Book: The Flame Bearer by Bernard Cornwell
Krishna
The next installment in the Saxon Series. So far we have reviewed almost all of the earlier books in the series. Please see The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman , The Lords of The North. The Sword Song. The Burning Land, The Death of Kings, The Pagan Lord, The Empty Throne and Warriors of the Storm.
The story continues.
Uhtred finally goes to reclaim Babbenburg but finds that Swedish shipmen have piled on to help his cousin’s son, the usurper of the throne that he, Uhtred, claims as his own. He meets a Dane who swears to kill Uhtred. However, he is called back to defend his son in law’s castle from a Danish attack and reluctantly leaves.
Then he is cornered by Constantin his old enemy and forced to retreat. He vows to be back for revenge. He finds that Styggyr and his daughter have both gone to argue with a Saxon army that seems to have come to attack. Uhtred is puzzled because King Edward had so far not shown any inclination to attack Northumbria.
He goes to meet his daughter who is the Queen and wife of Styggyr. He finds that the priests are building a huge cathedral in the place and realizes that it is a trap so that King Constantin can attack from the West.
He guesses the trap by the Christian priest and prepares a counter surprise. It is great fun when he unravels a plot by Athelhelm to kill their own people in the guise of Styggir’s men. Uhtred protects them but then takes the enemy warriors prisoners in a remote place so that Aethelhelm does not realize what has happened. He exposes the plot and lets Athelhelm out by giving him a way out to pretend that it was treachery by his own men. When he finds out that Athelhelm is planning to support Babbenberg and this would be fully lost to him (in a highly entertaining sequence where he goes in disguise as a begger and is almost unmasked) Eldar the White arrives to destroy Aethelhelm’s fleet.
When he leaves back to his place he deceives everyone saying that he is going to go and settle down in a peaceful place but where he heads with his fleet is to Bebbanberg, his old dream and the land he lost to his cousin.
The story takes off from there. When Elnar arrives, he has to go quickly away not to get caught in the conflagration and he goes by the same boat that he went into Essex. The way the crippled, stooped old man wields the rusty sword of the shipmaster horrifies the latter until in a glorious sequence Uhtred reveals his true identity.
Many more surprises follow. When he goes to Bebbanberg, he guesses the intentions of the mad priest correctly and tricks him into revealing his promise of rescue the cousin from the siege of Constantin, whose ally Eldar really is. Once he knows of the plan, he gloriously tricks his cousin into opening his gates in a tense sequence where he is pursued by Athelhelms fleet and his formidable commander and also Eldar, who has been promised easy prey of the food by the same mad priest in a multiple double cross. (The aim of the mad priest is to get grants to the island to build a church no matter who won – Danes, Scots Aethelhelm or the falst Uhtred who is the cousin who usurped the throne of our real hero).
What follows is a stupendous battle with surprise after surprise, and where a secret member of his army that he did not suspect and did not want to carry along is revealed; there is a glorious one to one combat and a beautiful sequence that rivets you to the pages, and then the final battle and the denouement.
Not for nothing is Bernard such a famous author. His storytelling is lovely. A friend points out that he has now become formulaic and spins similar tales. I admit that it is true but each one is glorious. This charge can be levelled against almost any author but still it is fun to read the exploits. This story, unlike the previous ones, are nearly all fiction as the author himself admits in the epilog. I don’t think it takes away from the enjoyment of the book, unless you are after education and not simply entertainment.
For me, it was deeply satisfying
8 / 10
– – Krishna (Jan 2019)