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NOOK Book Review: The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

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Well, thanks to my handy, dandy NOOK Color I’ve been reading a lot more lately. In fact, I have a few more “NOOK Book” reviews coming up in the next few days (hopefully, if I get a chance to write them up). And today, I’m glad to bring you a brief review of the fifth book in The Saxon Tales series – The Burning Land. In The Burning Land, author Bernard Cornwell continues the story of Uhtred Ragnarson – the anti-authority hero of 9th Century pre-England.

Uhtred’s tale continues in this novel much like it has in the previous novels. He fights a few battles for a king that he doesn’t respect (King Alfred) to help create a country that he doesn’t care about (England). In some respects, Cornwell’s writing style has become somewhat formulaic for The Saxon Tales, but as a reader of this series – I’m fine with it. In other words, when I pick up one of these books (or NOOK books in this case), I know that I’m going to really enjoy reading through the pre-battle, battle, and immediate-post battle portions of the novel. The other parts of the story tend to drag a little bit, but that is the nature of writing fiction.

In The Burning Land, Uhtred is faced with two major in his life. The first is the loss of his wife, Gisela. The second is the introduction and ultimate destruction of a Danish woman who enters the story – Skade. In fact, The Burning Land does a great deal to inform the readers of the importance of certain women during Uhtred’s time period. The novel not only tells the stories of Gisela and Skade, but also of the emergence of Aethelflaed as the much-beloved Lady of Mercia. One of the joys of reading this book was reading about how Aethelflaed gave hope and spirit to the Mercians who were otherwise downtrodden and stuck with an Ealdorman that they could care less about (Aethelflaed’s husband, Athelred).

Of course, the advance of the Danes on the Kingdom of Wessex is also a major part of the story and I enjoyed reading how Uhtred played a part in both bolstering Wessex’s defenses and igniting the fire of war on the side of the Danes. It’s almost as though he was fighting against himself, which might be a great allegory of the strife that is constantly going on inside of Uhtred. The fight scenes in this novel are, as always, intense and near-addicting. Honestly, it gets very hard to put down the book (the NOOK Book, that is) when the story moves to one of the fight scenes. Very well done by Cornwell.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this NOOK Book and I would recommend it to any fans of this type of series. If you’re interested in the middle ages and reading a historical fiction set in that time period (though frequently referencing real life events of historical record), then you would probably enjoy the entirety of The Saxon Tales. The Burning Land certainly lives up to the high standard set in the previous novels in this series and I expect that the next novel – Death of Kings – will do the same.

In the event that you’re interested, you can read any of my reviews of the previous novels in The Saxon Tales: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North, and Sword Song. If you opt to read any of those previous reviews, I hope you enjoy them. And if you’re looking for a good beach read this summer, then pick up the first book in The Saxon Tales and give it a shot. I think you’ll enjoy it!

Book Review: Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

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Seems like it was just yesterday that I posted a book review for the Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell. Oh wait. That was yesterday? Ha – imagine that… someone’s been doing some reading!

Today’s book review is of Sword Song, the fourth book in Cornwell’s The Saxon Tales series. Just like The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, and the Lords of the North that came before it, Sword Song follows the evolving story of Uhtred Ragnarson as he serves as King Alfred’s most trusted warrior during the creation of England from the provinces of Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, and the rest of the lands on the island. And, also like the stories in the previous three books, Sword Song is written from the perspective of an older Uhtred recounting his adventures to someone listening (we don’t know who). In this entry into the series, the story begins with Uhtred carrying out his charge to create a buhr around the town where he’s been stationed and where he lives with his wife, Gisela, and their young family.

However, as a growing force of Vikings begin to amass north of London (or Lundene as it is written in the book), Uhtred is called to capture the city and build up its reinforcements. After defeating the Vikings, Uhtred is named the Military Governor of London which puts him in control of the city’s defenses. His counterpart for civil governance is Bishop Earkenwald, who does no great service to early Christianity with his ultra-pious attitude and ability to completely aggravate the hell out of Uhtred (and, at times, the reader).

