The Last Kingdom

Executive Summary: Despite being Historical Fiction, it's borderline fantasy at times, and therefore right in my wheelhouse apparently. I'll definitely be continuing this series.

Full Review
I've had a few friends raving about this series for years, but I never got around to it before now. It's one of those rare occasions for me where I watched the TV show before reading the book. Apparently a lot of fans of the books don't like the show, but I enjoyed it. It motivated me to finally pick up the book.

As is usually the case, the book is better. It seems as though the show decided to cut down the first 2/3 of this book into a single episode. Likely because they didn't want to have to find/use a child lead for half the season. I think Ragnar's story suffers a bit as a result. I found that fascinating to read.

It also seems like they either added a bunch of stuff, or more likely used parts of book 2 at the end of the season. I wasn't really surprised by anything since I knew what was coming, but I still enjoyed it. I likely would have enjoyed it a bit more had I read the book first. I didn't realize until about halfway into the season that it was based on books I already owned/had on my to read shelf. Oops.

The writing is good, and the characters are interesting. I know almost nothing about English history, so it's hard to know what's truth and what Mr. Cornwell made up. It comes off very realistic to me though.

I've always enjoyed history, and I must really enjoy this time period, because I've read a boatload of fantasy based on it. This one feels a bit fantastical at times with the various gods and superstitions of both the Danes and the English.

Overall, I found it a fast and enjoyable read. I definitely plan to continue on with the series soon (which is good since I own most of it already).