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Sword Song

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Sword Song

Written by: Bernard Cornwell
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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The fourth book in the epic and bestselling series that has gripped millions.

A hero will be forged from this broken land.

As seen on Netflix and BBC around the world.

The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and Alfred's kingdom of Wessex in the south. But trouble stirs, a dead man has risen and new Vikings have arrived to occupy London.

It is a dangerous time, and it falls to Uhtred, half Saxon, half Dane, a man feared and respected the length and breadth of Britain, to expel the Viking raiders and take control of London for Alfred. His uncertain loyalties must now decide England's future.

A gripping tale of love, rivalry and violence, Sword Song tells the story of England's making.

 Genre Fiction Historical Thriller & Suspense World Literature Fiction England Royalty Viking
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What the critics say

Praise for ‘The Lords of the North’:
‘Beautifully crafted story-telling, complete with splendid set-piece battles and relentless derring-do, so gripping that it rarely stops to catch a breath. It demonstrates once again Cornwell’s enormous skill as a historical narrator. He would have graced Alfred’s court entertaining the guests with his stories’
Daily Mail
‘Cornwell takes the spectres of ninth century history and puts flesh back on their bones. Here is Alfred's world restored – impeccably researched and illuminated with the colour and passion of a master storyteller’
Justin Pollard, author of ‘Alfred the Great’
Praise for Bernard Cornwell:
'Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation.'
Daily Mail
'Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched'
Observer

Continue the series
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Sword of Kings Written by: Bernard Cornwell
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War Lord Written by: Bernard Cornwell
All stars
Most Relevant
Still enjoying these. I won't go into much detail here, as I think the series really deserves to be read from the beginning. I do find myself wondering if my interest will really stretch to ten (or more?) volumes; it's basically one battle after another, with some tricky spying and scamming interspersed, but somehow it just keeps pulling me along. The main character is such a great rogue. So far, so good.

Love it

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The story is fantastic. The narrator is good but wouldn't have been my first choice for this series. He has a great voice though so would still recommend listening to them and enjoying them all as much as you can.

Loved it!

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I can say with mere words how much I appreciate these stories and how they come to life in the voices of Jonathan Keeble. Through his words you feel every emotion - joy, sadness, gratitude, hate kindness..... you hear the action leaping off the pages of the books. Many thanks to the author and narrator for giving us such great pleasure 🙏🏾

Phenomenal

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Yet again, Bernard Cornwell paired with Jonathan Keeble made for an absolutely fantastic listening experience. This book was great, however......

My only criticism is that all future books in the series, ie 5 onwards are not narrated by Jonathan Keeble and the listening experience suffers so much for it that I reluctantly returned book 5 for a refund as I just couldn't get past the completely different reading style, completely different place names and name pronunciations for the characters and the far too softly spoken narrator that is at odd's with Keeble's exciting and vivid way of bringing the book to life.

So to sum up, books 1 to 4 were wonderful. Book 5 was a no go for me personally. The story itself is fine but there has been too much character and location development with Keeble for this complete change in everything to work for me.

I live in hope that Keeble finishes the series one day, and if not, I'll probably buy hard copies and read them for myself.

Extremely enjoyable, but!

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This captivating story is made even better due to the narrator. I am very disappointed with the length of the books in this series. It’s more like 15 linearly written short stories of a group of characters. I’m not sure I’ll make it too the end of the series because of that.

Love the story and narrative

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