Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (180)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

David McK (3728 KP) rated The Winter King in Books

Sep 4, 2020  
The Winter King
The Winter King
Bernard Cornwell | 1995 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
6
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The first of Bernard Cornwell's so-called Warlord trilogy novels, which are a retelling/reimagining of the King Arthur Legend.

These are also novels that - despite being the author's own personal favourites of the (many) novels he has written - I have struggled with, never really getting into them or feeling any connection with the story or character in the same way as I do towards Uhtred of Bebbanburg, or to Richard Sharpe.

I don't know whether that's because these are so different than I was originally expecting (the magic and mysticism of the tales, here, are more to do with superstition and ignorance), or whether because it may be fairer to call these a tale of Derfel, who narrates the story in later life in a monastery and how - here- he first came to the service of Arthur, the King that never was.

Maybe also because of the Dark Ages setting, which - obviously, since so little is known of that period (hence the name Dark Ages!) - means that Cornwell can't really bring history to life like he does in most of his other works?