan Lord' is set at a particularly fragile point in time for a divided Britain, what with Saxons fighting Danish Vikings, and Wales and Scotland fighting them both, the country is continuously on the precipice of war, and everyone is fighting to be the next King, or Lord, or for another inch of land.
Uhtred is of Saxon heritage, but spiritually believes in the 'Old Gods' - the Norse Gods, Odin, Thor etc. But although he spends some time fighting the Vikings and some fighting the Saxons, what he really wants is to fight his way back into his ancestral home, and be Lord of his own land, the only part of England under neither Saxon nor Viking rule.
It made for a much more interesting historical tale than a simple black and white 'Clan A is fighting Clan B' type plot. Although I did spend a lot of time wondering whose side Uhtred would be fighting on next, and each battle they fought seemed to get them nothing and nowhere.
Unfortunately, after getting through about 200 pages I found out that 'The Pagan Lord' is acutally book 7 of series - a massive fail on my part. However, I didn't work this out from simply reading the book - I only spotted my error via Goodreads - and whilst the book did allude to past events here and there, they are never things that make a new reader such as myself feel alienated towards the overall plot, and I suppose it takes a well honed skill to enable the reader to pick up the story with ease this far into the series.
I found the ending a little ambiguous regarding Uhtred, but thankfully the historical afterword cleared that up for me.
A few here on Goodreads seem to believe it's not quite up to the standard of the others, but as I can't compare I'm quite happy to hear it; now I can track them down and read them all!