Death of Kings

Saxon Tales, Book 6

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Stephen Perring

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The fate of a new nation rests in the hands of a reluctant warrior in this thrilling sixth volume in the acclaimed New York Times best-selling Saxon Tales series.

As the ninth century wanes, Alfred the Great lies dying, his dream of a unified England in danger and his kingdom on the brink of chaos. While his son, Edward, has been named his successor, there are other Saxon claimants to the throne - as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred, the Saxon-born, Viking-raised warrior, whose life seems to shadow the making of England itself, is torn between his vows to Alfred and his desire to reclaim his long-lost ancestral lands and castle in the north. As the king’s warrior, he is duty-bound, but Alfred’s reign is nearing its end, and Uhtred has sworn no oath to the crown prince. Despite his long years of service, Uhtred is still loath to commit to the old king’s Saxon cause of a united and Christian England. Now he must make a momentous decision, one that will forever transform his life... and the course of history: take up arms - and Alfred’s mantle - or lay down his sword and allow the dream of a unified kingdom to fall into oblivion.

©2011 Bernard Cornwell (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

Hated this narrator!

I loved the story, but hated the narrator. I am looking forward to the next book.

Death of Kings

As usual Bernard Cornwell paints a vivid mental picture of the life and times of his fictional character, Uthred. Yes it has graphic violence, but I have no doubt of the violence of that time in British history .

didn't like the narrator

Good story, but the narrator seriously mangled some names to the point it was hard to figure out who he meant. I really wish this series had some continuity with the readers.

Great story, not a great narrator

I've yet to read, or listen, to a Cornwell book that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed, and "Death of Kings", purely from a story stand point, was no different. The narrator, however, left a lot to be desired. Granted, Jonathan Keeble set a high bar for narrating The Saxon Chronicles, and no other narrator has come close to his performances, but I would rate Stephen Perring at the bottom of the list for narrators of this series. Don't get me wrong, he does have a pleasant voice, and speaks well, but his voice and style are not a good fit for this series.

Uhtred is a warrior and a war lord, a powerful, cunning, hard-charging Viking/Saxon hybrid. Mr. Perring speaks like a cultured English gentleman and the dichotomy is at best distracting, and at worst annoying. My biggest gripe, though, is the different pronunciations of character and place names. It's as if Mr. Perring didn't listen to any of the previous books, or even bothered to research how they should be pronounced. Every time I heard him say "I am YOU-trid of BAM-bruh" I would reflexively say "no you're not" out loud. Bring back Jonathan Keeble!

Great story. average performance

The reader got too quiet at the end of phrases, some of the excellent story was lost. Pronunciation of proper names inconsistent with earlier stories in the series.

Great story, mediocre narration

This is a great story and series. Very good character development and description of the medieval life. This narrator is only so-so, though.

Narrator

As I noted in other reviews, the narrators pronunciation of words I’ve been listening to for the last 6 or 7 books are now being pronounced differently. I have to conclude that the narrator did not know the correct way to say the words which was disappointing.

the Narrator is actually really good

At first I was jarred by yet another Narrator switch, but this gentleman pronounces the difficult old english words very well, and adds a good preformance of his own.

the story is decent enough, the Saxon Stories always are.

Where is Keeble?!

Story is great. Would have been better with Johnathan Keeble as the narrator. He’s a tough act to follow.

Terrible Narration

Terrible narration. The writing and story line was the only motivation to endure the ‘terrible’ narration.