Bernard Cornwell released the latest chapter of his Saxon Tales novels, Sword of Kings, last month, and I’m happy to report that Uhtred son of Uhtred’s continued adventures in medieval England are as thrilling and brisk as ever.
The basis for Netflix’s superb The Last Kingdom, Cornwell’s Saxon Tales are always a quick and breezy read, but don’t sacrifice quality or depth. Sword of Kings is more of the same. Cornwell churns out a new entry in the series virtually every year, with no end in sight. If anything, Sword of Kings feels like a bit of a relaunch for Uhtred, both personally and in terms of the English political landscape, and I’m totally onboard.
As the book opens, we’re quickly thrown into the mix, as Uhtred and friends find themselves in a sea battle chasing down unknown parties attacking Uhtred’s fishing fleet in the waters around Bebbanburg. We quickly learn the culprits are involved with Uhtred’s hated enemy: Ethelhelm, Wessex’s most powerful ealdorman. Ethelhelm has not forgotten Uhtred, and with King Edward near death, seeks to take Uhtred down as both revenge for the death of Ethelhelm’s father (also named Ethelhelm), and to keep Uhtred from interfering in Wessex’s upcoming battle of succession. At any rate, Ethelhelm’s attack fails, sending Uhtred south to Wessex once again, and we’re off to the races.
Uhtred is heading south not just seeking revenge, but also to fulfill his oath to Aethelstan, one of the claimants to Edward’s crown. What follows is one of Cornwell’s more thrilling novels. Uhtred bounces from one bad situation to the next, with only a little room given to the reader to catch their breath. Uhtred, with Finan by his side, eventually finds himself participating in a wild plan to retake London from the forces of Elfweard, the other claimant for the throne, and Ethelhelm’s nephew.
Along the way, Uhtred meets a potential new love interest and seems to regain the fighting prowess age had appeared to rob him of in previous novels. There are few dull moments, and the whole novel took only a few days of moderate reading to finish. Cornwell’s novels (including his criminally underrated Warlord Chronicles) have always been easy reads, but Sword of Kings feels particularly fast. Compared to the dense-as-a-textbook Wheel of Time series, from which I took a break to read Kings, Cornwell’s books have all the weight of Saturday morning cartoons, and are no less enjoyable.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
If I could level one humble criticism at Kings, and at the Saxon Tales in general, it’s that it tends to kill a lot of its characters off-page. Onscreen, The Last Kingdom has done a good job of pushing those deaths to the forefront so we feel their emotional impact, but on the page, and especially in Kings, I want more. A plethora of characters are wiped out by the plague with little more than a casual mention. These deaths have seismic impacts on Uhtred’s personal and political life, setting up some exciting possibilities in novels to come, but they seem almost like throwaway events.
Still, it’s hard to complain much when the rest of the novel is so excellent. Twelve novels in, one might expect the whole thing to feel a bit stale, but Sword of Kings is as wonderful as ever, featuring a new political landscape for Uhtred to navigate and the continued threat of the Scots lurking to the north. Hopefully Cornwell keeps up his yearly pace, and we get another Saxon Tale this time next year. Or sooner.
Wyrd bið ful āræd.
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