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I am a great fan of Bernard Cornwell's books, I believe that I have read 40 plus of his historical novels and I'm constantly amazed at how he manages to keep them fresh and non repetitive.
His ongoing Saxon Stories series, the 9th volume of which comes out next January, is being brought to television by the BBC and the first book, "The Last Kingdom" will have its premier episode this Saturday at 10 pm on BBC America.
The Saxon stories are set in the late 9th, early 10th Century in England, the time of Kings Albert, Edward and Athelstan, and relates the story of how the Saxons managed to unite the four kingdoms of England and resist being overrun by the Danes. The main character is Lord Uthred, a Saxon born in Northumbria, but raised by the Danes after he was captured. He eventually winds up as Alfred's greatest warlord, despite never accepting Christianity and instead clinging to his beliefs in the ancient Norse gods. The saga has taken Uthred from childhood through his fifties.
I would imagine that if this series is successful, next year they will have one based on the second book and so forth.
If you are a fan of the "Vikings" series, I would guess that you will like this one as well, or at least give it a try. I'm nearly always disappointed by screen adaptions of books which I loved, but I will wait and see how they do with The Last Kingdom. The tv series based on the Richard Sharpe novels suffered from too low a budget and was never able to impart the epic feel of the age of the Napoleonic wars. What is supposed to be an entire French battalion would be represented by about 40 extras.
I am so excited for this to begin. Uhtred is dark haired though, so it is a bit spoiled for me, even though I am blind I had an image in my mind and a brunette Uhtred is simply not cutting it!
My DH has been annoyed by how often I reference this tv series. !Happy Dance!
It looks like a blatant Game of Thrones rip off, but we'll see...
Not at all. Game of Thrones is fantasy fiction, The Last Kingdom is historical fiction. Uthred is the author's invention, but most of the characters were real people. Uthred gets inserted into actual events. Cornwell is presenting the history of the birth of England in the form of novels.
Not at all. Game of Thrones is fantasy fiction, The Last Kingdom is historical fiction. Uthred is the author's invention, but most of the characters were real people. Uthred gets inserted into actual events. Cornwell is presenting the history of the birth of England in the form of novels.
I love the way that Cornwell is a descendant from an Uhtred (Uchtred) of Bebbanburg (Bamburgh). I enjoyed the Time Team episode of Bamburgh; it was fascinating.
Not at all. Game of Thrones is fantasy fiction, The Last Kingdom is historical fiction. Uthred is the author's invention, but most of the characters were real people. Uthred gets inserted into actual events. Cornwell is presenting the history of the birth of England in the form of novels.
Many GOT characters are based historical figures as well. It still seems like another blatantly commercial attempt to ape GOT.
Many GOT characters are based historical figures as well. It still seems like another blatantly commercial attempt to ape GOT.
so, it's okay for GoT to rip off actual history (The War of the Roses, the Black Dinner, etc), but it's not okay for other TV shows to try to capitalize on the critical success and popularity of Game of Thrones?
Hollywood has been doing this since the beginning - In the years before Star Wars, there were hardly any mainstream Sci-Fi movies or TV shows. However, afterwards, there came a boatload of them - Buck Rogers in the 25th century (a remake of the old movies from the late 30s/early 40s); Battlestar Galactica, Alien, Star Trek the Motion Picture... not to mention the start of the Mad Max franchise, and James Bond in space as well with Moonraker, and, not longer afterwards, you had ET.
I suspect not, otherwise you would not be writing the above.
I think you're misunderstanding. No one is accusing Bernard Cornwell of ripping off Martin. In fact, I know that Martin has cited Cornwell as one of his influences.
But the success of Game of Thrones on TV has DEFINITELY opened the gates for similar "medieval" type shows on TV. No doubt. We have Reign, The Bastard Executioner, Vikings, and now The Last Kingdom. These are all shows that very likely never would have been given a moment's consideration at any network until the success of GOT on HBO.
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