The Burning Land

The Last Kingdom Series, Book 5

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Matt Bates

The fifth novel in Bernard Cornwell’s epic and bestselling series on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg.

BBC2’s major Autumn 2015 TV show THE LAST KINGDOM is based on the first two books in the series.

In the last years of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth. The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smell opportunity…

First comes Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading a Viking horde, who is encouraged to cruelty by his woman, Skade. But Alfred still has the services of Uhtred, his unwilling warlord, who leads Harald into a trap and, at Farnham in Surrey, inflicts one of the greatest defeats the Vikings were ever to suffer.

This novel, the fifth in the magnificent series of England's history tells of the final assaults on Alfred's Wessex, that Wessex survived to become England is because men like Uhtred defeated an enemy feared throughout Christendom.

©2019 Bernard Cornwell (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Cornwell draws a fascinating picture of England as it might have been before anything like England existed." (The Times)

Why would you change the reader!?

I haven't written a review in some time. Mostly because it has been written before. But here I would like to take a moment and make my utter disgust known for the change of reader that was done. Matt Bates is probably one of the worst readers I've heard. his accents are all the same, the characters lose all hitherto hard earned character growth. Women,men old and young all have the same voice....or nearly. Welsh and Irish accents are beyond Matt Bates capabilities.
This series is stunningly written, love the engaging descriptions of this far off time. BUT Matt Bates has now spoiled the series for me. I will have to gather strength before listening to the next book. I might even buy the physical book rather than the Audio,just so that I don't have to sit through this reader's rendition. How on earth can someone make a action packed battle sequence with blood and guts bore me to tears?

Good, not great

Bates isn’t bad. And given a different starting point his performance probably wouldn’t have bothered most people in the slightest.

However the shift to him as narrator is a pretty big one, so the first few hours of the book were a little hard to get into and the names and place names that changed as well as some dialectical choices.

All in all I quite like Bates rendition although he isn’t my favourite narrator of the series, but I absolutely think he is one you can learn to love or at least like in the coming books.

They were so good but I stop here

I wont be finishing the series because of the narrator. After listening to the first four books Jonathon, then switching to Matt Battes isn't doable.

The first 4 books were read with such compassion that in itself made them worth listening too but unfortunately Matt Battes did not live up to that. I hope he can use this going forward.

What has happened to the narration ?!

I have screeched to a shuddering halt with this series .. brought to a stop by the shield wall that is the flat monotone of Matt Bates narration and voice acting.

What a shame - very disappointed as I was so enjoying the series with the passion of Jonathan Keebles storytelling of the first four books.

Significant drop off from Keeble

Terrible narration had me abandon the series in all honesty, Keeble is a tough act to follow. Mispronounced names in bad accents after four books? Really?