Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories/The Last Kingdom

[glen55]

This may not seem the best place to drop a film/book review, but hear me out. Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories novel series have made two excellent games much more enjoyable to me. It's a fictionalization of the birth of England in the 9th and 10th centuries A.D.

One of my very favorite and most-played games, Crusader Kings III, starts in 866, which as best I can calculate from historical references (although the date is never stated), is the exact same year the Saxon Stories starts. Since I almost always start as the Duke of Munster (in Ireland) the exact same scuffling with the Vikings and the other petty kings over the British Isles that features in the books features in the first century or so of my games (and the beginning of CKIII is always the best part).

I was head-over-heels for Assassins Creed Odyssey, but although AC Valhalla is a similar game, I never really felt it for ACV the same way, largely because I had trouble getting into roleplaying a reaver's slaughter/steal/party/rinse/repeat ethos. But after Cornwell's series gave me a deeper view of the Norsemen I found it much easier to slip into the skin of a Norse lord and to appreciate sacking monasteries and slaughtering footsoldiers by the score. I'm pretty sure that the makers of ACV read Cornwell's books, too. You see not only a lot of the same themes, but a fair number of the same characters. It doesn't start in 866, but instead maybe 15-20 years later: about the same time that the main character of the Saxon Stories begins his warlord career.

It's a very clever idea to write a series of historical novels about a period where the history is scanty and unreliable. Cornwell hits, and brings to life, the known history quite accurately, yet the yawning holes in what is known about the period allow him to slip a brand-new hero figure into the mix, a man who played a key role in the period's goings-on but never made it into the written histories because they were propaganda written by people who didn't like him. Quite believable, and a neat trick.

Cornwell is a heckuva writer and it's a rollicking good read.

Then Netflix came along and made The Last Kingdom, which is more faithful to the books than adaptations usually are . It got great reviews and they are well-earned. [A tip: don't get turned off by the rather unrealistically small nature of the battle portrayals in Season 1, which is otherwise quite good. After that season got good reviews, Netflix picked it up and the budget zoomed.]

I recommend both highly, and if you are at all interested in AC Valhalla, and/or if you're interested in an Irish, English or Norse focus in CK3, the recommendation is even higher. Great book series, great cable series, and they will help you appreciate two really fine games.

[Gusington]

I love AC Valhalla and real-life friends of mine have been screaming at me to watch The Last Kingdom. I dare not begin the book series for fear of killing my wallet. Ok maybe I'll just get the first one to try it out...

Have you heard of the Tainted Grail games? I just learned about Fall of Avalon literally a few days ago and bought, will fire it up soon. It is billed as a 'Dark Arthurian Skyrim' with a dash of Kingdom Come. Here:

[glen55]

Tainted Grail looks like fun (except for maybe the "hard core" part). And I definitely like the setting. I'll keep my eye on it.

[Sir Slash]

I'm a huge fan of, The Last Kingdom on Netflix except for the final full-length movie that ends the story, apparently. I thought another season of the show would've been better. But otherwise, like Tony the Tiger says....Grrreattt!

[Destraex]

Big fan of Bernard Cornwell books here but have not read much of his dark ages stuff.
Have read:
Starbuck chronicals on the American Civil War
Sharpe napoleonic wars books up to the last 10yrs or so, that's about 15 iirc. It is a real shame no Napoleonic game takes my fancy atm or I might read more of his post 2010 sharpe books
Grail trilogy - Excellent set in the hundred years war medieval period iirc
Redcoat (at least part of it) - Revolutionary war from a young prospective redcoat iirc
Agincourt - stand alone novel on said battle

Real page turners. Very easy to read and written in good quality clear english. More than I can say about a lot of authors.
Love that Bernard has a huge chapter on historical accuracy at the end to inform the reader. Again more than I can say about most authors.
His research for his books is amazing to say the least. Must take him years.

Now that I am playing Chivalry2 with friends I might get into Bernard's dark age books. I think I read the winter king once and was impressed with the way Bernard wrote it from the perspective he
thought a person in that era must have viewed the world. Full of scary unknowns that are kind of real to a layman of the time.

[GibbyG]

I enjoyed the Last Kingdom on Netflix, but there are enough significant changes that, to me, it gets the dreaded "based on" label. 

[Father Ted]

"The Vikings" drama series covers the same bit of history (although obviously from a different perspective).  I think it's on Amazon Prime