Review: Lords of the North

Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In "Lords of the North," we see a powerful warrior (Uhtred of Bebbanburg who killed—correct me if I'm wrong—not one, but two descendants of the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok) brought to his knees. The first part of the book, excellent as always, chronicles Uhtred's downfall from rising star of the Saxons to...well, just read the book.

And just when you think that everything's going very very bad for our hero, the author pulls off a deus ex machina (I'm always skeptical of this plot device, but it seemed to work in this case—I had to stop myself from doing three cartwheels on the train). This happens in the exact middle part of the book (How did Mr. Cornwell do that?), and everything just goes uphill from there (Uhtred-wise, not story-writing or plot-wise—because the author is the absolute king of Saxon-Viking storytelling).

Unforgettable scenes from the book if they were chapter titles:
1) The Red Ship
2) Thyra and the Hounds
3) Father Beocca's Miracle

Thank you Mr. Cornwell for making me care about your protagonist so much. I don't want his story to end, ever.





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