The next installment of Bernard Cornwellβs bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, "like Game of Thrones, but real" (Observer, London)βthe basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series coming to Netflix in Fall 2016.
From the day it was stolen from me I had dreamed of recapturing Bebbanburg. The great fort was built on a rock that was almost an island, it was massive, it could only be approached on land by a single narrow trackβand it was mine.
Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbriaβs Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Merciaβs Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed a truce. And so Englandβs greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years agoβand which his scheming cousin still occupies.
But fate is inexorable and the enemies Uhtred has made and the oaths he has sworn combine to distract him from his dream of recapturing Bebbanburg. New enemies enter into the fight for Englandβs kingdoms: the redoubtable Constantin of Scotland seizes an opportunity for conquest and leads his armies south. Britainβs precarious peace threatens to turn into a war of annihilation.
But Uhtred is determined that nothing, neither the new enemies nor the old foes who combine against him, will keep him from his birth right. He is the Lord of Bebbanburg, but he will need all the skills he has learned in a lifetime of war to make his dream come true. The latest chapter in Bernard Cornwellβs "violent, absorbing historical saga," The Flame Bearer confirms Bernard Cornwellβs title as "perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today" (Washington Post).
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