
The Last Kingdom
The Last Kingdom Series, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Keeble
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By:
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Bernard Cornwell
About this listen
The first book in a brand-new series, The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred.
Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at 10, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.
The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.
The Last Kingdom, like most of Bernard Cornwell's books, is firmly based on true history. It is the first novel of a series that will tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced, Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties, reluctant love, and desperate heroism. In Uhtred, he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.
©2004 Bernard Cornwell (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedCritic reviews
"Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation." ( Daily Mail)
"Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched." ( Observer)
Back to another time
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Amazing narration, excellent story
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This had me hooked for days
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Good book, great performance
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Dramatic History story telling
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Loved it !
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Excellent in every way
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Enthralling
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Where does The Last Kingdom rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I had previously read many of Simon Scarrow's fiction of Romans in Britain, and enjoyed them. These here make a good follow-on. I find the writing a little superior and the narration is good. It's interesting for anyone who finds this period before 1066 intriguing, or who has an interest in the influence of Vikings on British history.New threads in an old, accurate tapestry
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Cornwell at his best!
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