Wednesday, March 04, 2015

18. The Last Kingdom–Bernard Cornwell

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: Good

I confess to knowing nothing whatsoever about this period in Britian’s history so I have no idea how accurate the historical details are, although Cornwell does say something with regard to that in the afterward.

The action takes place when the Danes were overrunning England and had captured essentially most of it with the exception of West Sussex where Alfred, to be called Alfred the Great, is keeping them at bay.

The tale is told by a young man whose family is killed in a Danish attack. The boy attempts to kill one of the Danish leaders, Ragnar, and is subsequently adopted by the same fellow. He finds the young boy’s spirit that of a Dane and a Viking, and so the boy grows up as a Dane, learning how they fight, how they believe and how they think. He still dreams of his home though, and secretly wants the Danes out and the English to regain their homeland.

The story follows the boy’s life up until he is grown and finds himself torn between the two worlds.

Intriguing character development and interesting to me as I knew nothing about the Vikings nearly conquering England.

No comments: