The Winter King

The Winter King – Bernard Cornwell

It’s not a surprise to me that my evolution as a reader has turned me towards historical fiction as my favorite genre of novels.  After all, history is my favorite category when it comes to reading, so why shouldn’t historical novels rank as my favorite?  So, like many, I found myself on YouTube one day and stumbled across a video of an avid fan of the genre who ranked his ten favorite historical fiction authors.  (He’s apparently such a fan, that he actually ranked more than twenty authors in his ‘top ten’).

When he got to number one, I confess I had never heard of Bernard Cornwell.  Fortunately, he has several books that are part of Kindle Unlimited, including a trilogy of books about the fabled King Arthur of England. I figured it was worth a shot.  I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I look forward to reading a lot more by this author.  And apparently he has quite the output.  So many books, so little time.

Now, if you think about it, “Historical Fiction” is actually an oxymoron. So when one reads a book of this genre, there’s always the nagging question about who and what was real and what was a result of the author’s imagination.  In most cases, the author tells you this either at the beginning or the end of his book. It really does help.  I was a tad surprised when I found out that King Arthur is more legend than historical fact. I guess I’m not as learned as I thought when it comes to history.  So King Arthur, his knights of the round table, and the quest for the holy grail, doesn’t have a lot of data nor documentation to support the claims of what many of us regard as solid truth.

But again, it’s fiction.  What author Bernard Cornwell does is craft a wonderful story in 5^th century England with all of the colors, sights, and smells of the time and place.  We know that the Roman occupation had been over for more than a century, and England was strife with civil wars while fighting off foreign invaders – most notable the Saxons.

The Winter King details all of this.  It’s told in first person, mostly in retrospect, by an elderly monk who used to be a warrior who fought alongside Arthur.  The storyteller (which, is actually of course, the author himself) tells a wonderful story.  I enjoyed so many aspects of this book.  This was one of those books where nothing spectacular nor out of the ordinary occurs, but the writing is so good that you enjoy the ride regardless.  There are an awful lot of names and places to keep track of, so it can be a bit daunting at times.  Then, this is ‘old’ English, remember, so much of the pronunciations don’t easily roll of the tongue.

According to the cover of the book (on the Kindle), the book is supposedly a ‘tv series’.  How accessible this series is, and how old it is, I have no idea.  I dare to say that this book would make a great tv series since, instead of one single narrative, there are a lot of adventures and people throughout the book.  The only part of the book that I found less than enthralling was the final chapter which dealt with the ‘big’ showdown on the battlefield. I’ve stated in other reviews that ‘battles’ may be interesting to watch on the screen when handled correctly, but it’s always a bit of a chore reading when it’s mostly ‘action’.  Not a whole lot to reflect on as one skims through the pages.

Whoever the YouTube guy is/was, I’d like to thank him for the wonderful recommendation.  You’ll be seeing a lot more of this author’s work being reviewed by me in the foreseeable future.  Bernard Cornwell is an author you should definitely check out.