Rating: 
Summary: not his best
Review: i was drawn to cornwell's stonehenge because of his powerful work in the winter king, enemy of god and excalibur. stonehenge drags, has none of the superb characterization or exciting action of these other books. i found it slow and boring, a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dysfunctional Family Builds Stonehenge
Review: Bernard Cornwell, who created the very successful Sharpe series of novels about the Napoleonic Wars turns his attention to prehistory with "Stonehenge, 2000 B.C.". He has fitted a detailed picture of neolithic life into a plot full of love, mayhem, and intrigue. For good measure he tosses in an explanation of the mysteries surrounding the greatest construction project in prehistoric Britain.It is the story of three half-brothers, sons of the chief of Ratharryn, who hate one another murderously, but whom fate entwines in an endeavor that lasts for the remainder of their lives. Lengar, the oldest, becomes chief by killing their father. He then sells Saban into slavery in Wales and takes his wife as a concubine. Crippled Carraban seeks sanctuary with Ratharryn's neighbor and rival Cathallo, where he becomes a sorcerer. They are reunited when Carraban convinces Lengar he must build a stone temple to the sun god and that Saban is the man to build it. Cornwell does an excellent job of describing the techniques archeologists believe were used to construct two successive stone temples at the site of Stonehenge, but he compresses the work into a single generation. I think this was a mistake -- apart from its dubious factual foundation -- because it diminishes our awe at the ingenuity of conception and difficulty of execution. Part of the grandeur of Chartres Cathedral is that its construction was measured in generations not in years. Having Saban accomplish a miracle of neolithic engineering -- not once but twice -- truncates the magnificence of the achievement. Cornell glosses over the impossible economic demands that such rapid construction would make on a subsistence neolithic society. Spreading the events over multiple novels would have been consistent with Cornwell's previous work, but would have required whole generations of new characters. That might not have been a bad thing. Saban is not as interesting as his vicious half-brothers -- or his two wives for that matter! (In the movie version, I see Kevin Costner as Saban, John Malkovitch as Lengar, and Gary Oldman as Carraban) Cornwell, who is so facile at plotting, perhaps is stingy at creating central characters. After all he used Richard Sharpe and Arthur Wellesley through sixteen novels.
Rating: 
Summary: It certainly wasn't built in a day!
Review: I've long been fascinated by Stonehenge. Many people think the Druids built it for their rituals and celestial observations, but it's now widely accepted that Stonehenge far pre-dates Druids, and was probably built by Neolithic people. It's a remarkable feat of engineering on any scale, but that's not what I find most intriguing. I've always wondered *why* it was built, and more particularly, why so many huge bluestone rocks were transported more than 135 miles (as the crow flies) from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, the only place where that kind of rock occurs in the British Isles, to Salisbury Plain. If they just wanted to build a "machine" to take astrological sightings, you'd have thought it would have been far easier to use reasonably local rocks, such as those used for the giant Sarcen stones, for the entire structure. The Neolithic builders, however, chose to undertake the extraordinary task of transporting this unique bluestone, either by an incredibly difficult sea and river voyage, or (less likely) by a seemingly impossible land route. Why? There had to be some overwhelmingly good reason, but none I have heard so far have seemed powerful enough. How did they get to know about that bluestone, anyway? Package holiday to Wales, perhaps? In "Stonehenge", Bernard Cornwell put forward a powerful enough reason so that I could believe human beings would undertake this endeavour. Although the actual religious rituals the people of this age obeyed are not recorded, there is evidence that human sacrifice was practiced. That points to a pretty powerful and demanding religious system and history continues to show that those running religious systems are always the most power hungry. The best way they could think of to gain and retain their power was to make the gods stop the desperately cold winters, thus halting the resultant famines, etc. And that called for increasingly more powerful rituals. A man who stole his tribe's golden religious artefacts travelled far in an attempt to consult an ancient mystic, but instead was killed by one of the three sons of the leader of a tribe resident in the area now known as Salisbury Plain. The artefacts were added to the hoard of that leader, and some were used to purchase stone from a nearby tribe for modest temple improvements. The original holders of the artefacts, who just happened to come from a region near the Preseli Mountains, tracked them down but the new holders requested something in return for them - one of their temples. And in their desperation for the return of their treasure, the Welsh tribe agreed. Of course, simply transporting the stones and re-erecting the temple would be far too easy. Around this framework, Cornwell weaves a story of murder, jealousy, revenge, ferocious and bloody battles, bizarre and superstitious religious rituals, insanity, brutality, mysticism, and everything else you could want from a thriller. His talent for characterisation makes you almost cheer out loud for the goodies and hiss at the baddies, even while you realise you are being fed standard thriller fare. The story centres on the three brothers, and you can guess there is a too-good-to-be-true hero, an out-and-out baddie and one that is turned by circumstances into an insane despot. I'm not generally a fan of war books, so of Cornwell's huge list of books, the only ones I've read (and thoroughly enjoyed, let me say) were Cornwell's three-book re-telling of the Arthurian legend, "The Warlord Chronicles" (I even reviewed the third, "Excalibur") and found the same well-researched, dramatic and realistic style I enjoyed in those books continued in "Stonehenge". Of course, the standard thriller population of incredibly handsome/beautiful, extraordinarily accomplished at an unbelievably young age, heroes and heroines live in this tale, only these aren't rich, and mostly they're not terribly clean, either. Cornwell skilfully puts them into an environment where you can almost see, smell, taste, hear and feel all their experiences. You can understand their motivations, admire their endeavour and appreciate their efforts. Perhaps the characters are not as refined as those in "The Warlord Chronicles", but I'm quite happy to accept the Neoliths lived in an extremely brutal time, and Arthur .... well, it's fantasy, isn't it. However, while realizing it was pivotal, I did find the constant religious stuff dragged on, and I was quite happy not to read another battle scene by the time I got to the end. I've seen plenty of documentaries and read many books where the so-called experts put forward their ideas of the wheres and whys that lead to the building of this extraordinary, enigmatic erection. While Cornwell hasn't really come up with any new ideas, he's just dramatically presented them in a realistic and believable way. If Stonehenge wasn't created in this way, well ... until someone comes up with a better explanation, I'm sticking with this.
Rating: 
Summary: Rather disappointing
Review: I have heard Bernard Cornwell talk about this book. One of the smaller points he made was his preference for a novel to be told within the lifetime of one of the characters. It is precisely this preference that is one of the reasons that "Stonehenge" fails. The building itself we all know to be fantastic. The fact that it was built at all is incredible given the period of Stone Age man. So it is surely pushing things too far to suggest that the people that built Stonehenge did so quickly, and not only that but built two henges on the same site as history tells us as quickly as the author suggests? Coupled with this we are faced with a theme that is far more epic than Mr. Corwell's 500 or so pages have portrayed. Another problem that the author has tried to overcome is that for all its majesty and folklore heritage, Stonehenge is simply a building. To write a novel about its construction is surely too much to ask of any writer. I feel as though a novel set against the backdrop of the construction would allow for a far more interesting novel than has been produced. The difficulty lies in all the technical babble that Cornwell employs to explain the ins and outs of how Stone Age man managed to erect the huge stones. We get bogged down in those details which are quite often rather confusing. The story that is written around the building is also a bit disjointed. Saban's time in Sarmennyn I thought never wholly convincing. Nor did I think that all the treachery, death and magic flowed very well. It could be that if more time was spent by the author exploring these themes rather than the construction, we might well have had a more rounded and enjoyable read. It is very unfortunate also, that "Stonehenge" came hot on the heels of the magnificent "Arthur" series. It would seem that because the cast of "Stonehenge" is earlier in time than that of "Arthur", the author has made a definite decision to make them more savage and violent. There may be some sense in the theory of that sentiment, but it sits a little ill when the plot is weakened by an unending stream of deaths that leave the cast constantly changing and seldom settled. If we did not have this pervading sense, more characters would have lasted longer and we could have had a more rounded cast. Perversely, the opposite is true of those characters that do go the distance. I found myself constantly thinking, "they should have died by now." and other such thoughts. There was a story to be written about "Stonehenge", but I feel that Mr. Cornwell's effort was flawed on too many fronts for this to be called a success. Bernard Cornwell can be brilliant, and I sincerely hope that his new trilogy on the 100 Years War is a successful return to the heights of the "Arthur" novels.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal but Interesting
Review: I suppose anyone writing fiction has to just let some things go by, and not be too offputting. Suspend your disbelief, and all. But what bothered me more than anything in getting a feeling of believability is that the construction seemed to be the work of one man's mind, and him an outcast who would hardly be privy to the engineering and celestial knowledge necessary to pull off such a task. I mean, Stonehenge was probably the result of generations of accumulated knowledge passed down through a priestlike group of stoneage scholars. Not the way it is presented here. The other thing, as someone mentioned, is that every prediction made by the holy characters of the book comes true. Are we supposed to believe that they actually had magical powers in those days? This happened too many times to be a coincidence. Having said that, it was a pretty interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting setting
Review: I have been reading the Warlord Chronicles and enjoyed them extremely. Stonehenge is as good as those books. Just read the first paragraph, re-read it and learn it by heart. You will get into the story from there. Just picture it while you read. This is a great book. Wonder what his new novel will be like.
Rating: 
Summary: Stonehenge: a reality.
Review: If I see the name Bernard Cornwell on a book, I buy it. I knowthat I'm going to be given an excellent read, and that, for a few hours, I will be transported to a world in which extraordinary people do extraordinary things with courage, brio, style, and, all too often, magnificent savagery. I've been disappointed a couple of times. The Starbuck stories left me a little cold - but even they give good battle. So, it was with curiousity that I cracked "Stonehenge" open. A shade under five hours later, I closed the book, sighed deeply and happily, and decided to re-read it tomorrow. [...] Cornwell describes a time when life was hard, brutal, and all too often short. It wasn't life that was cheap: it was death. Cornwell brings these days - or the version of those days that his fertile imagination sees - to vivid, smelly, rough life. The air reeked as much from magic, religion, and superstition (the same thing, usually) as it did from the character's own odour. Magic was real to the people of Ratharryn - and because it was real, it worked. If a priest made a foaming-mouthed prohecy, it came true. The priest made sure of it. The societies are well-drawn, life in the hamelts and villages is extraordinarily well-described, the skirmishes and skull-cracking scraps are wincingly real. Ultimately, though, this is the story of the people who built Stonehenge, why, and how. Cornwell's descriptions of the "how" are startling in their clarity. As a reader I could see and understand the construction methods, and believe that, given the appropriate amount of muscle-power, I could build another Henge. The "why" must, of course, be pure speculation - and, like the magic, it becomes real because the writer and the reader wish it so. And as for the "who"? Well, as ever, Bernard Cornwell excels in his characters. You'll not only like, love, or hate the various people who inhabit these pages so well, you'll come to understand them. Collaborate with Cornwell as you read this book and you'll be taken on a journey of light and darkness, a journey which will stay with you far longer than that holiday you took as a youngster to Yellowstone, Blackpool, or Ayer's Rock. To Bernard Cornwell I offer, once again, my deep and sincere thanks for a book marvellously entertaining. To you, dear reader - I say buy the book. read it once, then read it once again.[...]
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful- something for everyone
Review: I adore Bernard Cornwell's writing, and I believe that this is his best novel yet. The story was extremely well researched. I could not put this book down, and after I read it, I wanted to go back and read it again for the first time. The characters were well developed, and his idea about the mystery of Stonehenge was very interesting. This book provides everything- action, suspence, mystery, romance- and all in a wonderful historical novel. I would recommend this book to anyone, even if they are not too interested in Stonehenge.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable, well researched book with an engaging plot.
Review: For a writer having Stonehenge as a central theme could be a double-edged sword. The history of Stonehenge lies shrouded in mystery, some give it almost mystical powers and others simple suggest it was designed as a meeting place or the venue for ancient parties! Having such a vast blank page could provide an author with either a rich vein to use as a plot or it could lead to a novel containing undisciplined guesswork. Due to both his skills as a writer and the time he invests in research, Bernard Cornwell's Stonehenge belongs to the former category.
The plot and story line explores the motivational force behind the construction of the monument of Stonehenge. Not only is it strong in it's sense of history, Stonehenge offers a multi-layered approach to the development of characters and their lives. Cornwell's writing is here particularly strong and evocative. This book, although well researched is fiction and it's important to hold onto that fact. However, Cornwell writes with such conviction that at times one could believe that his account of the building of Stonehenge is factual in nature. My only criticisms were perhaps a tendency for Cornwell to over-elaborate and the passing of time-scales in one or two lines. This book is does not have the feel of Sharpe or Starbuck and those readers who expect that style of writing will I feel be disappointed. Stonehenge builds the story line rather than plunges into it. Both forms are valid but with Stonehenge it would be unwise to expect a thrill a minute al la Richard Sharpe. An enjoyable, well researched book with an engaging plot.
Rating:
Summary: Grim, Brutal, Excellent
Review: Vivid, believable picture of bronze age Britain. Persons in the novel live short lives full of mud, filth, disease, fear and superstition. Seemed like every other person in the novel got clobbered with a stone axe by some 15 year old brute. This books spans a few key decades in the construction of Stonehenge. Hence there are periods of years that are jumped over in the span of a few pages. I highly recommend this novel, especially for fans of the Warlord series, it has the same feel. I also recommend it for anyone with romantic notions about time of yore, as in Clan of the Cavebear or Judith Tarr's books. This novel could serve as a reality check.
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