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    Sword of Kings
    Sword of Kings
    Sword of Kings
    Audiobook13 hours

    Sword of Kings

    Written by Bernard Cornwell

    Narrated by Matt Bates

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    *A brand new companion to the Last Kingdom series, Uhtred’s Feast, is available to pre-order now*

    An oath of loyalty.
    Two warring kings.
    A destiny he didn’t choose…

    England is in turmoil as Vikings and Saxons battle for territory. Rumours build about the fatal sickness of the King, and the country awaits an heir.

    A violent clash at sea forces the warrior lord Uhtred to lead his men from his Northumbrian fortress to London and plunge into the eye of the storm. For two kings claim the empty throne, and a new kingdom cannot be born without bloodshed.

    Uhtred’s sword will leave one king dead and the other victorious. But sometimes it is hard to know the will of the gods…

    ‘Nobody in the world does this better than Cornwell’ LEE CHILD

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 3, 2019
    ISBN9780008183943
    Sword of Kings
    Author

    Bernard Cornwell

    BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of over fifty novels, including the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales, which serve as the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charleston, South Carolina.

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    Reviews for Sword of Kings

    4.5/5

    200 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      very good but NOT great. There is an air of finality about this book. Utred is approaching 60/70 and is getting past it. Finan is the same age. There is no stopping time or progress. A curious thing: Utred never kills a priest in the whole book. Aside: Will BC fire up the Starbuck/American Civil War series? God I hope so.
    • 5/5
      If you like Bernard Cornwell’s storytelling, as I do you will enjoy the story. It is his basic story outline and you can be pretty sure that the hero will live, but the ins and outs of the story and heroics makes his stories exciting.
    • 4/5
      King Edward is dying. Now Uhtred is leaving his beloved home to fulfill his sworn oath to kill Ethelhelm and his grandson, Elfweard.
    • 4/5
      This is the twelfth novel in the author's Uhtred series. The events here, as in the previous novel, continue to surround the jockying for power as King Edward the Elder (Alfred's son) is dying, between Athelstan and his half brother Alfweard, sons of different wives of King Edward disputing each other's legitimacy/suitability for the throne. Uhtred as ever moves across the country involved in mayhem and bloodshed, but eventually returns to Bebbanburg again after Athelstan emerges triumphant.
    • 4/5
      It took me longer to get into ‘Sword of Kings’ compared to most novels in this series. Perhaps this is owing to the amount of time spent on ships, as my ship/boat terminology isn’t expert, making it harder for me to picture what's happening. Having said that, I did enjoy a chase on the water at one part of the story.I don’t know Uhtred’s exact age in this book, but as the first novel in the series opens in 866, and with this one being set during 924, he must be pushing 70 – at least 67. Yet, he’s still there battling away with the younger warriors. It’s arguable whether he could still be such a great fighter in his late 60s, but when considering how much tougher a man needed to be in Anglo-Saxon times, I think it’s believable. It’s not unreasonable for any man hardened by a warrior lifestyle to remain effective in battle when they reach old age, providing illness doesn’t force them to call it a day. Uhtred is a character who’s known battles and tough times since boyhood, so he’s the epitome of a hard case.So, we have some good conflict during the novel, along with upbeat humour injected here and there, as one expects from this series. It’s set during a fascinating time of my country’s (England) history, when the separate kingdoms were slowly being united as one. While the story itself is very good, it sometimes suffers from “telling” instead of “showing”. For example, “The red-cloaked killer hesitated, plainly offended at being questioned.” When an author uses words like “plainly” or “clearly” in this context, they aren’t “showing” the reader anything.Also, to state that a character “looked frustrated” or “looked puzzled” is blatant telling. "Show” the frustration or puzzlement with body language/facial expression.To state “He seemed surprised” or “Wistan seemed bemused” is another form of “telling” that could have been “shown” with a line of action.“Telling” is at its worst through overuse of adverbs. The following would’ve been vivid if the nervousness in each case was “shown”: “He glanced nervously at Eadith who, like him, wore a cross. ‘Lord?’ he asked nervously.”The above quote also demonstrates something that annoys me in most novels I read, namely that the paragraph formatting is wrong. The “new speaker, new line” rule is ignored time and again. In some cases in this book, a long fist-person narrated paragraph concludes with a short line of dialogue tagged on the end. As an experienced copy-editor myself, I don’t understand why the editors overlook this.Another gripe I have with this book, and novels in general, is adverbs used in dialogue attribution. For example, with “‘Sharpen your swords, lads,’ Finan said softly” I needed to pause and mentally ‘adjust’ because I didn’t imagine Finan speaking softly. The dialogue sounds like a command, so I heard him speaking in a commanding tone, only to find out afterwards that he spoke softly. Few things interrupt the narrative flow more than this. Most dialogue attribution is unnecessary if it’s made clear in the narration who’s about to speak, and therefore adverbs are not needed if the author uses some sort of action prior to the dialogue to suggest how the character speaks.Bernard Cronwell’s characters are so vivid that he could cut over 90 per cent of his dialogue attribution. For example, The “I said” in the following quote is a waste of words that interrupts the narrative flow: “‘My name,’ I said, ‘is Uhtred, son of Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg.’”It’s also a waste of words to overuse ‘had’ (past perfect). For example, why use “had taken” when “took” would do? The problem with the past perfect ‘had’ is that it reports on the scene as opposed to taking the reader into the action as it unfolds. The odd one is inevitable, but in this book it’s common, even though it’s easy to omit them. The narrative is in the past tense, so ‘had’ should only be used if a sentence sounds odd without it. For example, “He had shaken his head” flows better as “He shook his head” because “shook” is in the past tense. If a scene that’s past is being recalled, all that’s needed is to inform the reader that these events have already happened, after which the overuse of ‘had’ is unnecessary.I know some readers only care about the story, not the style elements or correct paragraph formatting, but as someone who does value these attributes, I’m always distracted by the points criticised above. Quality style enhances a great story.Besides the above criticisms, I did really like “Sword of Kings”, and will miss Uhtred when he finally hangs up his sword.
    • 3/5
      I found this effort by Cornwell to be one of the better novels he has written. Uhtred of Bebbanburg finds himself compelled to carry out an oath that he swore earlier. The oath was to kill several bad men in the service of Athelstan, who will eventually become the first king of a united England. Difficulties, some of them due to Uhtred's own arrogance, intervene. The ending contains a bit of homage to C.S. Forester, one of the giants in the field of action packed historical thrillers. I look forward to the next Uhtred book.
    • 5/5
      Uthred and his merry band are off to reduce the number of Athels, hooray! in pre-England Britain. His oaths continue to direct and plague him when the tension mounts and armies gather as King Edward nears his end of life. Challenges at sea and on land keep the story lively until Uthred is captured by his arch-enemy, Waormund; then is gets painfully ugly. As always, Cornwell keeps your attention until the end of this mostly historically correct tale. With a tweak here a nudge there a bit of history is artfully presented.
    • 4/5
      What can I say about this book other than that it is exactly what you would expect. This is the last entry in a series of books set in England in the 10th Century that feature Uthred Lord of Bebbanburg. In this latest outing, Uthred must honor a vow he made to a dying king. A vow that may lead him to a grave himself.Nobody does historical fiction like Cornwell and this book is a fine example of why he stands alone in this realm. The characters are rich, the scenery sharp, and the tale seems to spring from the pages. A thoroughly enjoyable read.