One of the major plot points in this story is the marriage of Uhtred’s cousin, Aethelred and King Alfred’s daughter, Princess Aethelflaed. The marriage eventually winds up infuriating Uthred as well as Gisela because Aethelflaed is beaten by her husband during pregnancy. Plus, the story tells us that Aethelflaed is really only 14 or 15 years old and that Uhtred views her almost as a daughter of his own. Oh, and clearly Aethelflaed is disgusted with her husband who, as you might expect, is a bit of a coward.

What adds some interest to this story is how Aethelflaed is captured during a fight with the Vikings and how two Viking brothers – Erik and Sigefrid Thurgilson – hold her for ransom. The interest level in the story perks up when it is revealed during negotiations for Aethelflaed’s release that she has fallen in love with Erik and that Erik plans to abandon his brother and escape with Aethelflaed to the northern part of the country.

It’s almost needless to say, but that plan falls through and there is a great battle in the process. In fact, there is a good amount of writing in this book and Cornwell – as always – speeds up the action during the fight scenes. Like the previous books in this series, when the action slows down so does the story and writing style. However, I’m hooked on The Saxon Tales so I keep on reading and keep on enjoying them!

Actually, my only major complaint about this book isn’t the fact that it slows down and then picks up, but rather that it feels like the book ended a few pages too early. I hate to give away then ending of books (skip ahead to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know what happens), but after Erik is killed by his brother and Uhtred rescues Aethelflaed and Osferth (King Alfred’s bastard son), the story just sort of ends. Uhtred is on the deck of his newly captured boat holding a crying Aethelflaed in his arms as he tries to console her because she is distraught over losing Erik and having to go back to Aethlred – her scumbag husband who doesn’t trust her and beats her. There is no scene where Aethelflaed is reunited with her scumbag husband or even her sickly father, King Alfred. There’s no discussion about Gisela’s health – who was pregnant at the end of the novel and at risk of dying from the pregnancy. The story just sort of ends.

I guess this is one of Cornwell’s literary devices to create a demand for the fifth novel in the The Saxon Tales – The Burning Land. Whatever the purpose of abruptly ending the story (which is unlike Cornwell), I felt that the end of the novel was rather sudden. That might just be my interpretation – if you’ve read the book, I’m interested in hearing what you think about the ending.

A few days ago on this blog I noted how I was putting myself to work by finishing a lot of the books that I’ve left half-read or half-started over the last year or two. With the completion of Sword Song, I’ve come pretty close to completing that task. The only other half-read book that I started reading earlier this year and that I have yet to complete is Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Of course, the truth is that I’ve actually downloaded the next book in The Saxon Tales and started reading it last night, so I’ll probably breeze through The Burning Land and then finish off the Tarzan book.

And then I get to start beating away at my bookshelf – which is stacked with paper copies of books that I haven’t had a chance to even look at yet.

Book Review: Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell

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If you’ve been reading JerseySmarts.com for a while, then you may remember a couple of book reviews that I posted a few years ago. The first of those book reviews was for a book called The Last Kingdom and the second was for a book called The Pale Horseman. Both of these historical fiction novels are written by Bernard Cornwell and they are the first two books in a series he is calling “The Saxon Tales.”

I read those books a few years ago and I really enjoyed them. However, as you’ve probably garnered from this blog – I’ve been booked up over the last few years and thus I haven’t had a chance to catch up on reading the remaining books in this series. Until now, that is…

Lords of the North was one of those books that had been shuffling around from my bookshelf to my home office desktop to the bureau and so on for the better part of a year and a half. In fact, in the last year and a half I only managed to read about 6 pages of the book. But then a few weeks ago I picked up the book on a Friday night and started reading a little bit more of it. I read through the first few pages again, moved along to the next few pages, and before I knew it I was some 50+ pages into the book. Fast forward a mere 24 hours later and I had finished reading the Lords of the North.

