Stonehenge

I find myself torn over this one. At one level, it tells a deeply dramatic tale of the construction of Stonehenge, all within one man's lifetime. At another it is so intensely male that you can almost feel the testosterone and misogyny oozing out of the pages. Until beyond page 50 no women feature in person. There is one instance where 2 women meet (at about page 550), all the rest of the interactions are with men. Women are slaves, wives (and usually invisible wives at that), sorceresses or beautiful goddesses/sacrificial victims. It all get very wearing. I find it hard to believe that work was all done by men with the women singing encouraging songs. If you can get over the overt sexism, then it's not too bad, but it kept annoying me show more too much to ignore. He does finish with a historical note that some of his incidents are supported by archeological evidence, but that doesn't make up for the rest. I finished it, I can't say I thought it terribly good, I will not be reading it again, this one is heading to the charity shop. show less

Excellent work of historical fiction depicting the early Bronze Age (circa 2000 BC) building of Stonehenge in England. The author is a seasoned writer with a real grip on his craft and the tribal culture of the communities who dug up great stones, carved, hauled and shipped them hundreds of miles, and then up-ended them in a huge circle aligned with the mid-summer sun. The plot is narrated from the Point of View of the builder, and his two brothers -- a fierce warrior, and a crippled priest. All three men fell in love with the same two women. More or less. And a great lust for flesh and power and even gold.

The story includes trading trips, to the coast with an ingenious strong man and his huge, loyal, but mentally "slow" son. Priests show more have considerable power, though most folks are skeptical of them: "So most priests are weak men, but like all men, given some small authority, they become tyrants." [159]

The conceit of the book is that the builders of Stonehenge believed they would change the world. The alignments would restore the patterns, the cycles of sun and moon would "balance". Gods would appreciate this and reward humans with prosperity otherwise eluding them.

I particularly like the detailed combat strategy unveiled during the several battles. How a small group of hidden archers can break a heavy charge, and expose a warlord whose early death in an engagement can turn the advantage even for an outnumbered host. [356]

And Cornwell relentlessly explores and exposes the role of "religious" belief behind the fears and motivations of the lords and slaves who pulled off this remarkable feat -- the construction of Stonehenge. He touches upon the great themes of redemption, the affinities of trinities, the magisterial mysteries of birth. The mother stone.

"The gods talk by signs. It may be a leaf falling in summer, the cry of a dying beast or the ripple of wind on calm water." Well, right there he has me.

And lots of nature is invoked describing the lives of people who are henged about with great forests and lots of streams. "Saban and Derrewyn went eastward across Mail's river, then north past the settlement until they reached a place where the valley was steep and narrow and thick trees arched high above the running water. Sunlight splashed through the leaves. The call of the corncrakes in the wheatfields had long faded and all they could hear now was the river's rippling and the whisper of the wind and she scrabble of squirrel's claws and the staccato flap of a pigeon bursting through the high leaves. Orchids grew purple among the water mint at the river's edge while the haze of the fading bluebells clouded the shadows beneath the trees. Kingfishers whipped bright above the river where red-dabbed moorhen chicks paddled between the rushes." [103] This is the setting for romance. And he does not indulge "nature" writing too much in what is essentially a work of great actions orchestrated by a plotting sorcer and two women who are smarter than he is. show less

One summer's day a stranger carrying great wealth in gold comes to the settlement and is murdered by one of the chief's three sons in the old temple. The mysterious gold, thought by some to be a gift from the gods, causes great dissension within the tribe but the three brothers all share one dream, to build a vast temple to the gods. Lengar, the eldest and a warrior, wants to use the temple to fuel his ambition to be a great ruler by force of arms. Camaban, wants to create a place that will bring the gods together to ends all pain and suffering. But it is the third and youngest son, Saban, a man of peace, who will become the master-builder of the 'Temple of Shadows'.

Now I should point out that I'm a great fan of Cornwell's Arthurian show more novels and this book is quite different from most of the author's other books that I've read. This isn't a thrilling rollercoaster ride but an epic story of determination, betrayal, love and war that is also thought provoking in its own way if perhaps a little overly long.

The story follows the main character Saban and although he is a little naive, he is also believable and one that I could empathise with. The novel is also liberally peppered with some interesting minor characters, some good some bad.

Although there are some fighting scenes the main empathise of this book is most definitely the building of the temple and it's apparent that he has also done his research into the artefacts that have since been uncovered. I really enjoy reading about paganism, worshipping the sun and the moon seems to make a lot of sense.

