Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King: Arthur Books, Volume 1"

Raymond Douglas Blackwell: Book excellent quality. Just started to read it

Canada on Oct 19, 2023

Danielle: Thank god(s) this was finally added to kindle! I’m excited a lot of the older series are being loaded! 😃

United States on Sep 28, 2023

Kindle Customer: It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did it was an enjoyable read. Dervil is a worthy narrator and succeeds in shining a light on the events surrounding Arthur. A good novel.

Australia on Sep 28, 2023

BENJAMIN H SCHWECKE: One of Cornwell's best ever! If you enjoy reading Arthurian legend stuff is just what the novelist ordered! Go for it!!!

United States on Sep 22, 2023

Christie Robinson: I absolutely loved this book all the way through! I couldn’t stay away from it for long and think it’s truly a perfect book. So glad I read it and will read any that follow!

United States on Sep 10, 2023

David: I really enjoy Bernard’s books and I had, prior to this reading, just finished the Last Kingdom series (I preferred the first half of the books to the second).
My issue being that I found too many similarities between this and the Last Kingdom, in that I would be reading a passage of this book and all of a sudden I’d be reminded of something similar in the Last Kingdom. That would take away the originality and made me feel a little let down.
That being said though, this was an enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to book 2.

United Kingdom on Feb 14, 2023

The Journalist: This reading experience for me was unexpected. Everyone in my circle of literary companions has been urging me to read something by Bernard Cornwell. Since I've been a Camelot fan since I was literally 8 years old, I decided to begin this series. And honestly, there were some moments in the first 200 pgs. when I thought I might just put the book away! The period itself has some unpronounceable places and names, and some sort of phonetic guide would have been a help. The publisher was kind enough to include some lovely maps, but instead of placing them at the start of the book, as is typically done, they were all the way in the back! Perhaps my friends had put Cornwell on too much of a pedestal. Or maybe my own ideals of the Camelot legend are simply too fixed.

Getting into the plot and the characters was a MUCH slower process than I'd imagined it would be--especially with a master-writer. There was nothing--NOTHING that really grabbed me at the beginning to tug me into the book. The story takes place in the Dark Ages, and it took me those 200 pgs. to realize that Cornwell was leading the reader through that darkness. It was a dark time for religion, a dark time for Britain,...

United States on Jan 10, 2022

Bryan Desmond: Bernard Cornwell, followed by high praise in many circles of the internet, has been on my reading list for some time now. I was mainly aware of his Saxon Stories and this, The Warlord Chronicles, his story of Arthur, the King that Never Was. I thoroughly enjoyed the first piece of this trilogy, and I'm glad I finally took the plunge.

The Winter King is told from the perspective of Derfel, a warrior turned monk who was a loyal servant to Arthur and (obviously) lived through the events described and now tells the story. It's rather fun reading it from his perspective as he is a self-admitted unreliable narrator, confiding in Igraine (to whom he tells the story) that he is altering small details to make the story more palatable. Usually the reader must decide for themselves if a narrator is reliable or not, so having this spelled out for me clearly was an entertaining bit of story.

Part of the reason I was so interested in reading Cornwell's trilogy is because I've always loved and enjoyed the story of Arthur but am relatively under-read on the subject. My experience comes mainly from Disney's Sword in the Stone and T.H. White's The Once and Future King (which I loved,...

United States on Jun 09, 2020

KS: I am reeling! Has Bernard Cornwell just become my favourite author? I suspect so, for such is the tale that he has weaved around one of the myths that I have always loved: that of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Except here he is no king and his men are fierce warriors. He is the king that never was, lord of battle and enemy of god.

By all accounts, it is fairly certain that there was someone called Arthur or Artorius in the late 5th and early 6th century AD in the land we call Britain. His existence is still heavily disputed, especially because of latter day interpolations that give him something of a God like status. But there was a time in recorded history after the Romans left Britain and the Saxons invaded it, eventually capturing the heart of it and renaming it England, that points to a sustained resistance against the Saxons. And that resistance was led by Arthur, a brave and honourable man who led his men against the ceaseless and relentless Saxon invasions, their armored horses rampaging through scattered men, their spears and swords cleaving through and cutting down their enemies.

What I loved about The Winter King is that Cornwell has...

India on Nov 16, 2019

Friendlycard: There can be few historical characters about whom so much has been written, whilst so little is actually known, than Arthur, the "once and future king". No contemporary - or near-contemporary - sources attest to his existence, though it is recorded that, in around 500 AD, the British defeated the Saxons at Badon Hill, setting back the Saxon invasion by at least a generation.

Believers in the Arthur legend cite the strength of the oral tradition in favour of his existence, and would argue that, as the winners (in this case, the Saxons) get to write the history books, his omission from contemporary or near-contemporary documentary records is by no means conclusive.

Whether Arthur existed or not, there can be little doubt that the later additions to the tale - such as Camelot, the Round Table and so on - are fanciful, and impose thirteenth century notions of chivalry onto a tale from earlier and more savage times.

The crude, savage and dangerous nature of life in late fifth- and early sixth-century Britain is superbly portrayed in Bernard Cornwell's trilogy. Cornwell is said to regard these as his best books, and it would be hard to disagree with this...

United Kingdom on Aug 06, 2009