That’s how captivating this story is once you start to get into it (and have the benefit of having read the previous two novels in the series). The third installment of The Saxon Tales follows the story of Uhtred Ragnarson as he travels back to his ancestral homeland in Northumbria. What I remember about the “plot thickening” in this story is the part where Uhtred helps free a slave by calling himself Thorguild the Leper. Nothing wrong with a little deception when you’re trying to keep yourself alive, right? The slave turns out to be a guy named Guthred who proclaims himself the King of Northumbria. This part of the book stayed with me as a major plot point because after helping Guthred build some credibility for himself to be the King of that part of England, Guthred goes and sells Uhtred into slavery as demanded by Uhtred’s uncle.

Talk about getting screwed over by your boss, right?

The story takes a bit of a detour when Uhtred becomes a slave. I’m not sure if it’s one of Cornwell’s literary devices or if it’s just the way this part of the book presents itself to the reader, but I thought the entire story slowed down at this point. Having read three of Cornwell’s books (and I’m almost finished with the fourth book in this series), I’ve noticed that when he writes about fighting scenes and action scenes, he’s great. However, when he writes about the mundane existence of a slave (for example), the writing slows down. There are several places in Cornwell’s books that have these slow down points and, as an informed reader, I find myself annoyed at the slow down in the story, but understanding of the need to do so.

The other part of this book that stands out in my mind is the final fight for Dunholm. Uhtred takes Guthred’s “army” and leads an attack against Kjartan. This is the same Kjartan whose son (Sven) had one of his eyes plucked out by Ragnar – the guy who essentially raised Uhtred and whose name he uses in his last name (Ragnarson). What stands out to me in this battle is the release of Thyra and her hounds. From the way that Thyra is described in the book, I envisioned a crazy lady that appeared as a mix of the crazy cat lady from the Simpson and the lustful, angry version of Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings.

This is what I imagine Thyra, Ragnar's sister, was like - just without the magic.

Not exactly a pretty sight if you’re trying to win a battle against her side, you know?

Of course, like in all great movies and novels, the good guys win in the end and Uhtred defeats both of his long-time enemies (Kjarten and Sven) as well as a much stronger, better funded enemy in Ivarr Ivarsson.

I’ve never considered myself a big reader of historical fiction until I began reading The Saxon Tales. They’re very entertaining and Cornwell skillfully crafts each book so that it can be read on its own. Readers of this series, though, know that each book builds on the one prior and that the characters continue to develop throughout. I’d recommend this book to anyone who has read the first two novels in The Saxon Tales as well as anyone who enjoys historical fiction (set in the late 800s and early 900s). Also, those who enjoy reading fantasy and science fiction might enjoy how Cornwell intersperses the Norse religion and Christianity throughout the tale because the character think that the gods of each religion are using their “magical powers” to help them along.

Plus, it’s the summertime and who wouldn’t love a good book to read while laying on the beach?! If you’re headed to the beach this year, then I suggest picking up the Lords of the North – I think you’ll really enjoy it!

Book Review: The Pale Horseman

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A few weeks ago I finished reading The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I like The Last Kingdom so much that I bought the second book in the series, The Pale Horseman. What a great decision – this book was excellent.

Cornwell writes the book in the same style as he wrote The Last Kingdom, so it felt like I was just reading the next chapter in a novel (which is the point when writing a series, I guess). It follows the adventures of Uhtred as he fights for the Saxon side during the Danish invasions in the 800’s. In this novel, Uhtred continues to struggle with living in a country that is being converted to Christianity as well as serving a king that is anything but happy with Uhtred. If you get this novel, pay special attention to the relationship that develops between Uhtred and Steapa. I have a feeling the mutual respect that eventually forms will play a part in future novels (it certainly saves Uhtred’s life at one point during The Last Kingdom).

During the early part of the novel King Alfred is forced into the swamps of his land. In this swamp-land not only can the Danish invaders not attack him, but he finds himself in need of Uhtred’s fierce fighting skills and brash leadership style. However, one of the best scenes/events that takes place in the swamp is between Uhtred’s Briton-born love interest, Iseult, and King Alfred’s sick, dying son. Iseult performs a pagan ritual and essentially gives the boy a rebirth, but at the cost of some other boy dying somewhere else (the identity of that boy is revealed later in the book). The boy’s rebirth heals his health problems and puts Uhtred in favor with the King and the Queen for a time.

