Boston Globe
History comes alive.
Philadelphia Inquirer
[Cornwell] possesses a gift for narrative flow and an eye of the telling detail that are the main reasons for his primacy in bringing turbulent times to vivid life.
Dennis Lythgoe
Cornwell is adept at enveloping his fictional characters in British history. His use of geography, instruments of battle, strategy and ancient vocabulary is faultless….No knowledge of early British history or of his earlier Saxon volumes is necessary for a reader to enjoy his dexterous approach to historical fiction.
James Urquhart
Robustly drawn characters and a keen appetite for bloodshed whip the reader along in a froth of excitement.
Dierdre Donahue
Bernard Cornwell ranks as the current alpha male of testosterone-enriched historical fiction.
George R. R. Martin
Bernard Cornwell does the best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read, past or present.
Robert Conroy
[Cornwell] has been described as a master of historical fiction, but that may be an understatement. Cornwell makes his subject material come alive. Better, his major protagonist is totally believable and human.
Christian DuChateau
Likely to appeal to anyone who has enjoyed George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series....Cornwell is a master of historical fiction.
Gregory Cowles
[Cornwell] writes morally complicated and intricate stories, and he’s won a following not just among readers but also among fellow writers.
Tom Shippey
Gripping. . . . Mr. Cornwell’s ‘Saxon Stories’ subvert myths of national origin as few would dare. They are ‘unofficial histories’—and all the more realistic for that.
Entertainment Weekly for Sword Song
As expected, the warfare is ferociously bloody, the sacrilege pointedly barbed, and the story expertly paced. Heck, we’d even extol Uhtred’s budding spells of sober reflection about life and love—if we weren’t certain he’d slice an ear off for saying so.
Washington Post Book World for Sword Song
Cornwell tells Alfred’s story with wit, intelligence and absolute narrative authority.... Cornwell remains in full control of this colorful, violent material, and his steadily deepening portrait of Alfred’s nascent England continues to enthrall.
