The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I need more stars!!! I accidently picked up "warriors of the storm" last spring, and it was book 9 in the saga of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, I loved that book so got book 1 to read. This book takes Uhtred from a 10 year old Christian boy whose father gets killed in a battle with the Danes, and whose uncle wants to kill him off so he can legally have the title of Ealdorman of Bebbanburg ( he took the title anyway, but Uhtred's death would be convenient) He amuses/impresses Ragnar - when he attacks him with a child's sword after his father is killed and Ragnar takes him and raises him as another son in the ways of a pagan Viking warrior. After Ragnar gets killed because of Danish political treachery is when the spinners of fates at the bottom of the tree of the world, Yggdrasil, really start making his life and choices interesting.

We know he lives through the shield walls and battles, because the book is told as a memory by an older, judging by the commentary wiser, Uhtred, and I know some things that will come to pass in the first 8 books because I read book 9 (still want to know what happens with Bridda) Book ends with Uhtred, 20 years old, proven as a warrior ("one in 5 men are true warriors in the shield wall, one in 20 love it - those are the most dangerous") married, and the book ends when he sees his son Uhtred for whom he wants to one day reclaim Bebbanburg .



View all my reviews