The Saxon Tales Series Books 1 - 6 Collection Set by Bernard Cornwell

So, I jumped on the Uhtred fan-wagon when I watched The Last Kingdom on Netflix, and being a sucker for the source material of anything on screen, I toddled off to pick up the boxed set for my reading pleasure. The Saxon Tales series contains books 1-6, The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North, Sword Song, The Burning Land and Death of Kings, which admittedly took me quite a while to work my way through, considering how little time I really have for reading.

First off, it's quite interesting seeing where the series veers off from the books. There's a whole part where Uhtred and his merry band of misfits go a-viking, which was not adapted. If you're looking for all the bonus Uhtred content, however, you can't go wrong with the books. I do feel that to a large degree the screen adaption managed to capture the essence of Uhtred's character, if not the depth. Because we do rather see a lot more of his inner landscape in the books. 

The problem also of reading books back to back in a boxed set is you eventually lose track of who did what to whom and when, and which events take place in which order. So, I'll admit, it all became a bit of a blur for me, which was further compounded by the fact that I was watching new seasons of the series on telly. But on the whole, the writing holds up well, and I was entertained – which counts for something. 

I will admit that my inner editor got a bit stabby with Cornwell's love for modifiers on his dialogue tags, she said sarcastically. But hey, every author has their quirks. This one jumped out and grabbed my eyeballs, but I could overlook it on most occasions. And eye-rolled with a snarky giggle otherwise.

There is a Thing, that Uhtred does in one of the books that I felt was a wee bit unnecessary, and it involves animal cruelty. Okay, so I know Cornwell is writing as close as he can to be authentic with the culture of the time, and yes, I know this sort of thing happened often, and was considered a norm among heathens honouring their gods, but ... it was so randomly one occasion in the entire story when Uhtred doesn't do The Thing. Which kinda gutted me but hey... I've read worse. There were one or two moments also, specifically related to a deception Uhtred instigates using Sihtric, which worked on screen but didn't work in the novel primarily because it involved Uhtred withholding the information from the readers – it felt forced in the book. And I would have taken Cornwell to task for that, even if Uhtred is a somewhat unreliable narrator at times.

As far as historical novels go, I've got to give it to Cornwell for being so prolific, and for writing such engaging characters. I've gone out and purchased book 7 immediately. The Saxon Tales are action-packed, adventure-filled stories that do the job of bringing a turbulent period of the British Isles' history to life, and has most certainly awakened a hunger in me to do more research.