Book: Sword Of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
Krishna
Bernard Cornwell is another author frequently reviewed here. We have reviewed almost all of his book series, starting with the Arthurian Trilogy which ends with Excaliber. We have also reviewed the Saxon Chronicles, of which this is one. See The Flame Bearer and the War of The Wolf for the previous two books in the series.
We are back to Uhtred, the central character and narrator of almost all these stories after a brief hiatus. The story starts with a missing ship, Gydene, that vanished in the sea. He thinks it drowned, but when the helmsman’s corpse is found by someone, he realizes that the helmsman, Haggar, had been hacked to death.
Having a gut feel that this is different from the usual border raids that Babbenburg is always facing, Finan and Uhtred go out to the sea to investigate.
He pretends to be a small merchant ships to lure the three invader ships close enough. He hides his mask and asks an even smaller fellow ship to do the same.
When he captures the ships he realizes that it was sent by his old enemy Aethelstan, to kill him. He had sent his youngest brorher filling his ears with poison and a vindictive priest. The boy is shocked to hear that contrary to his ideas, his own sister willingly married Uhtred’s son and not only that, both of them are Christians and Uhtred is not the enemy of Christians.
With Edward ailing and in his death bed, Uhtred hatches this mad plan to help a lady and wage war against both Aethelstan and the young son, who are trying to usurp the throne that rightfully belongs to Aethelward - a true friend but lamentably as pious as old Alfred (Earlier books for reference)
He, however, finds Athelstan has reached the island prior to his arrival there! He deceives them as a feeble man who has come to his prayers with slaves on his ship and then stealthily goes wading through a river in pouring rain.
When he captures the men and sends him to the island, he first wants to go and rescue ‘Lavender Tits’ Eadgifu. But realizes that with an overwhelming army of Aethelstan and the Celtic force that has gone to fight him, he stands no chance. When he is about to give in, he sees a small group of Aethelstan’s men coming that way (to secret away) Eadigu. Since Uhtred’s army is in the dress of vanquished Athelstan’s men stolen from them in the earlier fight described, he manages to make them think that he and his men are on their side until it is too late.
He leaves his ship in the hands of his loyal deputy and Finnan and he go to a tavern because he is surprised that just a handful of Athelhelm’s men are there. He is surprised by the man Waormund, his old enemy. Uhtred manages to pin him to a tavern but he escapes through a secret passage.
Too late, Uhtred realizes that he has walked into a trap and that Aethelhelm’s red cloaked troops have taken over the city. Besides, Aethelstan, who he came to help, has left Lundene. He hides and runs and finally gets the idea to steal a boat from Gunnald Gunnaldson. There is a great scene where he takes over the house stealthily and renders Gunnald in the hands of Benedetta who had suffered torture and cruelty in his hands in the past.
However, the boat he hoped to escape in was rotten and the only other boat Gunnaldson owned had gone across the water to sell some slaves. They decide to wait for it to come back.
The boat comes and they take it. However Waormund sees them leaving and pursues them in a faster and bigger ship. There is a fascinating chase and threats and finally they find refuge in a Mercian farm with an old man who knows Uhtred because he fought alongside him long ago.
But there is a fantastic scene where Uhtred was outthought and outgunned by Waormund. He asks Finan to take Benedetta and flee and is fully convinced that he is to die. They strip him naked, dwar him behind a horse and Waormund slaps him hard enough to break his teeth. His ribs get cracked and he is fully humiliated by having Serpent Breath taken by Waormund. When he is being taken back for certain death in front of Aethelstan, Finan with the help of his old friend’s army mounts a surprise attack and rescues him.
Uhtred is humiliated and Finan urges him to ‘not wallow in bed’ nor ‘slink back to Babbenburg’ but to get his revenge and get Serpent Breath back. So he hatches an ingenious plan and persuades Merewalh on a brilliant plan of surprise attack. In a double bind, he also exposes one of Merewalh’s own deputies as a spy (and manages to send the wrong message to Aethelstan). He then outlines the real plan and they execute it.
Compared to earlier books, this one drags a lot. Uhtred spends almost all his time hiding and running from danger. Still interesting, but you feel that there is something lacking. However, it makes up towards the end from the time Uhtred was captured and nearly killed and does not let go until almost the very end.
Good to read. Some sore points for me, who is used to his books, but still worth reading.
The final plan to attack Lundene to help Athelstan, Uhtred’s doubts about the success of the impetuous, almost pig headed plan, and the circumstances taking them into the fort and an astonishing coincidence of finding Aethelstan surrounding the fort, are all told in the inimitable style we have come to know so well.
The last 25 pages are fast paced, tense and gripping. It is as good as any Bernard has written and what we have come to expect from him.
I will definitely say this is a good read, but because of the drag in multiple places, let us say 6/10
= = Krishna