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The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur (The Warlord Chronicles: I)

The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur (The Warlord Chronicles: I)

List Price: $15.95
Your Price: $10.85
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Suggestion: Try the audiobooks
Review: Tim Pigott-Smith does a wonderful job with the audiobook version of The Warlord Chronicles. The combination of an excellent story with Pigott-Smith's delivery is awesome. It reminded me of a time in elementary school when the library had a professional storyteller come and tell us old Native American stories.

Even if you don't normally get audiobooks, I think the Warlord Chronciles definitely deserve to be heard.

Incidentally, don't be surprised if you feel sad when you have nothing left to read/listen to at the end of Excalibur (Volume 3.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One read not enough!
Review: This is the first Arthurian novel I have read and now after reading the two sequells I have started to read it again. The author weaves an astounding tail over roughly 40-50 years in the life of the storys narrator(Derfel-pronounced Dervel) and those who surround him on his journey from a druids death pit as a young boy ,through being a Lord with his own Army and as an elderly one handed catholic priest! Trully spellbinding storytelling!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A new approach
Review: I loved this book.I read everything Arthurian that's published,and got quite a shock at the first few chapters,then realised that one has to completely change the feelings and ideas that had previously been the stylised view of Arthurian times-not the romantic and sanitised view of the Dark Ages,but a time of savagery and the idea that human life was of little consequence!I've ordered the next two volumes,and can't wait for them to arrive!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fairly interesting and entertaining.
Review: It's hard for me to decide between giving this audio-book three stars or four. I mean the writing is pretty good; Cornwell is a pretty good story teller. This 6 hour audio version is abridged, though thankfully not so much as the butchered audio version of Marion Zimmer Bradley's _Mists of Avalon_ which amounted to less than two hours. I have yet to read the hardcover version of _Winter King_, but since it contains passages missing from this audio version, maybe I'll save my four-star rating for that.

Piggot-Smith is a pretty good presenter of Cornwell's story. It's a tough job though -- one actor having to come up with various accents and voices for so many different characters. When quoting characters of Irish origin, his accents are great. When doing the Welsh and English characters, however, I'm not as convinced. Piggot-Smith gives many of the Welsh & Breton characters modern English accents, while his Saxons sound like something odd from... well, I don't know where, but not like what I think an Old English accent might sound like (to hear what I mean, listen to an expert recite _Beowulf_ in it's 11th-century form sometime).

The characters are varied and interesting. The character who tells the story, Derfel, has a remarkable life. He is born English but raised Welsh. This makes him useful as an interpreter, as when Arthur of Dumnonia negotiates with Aelle of Susex. Derfel is raised in the Druidic faith, but is later initiated into the Cult of Mithras; finally, in old age, he becomes a Catholic monk. His adventures take him to various kingdoms and introduce him to many prominent figures. His remarkable life is the story-telling device Cornwell uses to give us someone's first-hand account of diverse but interrelated persons and situations.

Through Derfel, Cornwell does a good job of showing us why Arthur is beloved by many, but not all. Arthur is portrayed as exceptionally charismatic and moral, but human enough make some key foolish judgements. While some may say that a historical Arthur figure could not have been so moral, the fifth-century Gallo-Roman nobleman Sidonius Appolinaris complimented Riothamus, king of the Britons, in a letter for being exceedingly conciencious; Riothamus, which means "Royalest," appears to be the title by which some folks knew Arthur.

My main complaint about the story is that it is not nearly as historical as it appears to be. That, of course, need not bar it from being an interesting and entertaining story. It's just that I would prefer either total fantasy or scrupulous history. I mean a movie like _Excalibur_, which I loved, doesn't even pretend to be historical. This story, however, like so many I've come across, makes mention of much that is historical, but then presents much of it in a way that is not really very accurate. For example, the politics in this story concern the relationships of several kingdoms which really did exist (e.g. Dumnonia, Gwynedd, Elmet, etc.). However, I've noticed that a lot of folks think that this book is very historically accurate when much of it is quite misleading.

Another book of which I have this same complaint is _Mists of Avalon_. Even though I noticed that one person called this book antithetical to that one, they are very similar in that they both portray Arthurian Britain as if it were a country caught in the midst of a grand struggle between Druidic and other pagan religions on the one hand, and Christianity on the other. There are so many people who think that this was the case at the time, but it's actually a very misleading picture. Cornwell's Merlin is much like Bradley's Morgaine. His Guinevere, however, is quite the opposite of Bradley's; Bradley's Guinevere is a Christian zealot, while Cornwell's is passionately anti-Christian. In reality, though, Christianity had already triumphed in Roman Britain by the fifth century. The main pagan threat to it in the fifth and sixth centuries came not from within, but from the invading English, who had not yet been evangelized.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Legend On Paper
Review: This is the first book I've read by Cornwell so far, and I have to say I'm *very* impressed. The storytelling techniques are wonderful, and I couldn't help just loving Derfel and his oftentimes barbed humor. Absolutely a wonderful read, and I plan to read the rest of the series as soon as my wallet allows.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Book
Review: A great book, my first of Bernard Cornwell. Tough to put down, I finished in 10 days. Very good story telling can't wait to read the next.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredibly believable!
Review: My favourite Arthurian novel was TH Whites 'The Once and Future King'. Having read The Winter King I'm not sure which I prefer now.

The Winter King is a captivatingly well written book that makes the (possible) truth behind the legends come alive in my minds eye. I found the characters to be richly described and believably human.

It was a cruel and unforgiving period in Britains history and the Mallorified view of the period is incredibly distorted. The standard Hollywood image of knights in plate armour is laughable (its about 1000 years too late). This book portrays Post-Romano Britain how it must have been. The early Christian church pushing aside the many pagan religions (or absorbing aspects of their belief). The struggle of Celtic Britons against Saxon and Angle invasion from the east.

This book was thrilling!

Once you've read this you'll HAVE to read the sequels.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Winter King is a Fireball Book!
Review: The only other books that compare to Mr. Cornwell's Winter King series (Warlord Series) would be those by R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones, etc.). I was extremely pleased by this trilogy and finished all three in two weeks. Non-stop action with BELIEVABLE Arthurian characters. I was a little disappointed by the "abruptness" of the ending, but that's how life is- just ends. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fantasy novel fan OR a history buff. Fantastic!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the most fasinating books I have ever read
Review: I just could not quit reading this book. It was so interesting. It brought out so much in its characters. Derfel, Nimue, and of course Arthur were very powerful. This is the first book I have read by Bernard Cornwell. Now I will have to read all of his books.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Winter King is amazing, cornwell is a master of battle
Review: The Winter King is my favorite arthur book. There is not to much magic in it which i think makes it all the better. This book makes the whole arthur story very believable. The characters are astounding. he masters the essincial characters, the father, the young hero, the fare maiden in destress, the villan. Cornwell creates a great twist to the whole arthurian story, Lancelot is the long lasting villian. he is a cowerd, he is greedy, and lustful. many of the seven traits that get you to hell(according to Dante that is)

thank you very much for reading my reveiw, i strongly encourage all those adventure loveing readers to pick up this book, you won't be disapointed. Robert Jackson, age 14


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