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Read Sword Song (2008)

Sword Song (2008)

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Rating
4.25 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0060888644 (ISBN13: 9780060888640)
Language
English
Publisher
harper

Sword Song (2008) - Plot & Excerpts

There are so many things to like about Mr. Cornwell's "Sword Song," but what stood out for me was (decidedly "pagan" and Thor devotee) Uthred's unlikely friendship with two priests: the fierce Welsh warrior Father Pyrlig and King Alfred's adviser and scholar Father Beocca.Uhtred on choosing Father Pyrlig:"On one side a kingdom, Viking friends and wealth, and on the other a Briton who was the priest of a religion that sucks joy from this world like dusk swallowing daylight. Yet I did not think. I chose, or fate chose, and I chose friendship. Pyrlig was my friend."Uhtred on Father Beocca:"He had a club foot, a squint, and a palsied left hand. He was blind in his wandering eye that had gone as white as his hair, for he was now nearly fifty years old. Children jeered at him in the streets and some folk made the sign of the cross, believing that ugliness was a mark of the devil, but he was as good a Christian as any I have ever known."Funny repartees involving Uhtred and Beocca..."Too many people were talking in the church!" Beocca complained. "This was a holy day, Uhtred, a sacred day, a celebration of the sacrament, and people were talking as if they were at market!""I was one of them," I (Uhtred) said."You were?" he asked, squinting up at me. "Well, you shouldn't have been talking. It's just plain bad manners! And insulting to God! I'm astonished at you, Uhtred, I really am! I'm astonished and disappointed.""Yes, father," I said, smiling....and Uhtred and Pyrlig:"But I've known Aethelflaed forever!" I exclaimed."He fears you know her only too well," Pyrlig said, "and it drives him to madness.""But that's stupid!" I spoke angrily."It's jealousy," Pyrlig said, "and all jealousy is stupid." More favorite passages from the book:"It is strange what men talk about before battle. Anything except what faces them. I have stood in a shield wall, staring at an enemy bright with blades and dark with menace, and heard two of my men argue furiously about which tavern brewed the best ale. Fear hovers in the air like a cloud and we talk of nothing to pretend that the cloud is not there." —Uhtred, p.10"You never, ever, tell others of your crimes, not unless they are so big as to be incapable of concealment, and then you describe them as policy or statecraft." —Uhtred, p.36"Yet I was sworn to Alfred. I was sworn to defend Wessex. I had given Alfred my oath and without oaths we are no better than beasts." —Uhtred, p.55"Cowardice is always with us, and bravery, the thing that provokes the poets to make songs about us, is merely the will to overcome the fear." —Uthred, p.136"You live by obeying the rules. You make a reputation, boy, by breaking them." —Uhtred, p.149

SWORD SONG: THE BATTLE FOR LONDON BY BERNARD CORNWELL: We last left Uhtred, in Lords of the North, apparently an ally with King Alfred, while the Vikings were making a very successful takeover of England, making it seem like there was little hope left for Alfred and his Saxon people. But Alfred has God on his side, and feels he will be ultimately victorious; Uhtred on the other hand, a pagan, cares little for this Christian religion, but is still a little unsure of where his allegiances lie. While the first three of the Saxon Chronicles gave little hope and direction for Uhtred, in Sword Song, he has more to fight for with a wife and child, and another baby on the way. The old Roman town of London, an important one with its link to the Thames, has been taken over by the Vikings. If Alfred gives them London, Wessex is next and soon there will be little left to defend and England will be a Viking nation. So Alfred charges Uhtred with this great task to use the Saxon army, as well as his own loyal men, and take back London.At this point Uhtred is an warrior and a great leader in a shield wall. But with the siege of London, he must mount an attack from the Thames, using ships and men. It will involve all his previous experience of battle, as well as appeasing both the Saxon army, and his own Northmen. His plan is to appear as an ally to the Vikings upon reaching London which, with his history, is a possibility, but then to spring the trap and take back the pivotal town. The question is whether Uhtred will live up to his side of the bargain, with his loyalty being challenged. Coupled with this is Aethelflæd, Alfred’s daughter, who has been recently kidnapped and is being held somewhere in London by a Viking lord; her life must be protected at all costs.Sword Song jumps the bestselling series one big step forward, with this pivotal battle in the creation of the nation of England and its people. Ending on a cliffhanger, Cornwell skillfully leaves fans having to wait another whole year until they can get the next important chapter in the story of Alfred the Great. For more book reviews and exclusive author interviews, go to BookBanter.

What do You think about Sword Song (2008)?

