The Pagan Lord

If you loved Bernard Cornwell’s other books in this series, you will probably like this one just fine. So why the 3 star rating you ask!

If you love his books (as I do) You are almost certainly going to down-vote my review, I just ask you to hear me out before you do.

Look, I like these books. They are fun to read. This is a fine, rip-roaring page turner. Uthred is back with the usual suspects in fine style. Several new or minor characters are introduced or fleshed out. Uthred fights new battles….against insurmountable odds. He defeats his enemies through an unbelievable amount of guile, intelligence, personality, courage, military strategy, recklessness, psychology, and luck. He is often saved by luck. Often in the nick of time, luck comes to the rescue. Did I mention, Uthread’s uncanny luck?

If you want a 5 star review from me you better provide more than a page turner. I want character development. I want philosophical dilemmas. I want action. I want a good story. I want characters I care about. In short, I want closer to what Bernard Cornwell gave us in his first several books in this series.

Uthread is a smart man with an abundance of understanding of both military strategy and psychology. Given the way he out-thinks both his enemies and his allies alike, Uthred must be the smartest man alive in Saxon England around the turn of the millennium.

In the early books in this series, Uthred was a complex character torn between his early Saxon roots, his Pagan, Danish upbringing, and the Saxon entanglements he found himself ensnared in as he tried to assert his destiny as lord of Bebbanburg. But as the series has progressed – dare I say aged – it has fallen into (or should I say back on??) the formula of Uthred being treated like garbage by the Saxons (in earlier books because Alfred didn’t like his paganism, and more lately because he commits some avoidable and predictable transgression against the church), Uthred then fleeing to some form of penury exile, whereupon he returns – against both his desires and better judgement – to save the Saxons from their own ineptitude. Along the way he fights battles against armies numbering ten times his own, prevailing through his inestimable intellect, his warrior’s sixth sense, or the cavalry riding to his defense at the eleventh (and three quarters) hour.

Look, these books are enjoyable page turners. Cornwell writes engaging action scenes – no!! He writes freaking AWESOME action scenes. They are AWESOME. They are exciting. They are BRUTAL. BUT!!!! they have become predicable, and have really seemed to have fallen into a rut of retreading the same book with a slightly different supporting cast and a different major battle against which to stage the book.

And finally (minor spoilers to follow), something that annoyed me immensely was that he decided to end this book with a cliffhanger. C’mon!!! In all his previous books he had the respect for his readers to write a self contained novel which would bring us back for the love of the story and the love of the characters. Suddenly, it’s the season finale of season 7 of the Saxon Tales. What happens to the boy in Lundeen? His mother? What about the twins? Will Uthred find love with the deaf girl, what of the golden one? For that matter will Uthred find anything at all. Who shot JR?

I feel like I have to emphasize, I read this book non stop. It IS a page turner. BUT I feel like Bernard Cornwell has given up on these characters. He has found a successful formula and he is milking it.

Give Uthred some respect and/or some financial stability. Have him screw it up through some massively stupid, miscalculated (yet somehow noble) action. Have him declared “persona-non-grata” by the Saxons. Have him retreat to the Danes (actually or metaphorically) where he will not only be happier, but accepted for who he is. Have him reject the Danes and ride on his white horse to the rescue of the Saxons who revile him. Have his strategies be repudiated by the saxons. Have him face the dreaded shield wall along with his closest friends and family. Have him persevere against unimaginable odds. C’monnnnnnn, again????

Please Bernard, stop writing the same book over and over again and give us something to look forward to.

I just started to read book #8 in the series at the time of this review and in my opinion, it’s the best book I’ve read in the series. The story of Uhtred, who seems perpetually at odds with the Christians who hate him and the Danes who threaten to destroy Alfred’s dreams of a unified England, has become one of my favorite fictional characters.
In this book, Cornwell does an excellent job of building on the character of Uhtred as a warlord, a father, a pagan, and the personalities of his closest companions. True to his style, Cornwell provides us with serveral detailed, vicious, bloody battles that will keep you on the edge of your seat, along with a few unforeseen twists and turns as the plot develops.
At the risk of giving away any spoilers, I’ll cut my review short so you have the chance to read one of the BEST books in the series. If you’ve read the previous books in the series, you will not be disappointed.

This is the seventh book in Cornwell’s Saxon Series. I’ve enjoyed all the books in the series, which looks like it’ll be at least 13 books. If you love historical fiction, this is truly enjoyable reading. If you’re a history buff, remember this is fiction and expect Cornwell to take liberties with timelines and relationships. This is pretty standard in historical fiction but Cornwell does it well and it’s less distracting than it could be. This series is an insightful journey into life and times in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Written from the perspective of Uhtred, son of a Northumbrian nobleman raised by Vikings, Cornwell paints a portrait inclusive of all the diverse peoples and cultures in 9th & 10th Century Britain and tells a riveting tale of the birth of England. Great reading.

Uhtred returns for his 7th outing in this novel. He has entered well into middle age, not as common a fate in the time the action happens as it is today, but the changes appropriate to his age are well handled: he still is happiest In the first row of the shield wall, but recognizes that his reaction time has slowed and his chief role is at the command level.
Persisting in his belief in the Norse gods in a Christian era around the year 900, he is viewed with suspicion by his liegelord, King Edward of Mercia, and when he accidentally kills a priest he is banished. It appears he has nowhere to go except back to Northumbria to recapture his ancestral fortress of Bebbanberg, and he attempts to do just that. At the same time, the period of peace between the Saxons and Danes that has made it easy for the Christian kings to reject him comes rather suddenly to an end and he is once more on the march.
This book continues both the action and the tone of the previous 6 books. Like No. 6, it leads us to wonder how he will eventually return to Bebbanberg, but the point of view of the novel is that of an old man in possession of that impregnable fortress, so it’s clear the author has a plan for that. This entry in the series continues as entertaining as the rest, with Uhtred as dominating a presence as he has been since his adolescence in “The Last Kingdom.”

This series gets better as it goes. This is historical fiction at it’s finest. Interestingly, I think this book may have the least actual history of any of the books so far. Basically, there was a historical event that is known where and when it happened along with some of the players but not much more. Cornwell builds a tapestry of invented actions that lead up to the battle nobody knows much about. That’s as much as I’ll give away but suffice it to say, as usual, Cornwell is masterful at building the world and characters in this story and telling it in a completely believable way. I enjoyed the story and I have a lot of respect for Cornwell as a writer and storyteller. I highly recommend this book but I suggest you start at the beginning of the series and read from there if you haven’t already. This is hours of inexpensive enjoyable entertainment.

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