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Date first published	29 Sep. 2011
ISBN Number	0 00733 178 9
Page Count	400 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

As the ninth century wanes, England appears about to be plunged into chaos once more. For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior, Uhtred, whose life seems to shadow the making of England, this presents him with difficult choices.

King Alfred is dying and his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son, Edward, to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred‘s loyalty – and his vows – were to Alfred, not to his son, and despite his long years of service to Alfred, he is still not committed to the Saxon cause. His own desire is to reclaim his long lost lands and castle to the north. But the challenge to him, as the king’s warrior, is that he knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred’s dream of a united and Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion.

Review

By normal standards this is quite a quiet book from Bernard, and does not follow the normal pattern of battle, quiet piece, then more battle. Like Sharpe Uhtred, does not work well in peacetime. Uhtred is at his best in full battle flow, and in this book we only have one battle - more of which later.

The book is set in and around the death of Alfred, which should have led to a murderous assault on Wessex by the Danes, but didn't. The realm seems to have had a year of peace, and when war does finally come it is fitful and relatively brief. For this reason the book idles along, things only start to heat up a bit when Uhtreds enemies try to have him killed.

As always the book is well written, creating an atmosphere in which you can immerse yourself, however it is not his best in the series, and I think it is due to the lack of action until the last fifth of the book. Even then the battle is lacklustre, and short, with the Dane's being defeated with the arrival of Edwards army.

However in some respects the book is a transitional one. In the past Uhtred has always been torn between the Saxons and the Danes whom he adores, but in this book he comes down firmly on one side, and from now on it is clear that he is a Saxon, and always will be. He may be a pagan, but he is now tied to Edward, and there is no going back.

The story is also one of religion, the pagan Danes against the Christian Saxons. The Danes create a false soothsayer, to spread the word that all England will be overrun and ruled by Danes. Uhtred rather cheekily, finds three pretty girls, and makes them into Angels, who give the Saxons a prophecy of ultimate victory. The deception is also designed to force the Danes into action, which it does to great cost to Uhtreds friends.

Uhtred is finally rewarded by Alfred, and now has lands and money - he also has his girl - Aethelflaed, who is now his, even though she is already married, and like all of Cornwell's women a dominant character, who is quite happy to disobey everyone!

The final battle is rather dull, the description of the troop movements is not there, and the wonderful descriptions of a shield war are rather tired. I think some of this might be explained by the authors own footnotes, which describe the lack of information about the battle. Historians know it was fought, but are not sure where, all they really know is the list of high ranking Lords killed that day. Perhaps this explains the general flatness of the whole book, that there is simply very little to go on from historical records.

The book should really have impressed me, and evoked some excitement, as all the major confrontations are set around my home town of Gloucester, but unfortunately the book just wasn't gripping enough.

Finally let me say that the book is not bad, like the previous two stories, there has not been enough going on to warrant 400 pages. I admit that it is well written - I have yet to see a bad Cornwell, but the story has lost it's edge, perhaps because the interesting characters - the Danish Lords are very much in the background, so we are left to the Saxons and the host of pious priests who are nowhere near as interesting.

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