The Last Kingdom

I bought this because my family and I binged watched the Netflix series The Last Kingdom, which is brilliant, and based on these books. Ill stick with the show.

In the show, the characters are complex. Viewers understand characters motivations, even if we dont agree with them. We see them struggle with decisions, consequences, beliefs and circumstances. That is not the case in the book. The book reads like it was written by a 15-year-old boy. There is little to no character development for anyone. Though it is first person narrative for the main character, the reader isnt given the main characters motivations for much of anything. he makes decisions based on the fact that he likes to fight, and he wants to be a warrior (Cue endless battle scenes). He hates Christian conformity, and he likes Dane nonconformity. He makes a huge life decision , and he literally tells the readers I did it because I was bored. The entire book is incredibly juvenile and shallow.

The Danes kill his brother and his father. If he has any feelings about this, we dont know what they are. He immediately takes to the Danes, and likes them because Ragnar is funny, and he doesnt have to read or pray. Then later, (spoiler alert) when Ragnar is killed, he abandons the Danes and agrees to kill themand we dont know why. In the show, thankfully, we are given answers for this. We see his internal struggle, and the push and pull of the two different cultures. None of that is in the book. Brida, who in the show is a well rounded character, is as two dimensional as Uhtred.

The book is basically glorified battle scenes told from the pov of a shallow, irreverent teenager who just likes killing things. He is devoid of normal feelings, and has little to no human reaction regarding death, violence, war, or grief. He comes off as a bit of a sociopath. Its incredibly disappointing, especially when compared to the show, which certainly is also about war, but is also about human beings.

The Last Kingdom is fun and easy-to-read, well-written and brings to life King Alfreds battles with the Vikings. Much of this book parallels the TV series “The Vikings.” I would recommend this book for the young adult crowd who has enjoyed the Harry Potter series. For serious readers of historical fiction, however, I would suggest they look elsewhere. The language, style and subject matter are designed for a sixteen year-old male readership; there are no feminine voices in the novel; and the treatment of history is superficial.

I’m still in the glow of living vicariously in Uhtred’s world. I can’t begin to tell exactly why this story affected me so deeply, except to say that the author did everything right. He lost no time making me care about the main character, just a child at the beginning of the story. Within the first dozen pages, I was hooked, invested in the story–wanting to know more, and needing to know young Uhtred’s fate.

The narration is first person, and occasionally, throughout the story, the narrator intrudes, addressing the reader directly. While in some books, this doesn’t work, in The Last Kingdom, it worked so well, I anticipated when it would happen, and I looked forward to it. Each time, it upped the tension just a knot. Another thing that worked incredibly well was that this entire book is told by Uhtred as an old man, sharing the tale of his life, looking back on events–

An incredibly entertaining stroll through 9th century, English history mingled with a few fictional characters. Outstanding read.

I love reading epic fantasy, most especially when the story is somewhat based on history. My inclination to read this book is due to the TV series. My interest is piqued to find out more about the life of the male protagonist, Uthred, since the TV adaptation covers only the best highlights of the story. This book entails the life of Uthred at age 10 to 20 during the war of Danes and England around 866 to 877 A.D. The POV is from Uthred himself. The story has developed and progressed the way I have expected it to be…in chronological order since it is based on history. The names of places and characters are a bit hard for me to pronounce or even remember, and so I have jotted them down (like Alfred who is constantly writing, LOL) for reference in my future reading. I have enjoyed reading this book. I am excited to read the next installment and find out more of Uthred’s destiny.

Great story of Vikings invading what will be a future England. It was such a pleasure to read a book with pieces of real history, real people and real places, in it. I loved the fact that author did not try to make a fictional main character, Uthred, a contemporary humanitarian but gave him a perky, mischievous and often cruel personality fitting the Viking image. I also loved the sense of humor, although, most of the time it was a black humor. But I could not help laughing while reading about, otherwise tragic, end of Prince Edmund. There is a lot of carnage in this book (after all it is a book about a war) but only some of the gruesome details are described, so reader is not swamped with too many horror images.
The reasons for 4 stars instead of 5 are: 1) Too many battles. It may be a plus for other readers but once I read about fighting in shield wall I did not need to read about it again and again. 2) I had problem placing many people with similar-sounding names starting with ash and figuring out how they are related.
There is actually a map at the beginning at the book and list of places and names but I missed it since my kindle opened on first chapter and I just started reading. So my advise to readers is; do not miss map and list, they are very helpful.
I liked very much authors Amazon web page that, by itself, is a great story told with a great humor.
I think I will try next a book from different series by this author (hoping for fewer battles).

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