This is my fifth or so Cornwell read and it is not as good as the others. The story moves along but it seems to me to be choppy. Where the Grail Quest and Starbuck Chronicles made me feel a part of the story, I found myself a distant observer when reading this book. I think it is because the story is told in the first person. It is a diary of events not a continuously running story. I don't really feel I know what it is like being a viking. I know the feeling of being a Confederate soldier and what it is like to be an Archer in the English army. But other than the fighting, I did not really find out what the life of a viking was...even the fight scenes were wanting In my opinion.

A decent read but not his best write. Diary style writing is not my style. ( )

fiction

This was my second attempt at Cornwell. I read The Archer's Tale earlier this year; while I appreciated the historical accuracy, I just didn't like the protagonist very much.

The main character in The Last Kingdom isn't much different than the one in The Archer's Tale. Both are boys who see their families killed by raiders, and their voices are similar. These are manly men. Uhtred is an English boy who ends up largely raised by Danes. As he grows older, his greatest yearning is to do battle, whores, and drink ale. Except, of course, there are people who want him dead, both English and Dane, and he really wants to get his family land back somehow. King Alfred of Wessex may be annoyingly pious, but he's also a cunning manipulator. Uhtred finds himself torn between two rival identities - English by birth, a Dane in spirit - and requires both to stay alive.

I enjoy the eyewitness-to-history aspect of this book. Very little is written on King Alfred and his reign, and Cornwell has done superb research. However, I still can't stand his main characters. They are murderous jerks. I'm continuing onward with the next book in this series, The Pale Horseman, mainly because I already possess it and I do like the time period. And maybe, maybe, Uhtred will mature and not be such an arrogant bastard. ( )

Good historical fiction but for some reason it was a slow read for me. ( )

The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell

First book in The Saxon Tales.

Bernard Cornwell has no peer living as far as writing historical action-adventure stories is concerned. The Saxon Tales is another of his series set in England’s Dark Ages when the Saxons, the invaders of The Warlord Chronicles set 400 years earlier, are now in their turn fighting yet another set of invaders, the Danes--the Norsemen or Northmen. More dangerous than the Saxons, the Danes represent a greater threat to England. Only one of the Saxon kingdoms remains--that of Wessex, whose king will become known to history as Alfred the Great. The story of the fight against the Danes is narrated by Uhtred, the son of a Saxon nobleman who, through defeat and treachery, grows up among the Danes whom he likes and admires.

Again, Cornwell has taken what little is truly known about that period and about Alfred and incorporated it into a realistic slam-bang story that features war, Dark Ages style (although since the Danes are involved, war at sea as well) with details of life and customs among the Danes and among the Saxons, who were at least superficially Christians at this time. It’s good stuff, extremely entertaining and engrossing; as usual, Cornwell has written a page turner.

His books always have interesting slants on history. Christianity continues to look shabby and downright seedy at times, and Alfred is no one’s idea of a glamorous king. But Cornwell’s settings and descriptions, stripped of fantasy, are completely believable. Far from being monsters, the Danes come across as an understandable and even sympathetic culture. Bloodthirsty, yes, but that was the time as well. The strong survived, the weak vanished.

Having read Cornwell’s first book in the Arthurian series, The Winter King, where he uses the exact same story structure and narrator, I was concerned at first that the similarities between the two books would make The Last Kingdom boring. To my surprise, that turned out not to be true. The story of the Danish invasion and Alfred’s resistance, in Cornwell’s hands comes alive and the characters are believable (although don’t expect character development with Cornwell); the story can stand very well on its own. Personally, I think The Winter King is more interesting because of the way Cornwell works the Arthurian legend, but in the end, that doesn’t really detract from The Last Kingdom.

For fans of Cornwell who enjoy fast-paced action-adventure stories that are set with historical accuracy, this is an excellent read. Highly recommended. ( )