The Forest Laird Audiobook By Jack Whyte cover art

The Forest Laird

A Tale of William Wallace - The Guardians, Book 1

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The Forest Laird

By: Jack Whyte
Narrated by: David Monteath
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In the pre-dawn hours of August 24th, 1305, in London's Smithfield Prison, the outlaw William Wallace - hero of all the Scots and deadly enemy of King Edward of England - sits awaiting the dawn, when he is to be hanged and then drawn and quartered. This brutal sundering of his body is the revenge of the English. Wallace is visited by a Scottish priest who has come to hear his last confession, a priest who knows Wallace like a brother. Wallace's confession - the tale that follows - is all the more remarkable because it comes from real life.

We follow Wallace through his many lives - as outlaw and fugitive, hero and patriot, rebel and kingmaker. His exploits and escapades, desperate struggles and victorious campaigns are all here, as are the high ideals and fierce patriotism that drove him to abandon the people he loved to save his country.

William Wallace is the first heroic figure from the Scottish Wars of Independence, a man whose fame has reached far beyond his homeland. Wallace served as a subject for the Academy Award - winning film Braveheart. In The Forest Laird, Jack Whyte's masterful storytelling breathes life into Wallace's tale, giving listeners an amazing character study of the man who helped shape Scotland's future.

©2010 Jack Whyte (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Medieval

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I stumbled on this book by chance after watching Outlaw/King on Netflix. I decided that I need to learn more about both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. I am in wonder over how the story line in this novel and the narration of it draw me in and have kept me enthralled. I highly recommend listening to this novel if you are interested in Scotland's history.

Well written and narrated

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First in a trilogy. I’m totally fascinated by William Wallace. This one tells of and imagines his beginnings all the way up until he fully enters the fray, in search of Scotland’s independence from English rule. It ends just before the Battle of Sterling Bridge. This was an atmospheric page turner. Superbly read!


Riveting…🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Forest Laird to be better than the print version?

its a good book, I like the fantasy feel and easy conversational historical information that is the backdrop, its interesting

1st review!?

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I really enjoyed learning about William Wallace and early Scottish history. I've read a lot about Irish and English history but not so much about Scottish. This has really whet my appetite. On the the second installment...

Great!

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Loved the Scottish Narrative because it makes it seem more real and quite dramatic. Just like listening to one of the Scottish storytellers of old.

Great Audiobook.

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Being placed into the shoes of William Wallace’s friend, cousin, and confidant brought this tale to life. It felt more like a real story than a history lesson through Jamie’s eyes. I can’t wait to move on to the next in the series!

A living history.

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Great narration… Great story with fiction wrapped in history. It gives a great fictional story of how Young William Wallace came to be. Moving on to the renegade.

Great Story

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this book has it all
excellent on all counts
beautiful story and the telling of it

everything

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I'm going to Scotland in a few weeks and have been trying to read and listen to everything I can about the country before I go. This was a misfire and a wasted twenty hours.

The book really isn't about Wallace. It's about his fictional, boring, (sort of) dim-witted cousin, Jamie, who becomes a priest and who moves in William's circle during the timeline of the book, which ends long before the exciting period of Wallace's life. When the climatic event of the book occurs, (not to give anything away, but the climax of this book corresponds with an event that takes place in the first thirty minutes of Braveheart), Wallace is far off screen and Jamie is left to muddle through, boringly. Wallace is completely absent during the last chapters as the story concludes.

Large parts of this book are anachronistic political discussions that lead basically nowhere. They're vaguely left-wing, but they aren't fully formed enough to turn off conservatives. They're just boring and pointless. Another reviewer called them "moralizing" and I think that's fair, but there isn't enough depth to take an actual moral out of them.

I was hoping the author (a native-born Scotsman who lived most of his adult life in Canada) would write with passionate detail about Scotland, but aside from a few early descriptions, he could have be writing about British Columbia, where he lived most of his life. There's an introduction where he claims to have spent quite a bit of time in researching the book in Scotland, but came to the realization later that Wallace's Scotland was mostly gone. I took this originally as a lament, but now, having finished the book, I view it as an apology or a warning.

Annoyingly, the book begins with a prologue where Jamie and William meet in jail the night before William is to be executed, but the story ends so long before that time, with the characters so badly formed, one has to wonder if the author used the night before this notorious execution as a hook to keep the reader reading for longer, until it becomes clear by the amount of time left in the book, that we're going to end up nowhere near most of the critical moments of Wallace's life.

This author apparently picks up the story in a second volume with the story of Robert the Bruce. I was going to head right into that next, but I can't justify it now. Unless the author shows narrative skill that he didn't show here, I can't image he brings the Wallace story to a satisfying close in the next two books.

Also, I think most of the positive reviews here are either bots or the author’s family members, because, while I think people could honestly give a mediocre review (tastes can obviously vary), no one could realistically think this is actually a good book.

Not very good, and not really about Wallace

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i like jack white author of merlin and king arthur series skystone. i love history and war stories. this book was a lot of teen years and twenties with abuse and grief by the english but no action. main point of view is the priest and his moral angst.

tedious to get through early life of braveheart

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