Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bookmeanderings
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
4.0
“Laughter in battle. That was what Ragnar had taught me, to take joy from the fight.”
Thank you to HarperAudio for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
I already had an experience in this series, its characters, and the story through the TV show, so starting The Last Kingdom gave me nostalgia and a sense of coming home. This is one of my favorite periods in history and Bernard Cornwell does a fantastic job of depicting this time where Kings reigned, danes raided, and you had to fight to keep everything you had. Cornwell creates this atmosphere with vivid descriptions of people, battles, landscapes, and cultures and that was one of my favorite parts of the book.
That leads me to talking about the characters. Bernard Cornwell used real accounts from his ancestors to frame this story. I believe because of this he had a clear picture of the type of people that lived back then. It was incredible how real every single person felt. Uhtred, the son of a nobleman, raised by Norsemen, and torn between two worlds. Alfred, brother to the king, an incredibly pious man with both spiritual and physical weaknesses that he hates. Ragnar the older, mentor and father figure to young Uhtred, and fierce Viking warrior. Not only these main characters, but everyone in the story was incredibly well described and had their own believable personalities and motivations.
“Destiny is everything.”
This story is told completely from Uhtred’s perspective as a narrator of his own life and I loved that format. Uhtred is a fascinating protagonist. A man born a Saxon, at first taken, and then raised by Danes, he is truly a man of two worlds and it shows. A huge part of this novel is depicting the struggle Uhtred has to figure out who he is and what he wants. Is he a Dane or a Saxon? Does he want to live and raid with the Danes or go and take back Bebbanburg as the rightful Alderman? Getting the perspective directly from Uhtred as he is looking back on his life was a perfect way to tell this story.
Shield walls, swords, spears, bows and arrows, this story has it all! The pace is fast and there is a lot of action. Cornwell’s descriptions of the gritty reality of the shield wall were especially riveting. Even in the spots that a battle is not going on there was always something interesting to keep the reader’s attention.
I highly recommend this book if you have even the slightest interest in historical fiction. This was a fun, at times even light hearted read with a compelling protagonist, vivid battle scenes, and incredibly realized historical figures and culture.
Thank you to HarperAudio for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
I already had an experience in this series, its characters, and the story through the TV show, so starting The Last Kingdom gave me nostalgia and a sense of coming home. This is one of my favorite periods in history and Bernard Cornwell does a fantastic job of depicting this time where Kings reigned, danes raided, and you had to fight to keep everything you had. Cornwell creates this atmosphere with vivid descriptions of people, battles, landscapes, and cultures and that was one of my favorite parts of the book.
That leads me to talking about the characters. Bernard Cornwell used real accounts from his ancestors to frame this story. I believe because of this he had a clear picture of the type of people that lived back then. It was incredible how real every single person felt. Uhtred, the son of a nobleman, raised by Norsemen, and torn between two worlds. Alfred, brother to the king, an incredibly pious man with both spiritual and physical weaknesses that he hates. Ragnar the older, mentor and father figure to young Uhtred, and fierce Viking warrior. Not only these main characters, but everyone in the story was incredibly well described and had their own believable personalities and motivations.
“Destiny is everything.”
This story is told completely from Uhtred’s perspective as a narrator of his own life and I loved that format. Uhtred is a fascinating protagonist. A man born a Saxon, at first taken, and then raised by Danes, he is truly a man of two worlds and it shows. A huge part of this novel is depicting the struggle Uhtred has to figure out who he is and what he wants. Is he a Dane or a Saxon? Does he want to live and raid with the Danes or go and take back Bebbanburg as the rightful Alderman? Getting the perspective directly from Uhtred as he is looking back on his life was a perfect way to tell this story.
Shield walls, swords, spears, bows and arrows, this story has it all! The pace is fast and there is a lot of action. Cornwell’s descriptions of the gritty reality of the shield wall were especially riveting. Even in the spots that a battle is not going on there was always something interesting to keep the reader’s attention.
I highly recommend this book if you have even the slightest interest in historical fiction. This was a fun, at times even light hearted read with a compelling protagonist, vivid battle scenes, and incredibly realized historical figures and culture.