Sword of Kings: A Novel

Saxon Tales, Book 12

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Matt Bates, Bernard Cornwell

Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The 12th installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times best-selling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England - "superior entertainment that is both engaging and enlightening” (Washington Post), and the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit Netflix series.

It is a time of political turmoil once more as the fading King Edward begins to lose control over his successors and their supporters. There are two potential heirs - possibly more - and doubt over whether the once separate states of Wessex and Mercia will hold together. Despite attempts at pulling him into the political fray, Uhtred of Bebbanburg cares solely about his beloved Northumbria and its continuing independence from southern control.

But an oath is a strong, almost sacred commitment and such a promise had been exchanged between Uhtred and Aethelstan, his onetime companion in arms and now a potential king. Uhtred was tempted to ignore the demands of the oath and stay in his northern fastness, leaving the quarrelling Anglo-Saxons to sort out their own issues. But an attack on him by a leading supporter of one of the candidates and an unexpected appeal for help from another, drives Uhtred with a small band of warriors south, into the battle for kingship - and England’s fate.

©2019 Bernard Cornwell (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Captivating

captivating and raw story telling. an absolute delight to read. bates does a fantastic performance of the novel.

Amazing

This is a great addition to the epic series. Well performed with a story that always keeps you entertained. I will be sorry when the series is finished

Love the Series

This has been a very enjoyable series. Wonderful author and have enjoyed Matt Bates as the narrator.

always amazing

Love Barnard Cornwell and love rhe stories he writes. His stories always leaves me in awe of history and the struggles our ancestors went through.

Thank you Mr Cornwell and thank you for The Last Kingdom!

The end!

Read the first book and from then on listened. Sorry to have it end. What next.

The Battle for London 2.0

Once again Uhtred of Bebbanburg must take London for a King, or to make a King. King Athelstan. But before that, we see Uhtred humiliated and his beloved sword, Serpent Breath, taken from him by one of his enemies.

It’s almost a passing thought that Uhtred’s family in Jorvik is lost to the plague, his grandchildren by Stiorra and Sigtryggr, and Sigtryggr himself, succumbs as does Uhtred’s wife Eadith.

In the final chapter he even confesses that he had wanted her to die because he now has a new love interest, an Italian woman who’d been a slave.

It’s a good read but the never ending search for omens is a bit tiresome. It truly beggars belief that people believed that a bird flying northward or whatever direction, was a portent of goodwill or doom.

The tripe early Christians believed is equally mind boggling. That ‘relics’ hold any kind of power, when those relics undoubtedly were illegitimate.

The attitude of early Christians was much like the fundamental Islamists of today: convert or die. Yet even after conversion, we know that later on the St. Brice’s Day Massacre purged Christian Danes and Norsemen from what was once called Danelaw.

All of these battles to purge Englaland of its Scandinavian invaders proved to be fruitless, when in 1066, William the Conqueror from Normandy (named for the Northmen who settled the area given to them by France) invaded and ended the Saxon dominance of Britain with his decisive win at the Battle of Hastings.

From then on, as they say, the rest is history.

Excellent book

Again I was immersed in the storyline as if I was witnessing the drama unfold.

Amazing

It is rare when a book series keeps getting better with each book. it does

I love this series!

One of the best fictional works of our time! Interspersed lots of real history! Bravo Sir!

Amazing book, crown to a magnificent series

Perhaps I shouldn't say that just yet, there's apparently one more book in the series I haven't yet read. I understand it's not quite released yet, either, so it looks as if there's to be a long wait. But Mr. Cornwell's works are generally worth the wait; I can't remember a series closer in which I was disappointed.