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beejai 's review for:
The Pagan Lord
by Bernard Cornwell
Many of my likes and complaints about this book are the same as in the earlier books of the series (and in most of BC's writing). He hates the church and that hatred makes his description of it is neither kind nor accurate. It is a sad thing because in so many other ways he does a superb job of making the early medieval isle of Briton come alive. This is far and away the greatest historical fiction on the creation of a unified English kingdom you will ever see.
Book seven begins with a formulaic turn of fate. Just as in many previous books, the hero Uhtred does something stupid (killing the abbot who turned his son into a priest in this case) and the establishment in Kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia kick him out. (Not because he keeps murdering priests. No, it can't be that. It is because they are intolerant of pagans.) So Uhtred decides it is time to take the impregnable fortress of Bebbanberg. By the time this mess is sorted out, our valiant hero must march south again because the Vikings are making another go at conquering Mercia and there doesn't seem to be a single person other than Uhtred who is able to show even the slightest hint of competent battle strategy.
Book seven begins with a formulaic turn of fate. Just as in many previous books, the hero Uhtred does something stupid (killing the abbot who turned his son into a priest in this case) and the establishment in Kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia kick him out. (Not because he keeps murdering priests. No, it can't be that. It is because they are intolerant of pagans.) So Uhtred decides it is time to take the impregnable fortress of Bebbanberg. By the time this mess is sorted out, our valiant hero must march south again because the Vikings are making another go at conquering Mercia and there doesn't seem to be a single person other than Uhtred who is able to show even the slightest hint of competent battle strategy.