The Burning Land, by Bernard Cornwell - King Alfred #5

The Burning Land
Bernard Cornwell

King Alfred #5

I am just not going to be able to rave about The Burning Land as I normally do about Bernard Cornwell's books in general and Uhtred's series in particular. I am as disappointed with it as I was with Sword Song and for much the same reasons. Neither has the heart of the first three in this anticipated six-volume series. I suspect that Cornwell, warming to his mission, which I also suspect is lately come, to acquaint the British people with the source of their nation, decided he had to chronicle that creation and his typical terrific story-telling be damned. I am not saying this is a bad book. Far from it. It's Cornwell's usual riveting characters and action scenes. But it feels crafted about historical events rather than the character. I came to retitle the book "Uhtred Hops About", and my husband, who read it to me, added "Without Much Conviction".

We start with our warlord, Uhtred, at some future date tossing a manuscript he snatched from a monk's hands into the fire. It angered him because it told the story of a great battle all wrong, never mentioning him and, worse, giving credit to others who actually impeded his success. Apparently this situation, the Battle of Farnham, really stuck in Uhtred's craw, because soon after he gets so mad at a blind monk who also dissed Uhtred's now dead wife Gisela that he kills him in front of Asser and Erkenwald and Alfred and absolutely everybody. He storms out, breaking his oath to serve Alfred, and runs crying to Ragnar Ragnarson in Northumbria. He immediately hops into a plan to attack Wessex by ship, then gets a come hither message from Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, to come save her, and drops everything and hops over to Mercia. It seems his oath to her trumps his oath to Alfred, his desire for revenge, his wish to be sort of like a Dane again, his dream of reclaiming Bebbanburg, his assurances to Ragnar and Britta that he is done with those blasted cabbage-farting (his words, not mine) Saxon, well, simply everything! So he goes and rescues her from a convent, gets a nasty bee sting, fights more Danes, has sex with Aethelflaed, burns up a bunch of ships and kills lot of Danes the remains of which will be found a thousand years later when they dig for a train station where little Bernie Cornwell grew up, and decides he likes Edward the aetheling after all. And for this I paid $53 to get the book from Amazon.co.uk!

Uhtred himself fusses about not having a purpose. He seems to be aware that he is just killing time as he waits for whatever Cornwell has in mind for him now. I thought the last two books were going to be about Uhtred's sons being on two sides of the conflict, but while he has two sons by the end of this volume, they are still kids. I can tell the next book will be about how Uhtred helps Aethelflaed kick Dane ass out of Mercia, but if the series is going to involve any sons it will have to go beyond six volumes. For heaven's sake, Alfred is still alive at the end of this one.

Cornwell is not known for his female characters. In his Historical Note at the end of this novel he talks about what a strong individual she was and how overlooked by even the feminists as historical heroines were being brought out of obscurity. Unfortunately the character of Aethelflaed in Cornwell's book cannot hold a candle to the real one. This Aethelflaed's heroism seems to amount to refusing to follow orders and looking beautiful and inspiring to the men. She drags her handmaidens with her as she accompanies the army. If I were Uhtred I would have a hard and fast rule that anyone who has to have handmaidens can't come with the army. Since of the themes of the Saxon series is that Uhtred constantly is ovberlooked for credit for his achievements which are ascribed to others, I have a bad feeling that in book six it will turn out that the generalship I ascribe to Aethelflaed is going to turn out to have really been Uhtred's all along.

In sum, let me say, if you skip Sword Song and The Burning Land and go on to the sixth -- last? -- volume, you won't have lost any plot. I hope Uhtred has more oomph in it. I wouldn't have missed reading it myself, as I enjoy Uhred and Saxon England immensely, but I can't say it even came close to the earlier volumes, and I don't understand why.

The copy Jim read to me I bought on Amazon.co.uk. The Burning Land is due to be released in the US this January. It is not in any accessible format yet.

Read about Aethelflaed

The Edge on the Sword, by Rebacca Tingle
Swords Across the Thames, by Elizabeth Garwood Haley (Warrior Queen Series)
The Lady Who Fought Vikings, by Don Stansbury
Aethelflaed: Royal Lady, War Lady, by Jane Wolfe
Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians on History and Women