free download the last kingdom bernard cornwell

Eighty years old, and fighting with a sword from horseback. He’s also about eighty, and leads the Saxon cavalry in a charge at the climactic moment of the battle. Oh, and for no good reason, a wonderful character from the first books, Steapa Snotor, returns. No, Cornwell has to have Finan defeat a much younger, stronger man in single combat, while he puts Uhtred – eighty-year old Uhtred – in the front rank of the shield wall, from where he kills any number of younger, bigger, stronger men. They don’t sit on their horses behind the lines directing the troops, which would have been believable. Both characters are approximately eighty years old when they fight the climactic Battle of Brunanburh in 937.

The sad fact is that in order to take the series from its starting point to the point at which Cornwell wanted to end it, Cornwell had to endow both Uhtred and Finan with superhuman powers. As historical fiction series go, Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales has in my view been one of the best, and I’m sorry I can’t cheer lustily for the final entry.

Free download the last kingdom bernard cornwell