The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell

I've read about half of The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell. If you're unfamiliar, the first book is The Last Kingdom, and it was turned into a very successful tv show on Netflix. I got just a tad burned out on the characters in that series (there are 13 books I think), but I really enjoy Cornwell's style and I love a good King Arthur story, so I set my attention on The Winter King.

This is Cornwell's take on the aforementioned King Arthur, except he's not a king. He's a warlord, which is fine. A fresh take can always be nice. Set in the 5th or 6th century, right after the departure of the Romans from Britain, many of the character and place names are very strange. That can be difficult to reconcile from time to time; keeping track of who's who, and where's where. But, again, that's fine because Cornwell includes a glossary at the front of the book that outlines all that stuff. Jumping back and forth is a hassle, but hey...first world problems.

I really wanted to like this a lot more than I did. For a story ostensibly about Arthur, he was not in the book much. Probably about 30%. And he’s probably the least interesting character in the whole thing.

I liked the framing device with Derfyl (spelling?) and Galahad was a great character as well. Guinevere was a terrible interpretation. And I don’t think I spelled that right either, but whatever. The strange names of places and some of the people were tough to keep track of sometimes, as I mentioned before.

Generally, I like Cornwell’s writing style (he has a way if putting you right in the middle of a battle), and the audiobook narration by Jonathan Keeble was great. It just felt like not a whole lot actually happened in these 430 odd pages. I almost DNF’d it about 3 times, but then I’d turn the page and there would be something interesting for a couple pages. Then I was bored again. By the time i was fed up, I was about 60% of the way through, so I powered my way through to the end.

Eventually, I’ll try the next book in the series, but it will only get a few dozen pages to grab me. I fear it will, because of the tremendous way Cornwell has with words, but I'll try my best to be objective about it and not finish if I'm not interested. 

Anyway, on to the ratings:

Story and Conflict: Man, there is so much potential here. Everyone knows the general story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, but so much is lost to history that authors are pretty free to play with it in any way they like without much consequence. Cornwell, obviously, comes at it from a purely historical point of view. There's not going to be any traditional magic or "sword in the stone" type stuff. And that's ok. I'm not expecting it when I read historical fiction. But, as I mentioned earlier, very little really happens in this book. It's a series of pretty cool battle scenes, but as far as PLOT goes...not much there. Uther dies, we need to protect the heir until he's old enough to take the throne, other people WANT that throne. That's really it. It's just feels thin to me. 

The conflict here could be monumental, and maybe this all develops in the subsequent books, but I was unimpressed with this one. C- for Story.

Pacing:  Very slow, as I alluded to. There are parts of it that move at a decent clip, but that just makes this whole thing feel uneven. That surprised me. Cornwell is usually pretty good about moving his stories along. But then again, there wasn't much story here, so perhaps that was the problem. Every time I was about to just stop reading, something vaguely interesting happened to make me turn the page. Based on the fact that I even finished this, I'm going with a C+ for Pacing.

Character: The Characters in The Winter King are not (yet) the ones you're so familiar with from the traditional Arthurian legend. Arthur is there, but not so much, as are Galahad and Guinevere, as I mentioned before, Lancelot is a token character as well (and an asshole to boot), but thus far, this world is populated with characters we don't really know well. That said, I like most of the characterization here. The slower pace of the novel allows for a fairly deep dive into some of the characters. Galahad and Derfyl get the most attention here, and I very much enjoy both characters. (Galahad was always one of my favorites in the more "traditional" tellings.) Being fair, Arthur does get a couple of very good character moments towards the end of the book. The issue I have is that this entry is focused on the time BEFORE Arthur was King, so we're dealing with characters that either die fairly spectacularly, or are just sort of place holders until more familiar names enter the narrative.

Merlin is almost completely absent here and as far as I'm concerned, that's tragic. Arguably the founding member of the "Badass Wizard" club, the Arthurian story as a whole doesn't work without him. When he IS on screen, he doesn't get much attention from a character development standpoint, and I think that's an opportunity wasted.

All that to say, the character work that's done here is really quite good. I just wish the characters were ones I am more familiar with. I'll give a solid B+ for Character.

Magic: There IS a definable magic system here. It's super soft, to the point of being flaccid, but it does exist. The thing is, though, that we're dealing with Historical Fiction here, so Cornwell can't do TOO much with magic because....well, physics and stuff, I guess. The system he's utilized is based around Druidic legends from the early part of the Common Era. So, no one is really casting fireballs, but there are definitely some incantations and other rituals that read almost like superstition as opposed to "magic." And that's ok. For this type of story it absolutely works, and it serves the purpose it needs to serve. That's all I'll say about it, and I'll give an A for Magic.

World Building: Cornwell is using Britain here for reasons that should be apparent. However, as I mentioned, the names of geographical locations and cities are completely different from the ones you know. Even if you've read the Saxon Stories (which take place some 3-400 years later) many of those names will be foreign to you. And because we have so little written history from those places and that time, he's free to experiment with a little of the geography. The result is a fully fleshed out world that feels inhabited and real. I would expect nothing less, mostly because of Cornwell's skill in the genre, but also in part the fact that it's, y'know, real. It's hard to comment on a world that really does exists, except to say that, when reading, I feel like I'm there. So A for World Building. Well done.

Writing Style: I'm a fan of Cornwell's writing style. The first person is where he truly shines, and this book is no exception. He's to the point, not overly purple in his prose, and just generally easy to read. I don't mean that he doesn't tackle complex themes or that he doesn't get into gory detail when describing a death, because he does. What I mean is that the words flow well together and the paint the pictures that need painting. I'm not so sure about the dialog in this specific novel. There were a few parts that were a little confusing as far as voice. Overall, though, I liked the way this book read. B+.

Final Thoughts: So that's 67 points, which gives The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell a 75%, which is good for a C. I think that's fair. It was not his best book, and I'm not sure it was a particularly strong first entry for something as epic and eternal as Arthurian Legend, but it was serviceable. Had I not been expecting so much based on it's description - or had this been a brand new story with new characters and a fresh world that JUST SO HAPPENED to hint at Arthur, I probably would have enjoyed it a great deal more.

I've read a great many reviews that say this series is a tremendous reimagining of the Arthurian legend and any fans of that story should read it. Those same reviews often list the first book as the weakest in the series. I have not read the subsequent books yet, but they are on the list. Perhaps, when I revisit this series, my opinion of this book will improve. 

Thanks so much for reading along with me. As always, feel free to drop me a line and let me know if you think my review was fair, and I'll see you next time. Until then, keep reading!