The Winter King
Ratings70
Average rating4.2
A gritty historical fantasy tale, more concerned with describing the geopolitical scene then with story or characters.
After having read The Skystone, the beginning of this book gave me a breath of fresh air. Its is much better written, there is more characterization and the elements of the Arthurian Fantasy were actually present here. Arthur, Merlin, Morgan, Uther and many others. The characters introduced were very different from what you would expect. Merlin is a vicious old men, who enjoys raping and torturing children for his experiments. There is no real magic in the world, but the magical wielders are able to fake it, so that most people believe in them. All of this contribute to an air of realism to the story.
However, the book pacing is atrociously slow, the author spends most of the time naming and and describing all of Britain's kingdoms and rulers, and how they relate to each other.
Read 3:21 / 19:55 41%
Very Good book and very different from what I was expecting. I enjoyed it but can see why it might not be to everyone's taste.
Warning it is told/written by narrator “who was their” I know sometimes books like this arent to everyones liking
Also it is about king Arthur but is more about narrator, and starts when Arthur is grown up and it does sort of spin the story in a historical context so dont expect the usual Arthur style story.
Sorry not very good at explaining and tried to avoid spoilers.
Brilliant
A great start to what I think will be a great series, all the foundations of another masterclass by Mr Cornwell. I could read his books all day long, the perfect mix of action and character to draw you in and hold you there.
Another retelling if the Arthur legend but with typical Cornwell twists. Good book, looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
Narrado por Dervel, que era fascinado por Artur, que só queria a paz mas se apaixonou pir Guinevere, que despertou a ira do pai de Ceinwyn, que era objeto do amor de Derfel... nada ficando a dever pra “quadrilha “ do Drummond, exceto c muito mais sangue e batalhas.
Got through 20% of the book and it just didn't grab me. It wasn't bad, just didn't keep me interested.
When I went to a local used bookstore to look for The Winter King, I was pleased to find quite a few copies in varying disarray on the shelf. In typical fashion, I picked up the dingiest of the three. These usually have fun scribblings, underlined passages, and, most important of all, they are broken in.
To my surprise as I finished the book, there was a written review on the last page that was just incredible. It's so great, in fact, I'll just post it here. Take it away, Karen.
──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗── ⚔️ ──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗──
This was EPIC, and when I say EPIC, I mean Every Page Is Classic! It's like one part lesson and two parts action. Do you remember sitting in history class and the teacher was like, blah, blah, blah, this is medieval history, and times were tough? Total eye-glazer. Well, if they just had us read this, it would have made much more of an impact! I mean, who doesn't like King Arthur? He's ubertalented with a sword and even keeled while leading his men. I can't tell you how many times I welled up while reading this story. I hope you felt the same-way after the last page.
I'm turning this into a used book store so someone else can stumble across it and take in its beauty.
Your fellow book-lover,
Karen Womack ‘01
──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗──