Blurb:
The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Warrior by instinct and Viking by nature, Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has land, a wife and children—and a duty to King Alfred to hold the frontier on the Thames. But a dead man has risen, and new Vikings have invaded the decayed Roman city of London with dreams of conquering Wessex… with Uhtred’s help. Suddenly forced to weigh his oath to the king against the dangerous turning tide of shifting allegiances and deadly power struggles, Uhtred—Alfred’s sharpest sword—must now make the choice that will determine England’s future.
My Thoughts:
This isn’t usually my kind of genre or what I would normally choose, but I did quite enjoy it.
In this book, we follow Utrehd as he is told by King Alfred that he has to take Lundene from the Vikings. This is difficult for Uthred as he is Danish and his actions will change the country either way.
There were a couple of things in this book that really put me off even though I know in those times girls were considered women at about 14 and were made to marry but I can’t even come close to agreeing. Also, they teach in those times that a wife is the property of her husband and he is allowed to beat her if she doesn’t follow his orders, which again is not something that I even like to think about.
Other than those two points I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing Uhtred’s thought processes, as he was made to, chose between his people and the oath he took to serve the King. I really liked the deceiving and spying that was going on and I couldn’t guess what was going to happen at any point.
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