A review by nvonhein
The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell

3.0

This succeeded at being historical fiction in that following the character made it easier to go through the history, but was frustrating in a lot of other ways. Cornwell, and likely this book in particular, was instrumental in transitioning me to adult fiction years ago but it doesn't age as well as I would have hoped. The main character was bland and I cared as little about his particular plot line in the greater mess of things as he seemed to, though maybe that's almost on purpose.

And why does the Thomas never even acknowledge the his mother's death and barely nod towards his father's. The prologue and his orphaning were almost completely wasted despite being the theoretical inciting incident here. It's really reminiscent of the whole side quest it starts, which is underdeveloped and ignorable.

What was truly frustrating though was the overreliance on SA as a means of characterizing villains. Period accurate or not, there are other ways of making villains compelling. Really, the characters and their personal conflicts are mostly ignorable and a means of travelling through the history without feeling like a non fiction. And that is the area that it saves this book. The history is well researched and delivered in a compelling way that makes me want to learn more about the period.