When I got this book, I didn’t realize that it was connected with the BBC America show (that I have taped and not yet watched), I just like Bernard Cornwell books. Give me some good historical fiction, and I’m pretty happy.
Osbert is the second son of Uhtred, a Northumbrian earl. Well, he’s the second son until he’s the first son when his older brother is murdered by invading Danes. So then Osbert becomes Uhtred, which I guess is how that worked back then. Denmark in the 800s is kind of a tough place to live, and they keep coming to England to conquer it so their families can have a nice place to live and plant crops.
Uhtred’s dad doesn’t make it out of a battle with the Danes, and Uhtred (the only one we have left) is taken captive because Ragnar (the big Dane guy, and the one who killed Uhtred’s brother Uhtred. Son of Uhtred). Uhtred becomes part of Ragnar’s family, learns the language, and learns how to fight like a Dane. But always in the back of his mind, Uhtred is thinking about his family, his land, his birthright. Uhtred learns everything he can from everyone he can, until he can use what he’s learned to his advantage.
There is a lot going on here, the book spans about a decade or more of Uhtred’s life, and covers a lot of ground historically. I don’t know much about this time period, but I’ve been learning a bunch about it through these books and others.
