177 reviews for:

Sword of Kings

Bernard Cornwell

4.19 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The 12th book of Uhtred. I love his life, his loves, and his honour.

freelatveria's review

4.0
adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No

The penultimate book of the Last Kingdom series sets up the series to end with a bang.  

Here Uhtred is an old man and finds him now as a much more reflective person then he used to be.  But not only is he reflective of his past, he is reflective of the vow he made in the last book that now directs his life as he attempts to do the impossible and kill a king.

adventurous emotional informative relaxing fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's so interesting reading how the books differ what the show did. It's a pleasant surprise because not knowing what is going to happen keeps me on my toes and invested in reading
adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

I can’t believe I only have one more left I am going to cry!! A pretty good novel and it was pretty sad but I love Uhtreds plot armor. A lot goes on behind the scenes too.
seacrab1's profile picture

seacrab1's review

2.0

I have loved this series, and have pretty much devoured every book in it, until this one. Was this even written by Cornwell? I love Uhtred and his loyal warriors, and hesitate to cast them in anything but glowing light, but perhaps the fuse has just fizzled out on their adventures.

There is nothing in this book that hasn't been done in one, or more, of the previous books. But, ok, even with a sort of template or cheat sheet guiding the story, the writing seemed so canned and predictable, I just gasped (not in a good way), laughed or skimmed 90% of the time. Please, please be ghost-written, or I am majorly worried that Mr. Cornwell has lost his touch.

I think the series should've stopped at #10. Whoever is writing these books, please bury Uhtred with honor before it gets worse.
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes