Death of Kings

Saxon Tales, Book 6

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Stephen Perring

The fate of a new nation rests in the hands of a reluctant warrior in this thrilling sixth volume in the acclaimed New York Times best-selling Saxon Tales series.

As the ninth century wanes, Alfred the Great lies dying, his dream of a unified England in danger and his kingdom on the brink of chaos. While his son, Edward, has been named his successor, there are other Saxon claimants to the throne - as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred, the Saxon-born, Viking-raised warrior, whose life seems to shadow the making of England itself, is torn between his vows to Alfred and his desire to reclaim his long-lost ancestral lands and castle in the north. As the king’s warrior, he is duty-bound, but Alfred’s reign is nearing its end, and Uhtred has sworn no oath to the crown prince. Despite his long years of service, Uhtred is still loath to commit to the old king’s Saxon cause of a united and Christian England. Now he must make a momentous decision, one that will forever transform his life... and the course of history: take up arms - and Alfred’s mantle - or lay down his sword and allow the dream of a unified kingdom to fall into oblivion.

©2011 Bernard Cornwell (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

Great book: narrator can't pronounce anything

The story is great as always from this series. The narrator on the other hand cannot pronounce anything correctly. Anything. At all.

Poor narrator

The usual good story from Bernard Cornwell. Did not enjoy the narrators performance at all. You would think that if you were going to read the
6th(?) book in a series you would at least see how the main characters name and title had been consistently pronounced in the first five books instead of making up your own pronunciation. It was was terribly distracting through out the entire performance. Good story/Poor narrator.

Hope you don't mind the names pronounced different

In the first five books, the first three voice actors all pronounce the names the same. In this book the fourth guy decided to pronounce the names completely different. I found it extremely irritating.

another book another narrator

This is the 4th narrator for this series. he couldn't take the time to learn the proper name pronunciations.

Good addition to the series.

I was wary of this one based on other reviews, but I enjoyed the narrator quite a lot and found the story enjoyable. It was nice to see Uhtred just be a warrior instead of having a bunch of messy romance muddling things up.

Pronounced everything different again

just when I got used to the new guy they throw another dude in. you get used to it. The story is similar to the others. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of directions and locations without a map.

loved it

another great performance and story gives historical events an entertaining and dramatic portrayal of my ancestry that i have learned from and cherish. i just love this book series....next installment, please!!

The reading took annoying liberties!

Did this have a producer?I
Pronunciations didn't match earlier volumes, And changing Bebbanburg to Bamburgh? I can't imagine Cornwell approved. Hey, Audible, read the book as it was written!

Still a great story

I don’t really share the irritation of others for the narrator- at this point every narrator pronounces everything differently. The story is still exciting and engaging. My only complaint is that Uhtred becomes less and less likable with each book. While it may be more accurate in terms of how someone in his place would have behaved, I find it harder and harder to cheer him on when he is so unlikable.

Before you record

is it too much to ask you listen to past recordings and pronounce the names the same way?