The book ends with a massive battle between the muster of Wessex and the surrounding lands fighting against two Danish leaders and their armies – Guthrum and Svein. Cornwell does an excellent job writing this part of the novel and his skill really comes across to the reader. Believe me – it’s well done. In this battle, Leofric – Uhtred’s older warrior friend – falls, but King Alfred’s forces are victorious.

The Pale Horseman is an excellent work of historical fiction. I highly recommend it to any one who is interested in pre-medieval history and historical fiction in general. For casual readers, Cornwell’s writing style will draw you in and impress you with each new chapter. This is a great read from a great writer.

Book Review: The Last Kingdom

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Last August, my Mother told some of her friends in Pennsylvania that I was hired as an Adjunct Professor at Monmouth University. These lovely folks were glad to hear it and gave me one of the best gifts that one can receive – a book! This book, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell, is a historical fiction…and it was an amazing read!

For some perspective – I haven’t really had a chance to read too many books since I started teaching part-time. It’s just tough to read the material for the course, prepare the PowerPoints and handouts for the course, and keep-up with some of my freelance reading choices. However, since class officially ended, I returned from my Miami trip, and the Christmas season came to an end I’ve had some free time to begin reading my own choices again. It took me less than a week to rip through The Last Kingdom – it’s a hard book to put down!

This historical fiction is a story about Uhtred, son of Uhtred, who was also son of Uhtred, etc. His land is usurped from him by his uncle and he is taken captive by the marauding Danes at the tender age of 10. This story is set during the late 800’s AD when England was being ransacked by what we would call “Vikings” today. Cornwell sticks to historical facts when he calls them Danes instead of Vikings since during the time of the story “to vike” was a verb and not a noun. Anyway, Uhtred is taken captive as a young boy as his father dies in battle defending their family’s land.

The Danes raise him and one Dane in particular, Ragnar, essentially adopts Uhtred as his own. This affords Uhtred a great deal of protection and a great source of knowledge on many topics – the most important of which is combat. As he grows up, he begins raiding English territories with the Danish fighters. Remember, now, Uhtred is an Englishman…yet he still goes ahead and raids his homeland’s territories.

Cornwell moves the story along at the perfect pace and the reader is shown Uhtred’s thoughts as he moves through the various stages of becoming a man in a war-torn land. His inner conflict is very well written; Uhtred’s inner discussions regarding with whether or not he should be fighting with the Danes or with the English is particularly well done. Ultimately, he goes back to his people though there are various reasons that lead him to that end. Uhtred, though, begins to believe that he ends up fighting for the English because of fate.

The concept of fate and whether or not a man has free will is explored at different points of the story. Uhtred is first a young by being taught the ways of Catholicism through the local priests (in spite of his family’s history being intertwined with the pagan gods). The Danes worship Thor and his set of gods and Uhtred begins to follow and believe in that religion. The compelling argument that changes his mind is the usefulness of one God versus many gods. In other words, Ragnar and the Danes ask how the Catholic God could be worth worshiping if he does not bring victory to his followers. For the young Uhtred, he sees the simplistic logic in this argument and agrees.

One of the best parts of the religious overtones in this book is how, later in the book, Uhtred is forced to wonder about some of the basic teachings of his pagan faith. Once the English begin to fight back and win battles against the Danish warriors, Uhtred wonders if the pagan religion is really the better of the two? Are the three spinners – who the Danes believe write the story of the world and thus assign everyone their fate – really spinning their webs? Or is the one God of Catholicism really mightier than the aggregated power of the pagan gods? Personally, I enjoyed this little bit of give and take that was more subliminal than written.

The novel has a great climatic scene where a great Danish warrior is defeated by the hand of Uhtred. This is one of the best written battle scenes that I’ve ever read. It seems as though describing the motions and situations of the shield walls and various battles are second nature to Cornwell. This is a testament to his comfort level when writing this historical fiction.

If it’s not obvious by this point, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of The Last Kingdom. This is the first in “The Saxon Novels” series by Cornwell. I’ve already gone out and purchased two more Cornwell books – the next in the Saxon Novels and the first in a different series. Go out and grab a copy if you can; Christmas may be over, but this book still makes a great gift!