Bernard Cornwell - Saxon books

[Bugg]

Must admit, I much prefer his books that are written in first-person, like these, to those in third, such as the Sharpe ones I've read so far.

 

[StuartBurchell]

The thing about first person perspectives is that you are stuck in one location with one viewpoint.

I know there are other 1st person books but with more than one character narrating the story...

 

[Bugg]

The thing about first person perspectives is that you are stuck in one location with one viewpoint.

One location? Uhtred travel's all over the place But one man's meat is another man's poison etc etc

 

[Brian G Turner]

I've finally started reading The Last Kingdom and I'm really enjoying the unique use of narrative voice, and love the little bits of historical detail its sprinkled with to support it.

I was a little concerned at first that the book would be so close to the TV series as to lack surprise. However, the divergence between them both quickly became clear. While I did very much enjoy the TV series, it's clear that - as usual - the books are even better.

 

[Vertigo]

I've read the first two so far and loved both of them and will be reading the next in the next month or so.

I'm generally not a great fan of first person POV (though I do seem to have been reading more of them just recently) and, whilst it does have its limitations, such as being pinned to the actions of one person and any other actions only being narrated through dialogue, it also puts the reader very firmly into the middle of that one person's actions. This is particularly noticeable in battle scenes where you really do feel like you are there.

 

[Bugg]

Cornwell does first person POV brilliantly. I highly recommend his Arthurian 'Warlord Chronicles' trilogy, too - they were the first ones I read of his and got me hooked

 

[Vertigo]

I've been wondering about the Sharpe books next but 1) there's an awful lot of them 2) do I like historical books set in the Napoleonic wars or just age-of-sail man-of-war books?

 

[Bugg]

Read Sharpe's Trafalgar and kill two birds with one stone

 

[Vertigo]

 

[Bugg]

Just listening to a Q&A with Bernard Cornwell on Facebook. He says there are more Uhtred and Sharpe books to come. Also, a second season of the tv series of The Last Kingdom is coming next year, and two more seasons are planned after that.