Recent listens

The Pale Horseman, by Bernard Cornwell. This is the second installment in the tale that began in The Last Kingdom. Both are set in the tumultuous and war-torn medieval kingdom of Wessex at the height of the Danish invasions which, historically, almost obliterated the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that later became England.

The narrator and protagonist, Uhtred, is even more of an antihero here than he was in the previous volume. He frequently states that he feels more admiration for the warlike Danes than for the annoyingly pious Alfred of Wessex, in whose service he finds himself. Uhtred, a hotheaded, thuggish pagan from the lost northern kingdom of Northumbria, is decidedly out of place among the monks and priests with whom Alfred has surrounded himself, and feels contempt for them as well as his Christian wife, Mildreth. (To be fair, the match was a purely political one foisted off on him by Alfred.)

Temperamentally, Uhtred seems more kin to the Vikings than to his Anglo-Saxon countrymen. He describes his own acts of piracy, theft, treachery and murder with a kind of amorally bloodthirsty cheerfulness and a rather unsettling attention to gory details. He always feels justified in his own actions, and speaks longingly of the battle-lust that comes over him in the thick of a desperate fight. His most redeeming characteristic is a kind of rough pagan loyalty based entirely on personal relationships and oaths given.

He's a fearsome warrior and a clever tactician. In a fight, he's quick, vicious, and effective. Politically, though, he gets mixed results. He's capable of canny calculation, but all too frequently lets pride and resentment goad him into potentially disastrous missteps. His quick wits frequently keep him from suffering all of the consequences of his rashness, but as he remarks, "Wyrd bith ful araed". Fate is inexorable. And Uhtred will, eventually, learn that his actions have consequences.

Historically, most English-speaking readers know that the Danes were eventually driven back. And yet seeing exactly how Cornwell reconstructs that epic struggle is fascinating. The strategies and tactics employed are described in great and plausible detail, as is the everyday world of medieval Wessex. The climactic battle in the book generates genuine suspense in the mind of the reader. Although we know the English will eventually win, the fate of the Uhtred's various companions, people whom the reader has come to like by seeing them through Uhtred's eyes, hangs in the balance, and the omens and prophetic dreams in which Uhtred fervently believes have been ambiguous at best.

The reader, Tom Sellwood, speaks in a rolling, thuggish brogue when speaking for Uhtred, and the character comes across as a convincingly dangerous man. Other characters' accents are, perhaps, less realistic, but the discernible difference between the voices of Saxons, Danes, and others helps the listener keep the different speakers clearly distinguished. One of the most gripping audiobooks I've listened to.