Given to me to read by HMcD. The author is a neighbor of hers. Even though this is part of a series (kind of like skipping to the end of a book to see how it ends) I found it not a problem at all to jump into this take of England during the time of Alfred the Great (9th Century). From what I've gathered, half Saxon,half Dane Uhtred was done out of his inheritance, raised by Vikings and is now sworn by oath to Alfred. In a time when Vikings and Saxons are at war (as well as Christianity and Paganism) Uhtred's warrior skills are of great service. The main part of the tale revolves around the battle for the city of London. The battle scenes are some of the best I have read, clear and grittily (is that a word?) realistic, extreme attention to detail. (I've recently read some really crummy battle scenes, so the difference was quite apparent.) There are plots and subplots (a man arises from the dead to help convince Uhtred where his loyalties need be, friendships, family ties, the complexities of marriage, and love) woven around the battles. Uhtred manages to keep both his integrity and his oaths, even when the two conflict. A good tale.Loved the USA Today quote on the back of the book: Bernard Cornwell ranks as the current alpha male of testoterone-enriched historical fiction....This satisfying tale leaves you hungry for more of Uhtred's adventures."
—bookczuk

Cornwell still hasn't let me down with this series. The villains are still easy to hate and there were even characters I wholly liked (Pyrlig is great.) The relative lack of major events in Lords of the North made it a slower read for me than The Pale Horseman, and although this one seemed still primarily focused on the smaller stories of Uhtred and Æthelflæd there was a ton of action and purposeful movement.I have to say that I'm proud of Uhtred. A whole 300+ pages and he didn't commit a single brutal murder of a defenseless person. Either he's getting soft in his old age of twenty-eight or that spark of developing character I saw in the other books is slowly coming to fruition. Either way it definitely makes me like him a lot more and thusly I get a lot more invested in his story and ultimate fate.Cornwell's writing still surprises me with not only its vivid depiction of day-to-day life and war in 10th century Britain but its devotion to describing the beauty and detail of the island. I never thought that I would enjoy in-depth descriptions of estuaries and inlets and that kind of thing but I definitely did while reading this book. He obviously has a strong affection for Britain and it shows with these books.After four books in a row I'm still enjoying them a lot and I'm excited to start the next one but I have to say I'm not sure how Cornwell's going to keep them so entertaining. I enjoy his formula but only because he manages to mix up the situations, characters, areas, etc. within that formula. With each passing book I'm sure this is going to get harder and harder, but he hasn't let me down yet. Onto the next one and I'll see how he pulls it off.
—Nate

Uhtred has now become the Lord of War. He has earned his reputation and his wealth; he is beyond tried and tested; he is the master of his craft; he is the mighty Uhtred and he is a war lord."My helmet was a glorious thing, polished to an eye blinding shine, inlaid with silver and crested with a wolf’s head. The face plates were decorated with silver spirals. That helmet alone told an enemy I was a man of substance. If a man killed me and took the helmet he would instantly be rich, but my enemies would have rather taken my arm rings, which, like the Danes, I wore over my mail sleeves. My rings were silver and gold, and there wearer so many that some had to be worn at my elbows. They spoke of men killed and wealth horded. My boots were of thick leather and had iron plates sewn into them to deflect spear thrusts that come under my shield. The shield itself, rimmed with iron, was painted with a wolfs head, my badge, and at my left hung serpents breath and at my right Wasp-sting, and I strode towards the gate with the sun rising behind me to throw my long shadow on the filth-strewn street. I was a warlord in all my glory, I had come to kill, and no one at the gate knew it."The book opens in a brutal hanging that is just another necessity of war. Uhtred has learnt that a man must be brutal if his enemies are to fear him; he has learnt that in order to maintain his warrior reputation he must be merciless. Men must fear him or his reputation is ruined. Through serving Alfred he has realised that he will never receive the deserved glory for the services he has provided to him. In this book his king has ordered him to be an advisor to his cousin, which means Uhtred will do all the fighting and his weak cousin will get all the rewards. Uhtred must bide his time in service to Alfred because one day he will be able to reclaim his family home. The familiarity of these novels really gives the series a sense of cohesion. When you pick up the next instalment, there is absolutely no doubt as to what you are going to get: more Uhtred. You are going to get another chapter of his life; you are going to get the next stage of his development; you are going to see the narrative change as he comes closer and closer to the retrospective Uhtred that is telling the tale.I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of reading this series; I could read twenty books on this character. You’re more than likely to get tired of seeing my reviews of the Saxon Stories before I get tired of reading the series. This is the fourth in the series I’ve reviewed now, and I’m sure eventually I will have reviewed the rest.
—Bookworm Sean

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