Overall, I found this an interesting if rather methodical read. One of the great things about writing about a time some 4000 years ago is that it is really open to interpretation as no one really knows what was happening back then. There are loads of different theories and this is simply Cornwell's own interpretation of how these Bronze aged people lived, why they built this temple and most importantly how it was built. How it was built is probably the one thing that everyone who has seen it thinks about and Cornwell gives a plausible explanation.

Was Stonehenge built in a lifetime? Did they move the stones using boats and sledges? Did bronze age people use the temple for other purposes, marriages, funerals, coronations we can only speculate but I like to think that the person who thought of the design saw it finished. show less

4.5 stars
This is one of those books where, at least I feel, cannot be given a one or two star review. Very little is known about the history of the Stonehenge, and what it was truly used for.
At about a hundred pages or so into it, I was really kind of getting frustrated because, well... it was quite boring. I guess I went into the book expecting STONEHENGE. It didn't happen until the very end of the book. The rest of it read like a bronze-aged soap opera of sorts.
And then I realized something. For the very same reason I mentioned in my beginning statement, very little is known about this wonder. When I took this into account, and being that Bernard Cornwell is such an amazing writer, I began to really enjoy it. The characters are show more simple, but yet extremely complex. I really think he captured the essence of what a typical people from this age would live like and how they would behave or believe. There was of course much poetic license involved, which one would really need to practice with a system of which we have very little knowledge of. I think the concept of touching one's groin to protect themselves from evil was kind of a neat... touch. It's funny, if that really was the practice back then, today, in some parts of this country (USA), it would practically ATTRACT evil show less

A fictional account of how the iconic prehistoric stone structure may have come to grace the Salisbury Plain in England. Although I'm quite interested in learning more about Stonehenge, I found this particular account to be somewhat of a slog. Lots of harnessing oxen to sledges to pull big stones, lots of bloody warfare and violence, and some dopey romance combined to make me feel more relieved than inspired by the end. The main thing I learned is that I want to read a good nonfiction account of Stonehenge at some point.

Summary: Stonehenge provides a fictionalized account of the building of the famous - and mysterious - monument, approximately 4000 years ago. It focuses around three brothers: Lengar, who kills his father and claims the chiefship of the tribe; Camaban, the illegitimate middle child, a crippled and outcast who becomes a powerful sorcerer; and Saban, the youngest, whose life is directed by the whims of his elder brothers, who ultimately becomes responsible for the construction of Stonehenge. For it is meant to be the greatest temple the world has ever seen, a temple to the Sun, to bring him closer to Earth, to end winter, suffering, and death. Yet, to accomplish this immense task, there will be no shortage of war, betrayal, and show more bloodshed.

Review: This is the first of Bernard Cornwell's books that I've read, and I realize that he's an immensely popular author, but if this is representative of his style, he's just not for me. This is in part due to his writing style - the writing feels very distant and mythical, as if he's transcribing a bardic saga or a long-remembered legend, but it also has the effect of keeping the reader at a distance. However, I think the main reason that I didn't enjoy this book is due to his storytelling style. If books like The Mists of Avalon get criticized for being too "ovarian", then Stonehenge surely swings too far the opposite way: it's one of the most testosterone-y (the new San Francisco treat!) books I've ever read. There's a lot of emphasis on war, and killing, and human sacrifice, and groin-touching, and the details of engineering that went into moving and placing the giant stones, but there's a dearth of likable characters, in-depth characterization, and believable dialogue, and the story is slow and never really involves the reader (at least this reader). It picked up a bit in the last 100 pages, but by that time, I couldn't be bothered to care. The most interesting thing to me was the historical note, in which Cornwell discusses which elements of his story are based on the archaeological record... but I could have read a non-fiction book about Stonehenge for that. I can't help feeling like there was an interesting story there, but I would rather it had been written by someone like Guy Gavriel Kay who understands complex characterization and storytelling. 2 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. If you're a fan of Cornwell's style, it might be better, but it's not for me. show less

Stonehenge. I wanted to read this book and looked forward to it as Cornwell always gives of his best. However . . . . . Trying to believe that grown men would move these huge rocks all the way from Ireland for religious reasons, in an age when they could not even produce ropes strong enough to lift them, was just beyond my brain’s comfort zone. I’m so disappointed. It’s probably a very good fairy tale but I don’t read them. It got thrown out very early.