The Last Kingdom

This series, The Saxon Stories tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants through the eyes of Uhtred, an English boy born into into a brawling noble family in Northumbria, who lost his heritage to a rival. This is my favourite of Cornwell's several series. He really brings to life the period with terrific historical detail and numerous characters who feature in actual history. There is Cornwell's usual, perhaps excessively detailed violence, but it is great to read someone who pulls no punches and shows how gristly and desperate fighting and killing can be. The plotting and betrayals, alliances and schemes that are part of the shifts in power, are shown convincingly, and the battles and battle sites draw from the historical record. You clearly see the role of superstition and ancient superstitions in this world, and how Christianity inveighled its way into British life and power. The vanished Romans are also a presence. Uhtred frequently wondrs about these past people who built so much better than any in his time, and whose paintings and mosaics show a life that accepted pleasure in ways suppressed by Christanity For me, this is a excellent way to learn history, by first giving a personality to many of the figures, and showing this world through the eyes of an active, if fictional, protagonist.

Lo consiglio a chiunque voglia leggere i libri senza passare attraverso a traduzioni, che per quanto ben fatte, a mio dire distorgono un po’ l’opera come è stata concepita. Come livello di complessità della lingua, in rapporto anche al numero di pagine del romanzo, lo trovo abbastanza leggibile per chiunque abbia un livello dall’upper intermediate in avanti. Persone con un livello di padronanza scritta pari ad un A2 potrebbero leggerlo, secondo me, ma più per un crocevia tra apprendimento e piacere della lettura (trovo che la grammatica non sia complessa di per sé, ma sono presenti idiomi e in generale lemmi non proprio di base). La storia in sé non penso abbia senso commentarla perché esistono già molte recensioni in italiano che possono delucidare il potenziale lettore circa la qualità o i temi del testo. Posso solo dire, come da titolo, che il romanzo contiene tutti gli elementi atti a rappresentare bene i temi comuni un po’ a tutta la fascia del periodo altomedievale dell’Europa.

I bought this after an Achilles tendon injury forced me to binge endlessly on Netflix - so I spent an interesting day plus watching the "Last Kingdom" series. (A far better day than some of the other binge-watching I did).) I enjoyed the series, but thought there might be something more in the novels on which the series was based. As usual, I liked the novel much more. I've never read any Bernard Cornwell before - apparently I've been living under a rock - but I really enjoyed the adventures of Uhtred. Cornwell's writing is easy to read, the novel is fast-paced and based on historically accurate happenings (credit to him for using the contemporary names for English locations - a nice touch and I thought the evolution of the names was quite interesting). I don't know who doesn't like Viking stories these days (if it's not Vikings, we're all excited about pirates or Tudors - it's a great time to be alive). Uhtred is young (easy to picture as Alexander Dreymon), sometimes he's on the side of Vikings, sometimes he's on the side of King Alfred, but since he's writing his story in retrospect he's appropriately humble about pointing out his errors (many of which allow him to take us to interesting places). It's exciting, about an obscure part in history for those of us in the U.S. (let's face it, most of us can point out the errors in Tudor stories now but this is something new!), and you just want to keep reading. Cornwall has created a dynamic, and viable, character in Uhtred, and Uhtred's somewhat one-sided perspective on his enemies makes for interesting situations. Great read, enjoyable picture of early Great Britain; looking forward to getting the next book in the series.

Lo compré por la seria de Netflix, y para mi sorpresa, tomaron muy pocas cosas de todo el primer libro. El 70% de lo que viene, no lo pasan en la serie, pero es una muy buena historia y ayuda a identificarse más con los personajes. Narran más batallas y aspectos de la vida temprana de Uthred con Ragnar que valen mucho la pena. Además de otros sucesos históricos sobre la invasión vikinga a Inglaterra.

Simply one of the best book I have read... It is historical well documented, Christians, Pagans and Brittons are shown as they truly were. The rythm is very good and the book is easily readable for me as a French. I have already bought the second book and I can't wait for the following adventures. I recommand this book and this author to everyone who looks after historical-fiction novels "Wyrd bið ful aræd !"