Amazon.co.uk Review
From the earliest times, human beings have looked at the sun and the moon, and at life and death, and have imagined gods who control such things, and looked for ways to control those gods. In
Stonehenge, Bernard Cornwell, famous for his novels about Rifleman Sharpe's adventures in the Napoleonic wars and for a sequence of brutally realistic Arthurian novels, considers the men and women who built Stonehenge and Avebury. These stone circles are impressive enough today; but all the more so if you imagine shifting stones from Wales to Salisbury Plain by raft and roller, dressing them with burning fat and grindstones, hauling the lintel stones up tiers of platforms.
"The oxen were goaded again, and, finger's breadth by finger's breadth, the huge stone eased forward until half of it was poised and then the oxen tugged once more and Saban was shouting at the beasts' drivers to halt the animals because the stone was tipping at last. For a heartbeat, it seemed to balance on the ramp's edge, then its leading half crashed down onto the timbers, then the great boulder slid down the ramp to lodge against the hole's face."
It is the story of Saban, made architect against his will; of his brothers Lengar, the aspiring conqueror and Camaban, the cripple-turned-magician. It is the story of Derrewynn, princess-turned-witch, and Aurenna, sacrifice-turned-priestess queen.
Stonehenge is an epic tale of people as smart as us, inventing religion and mythology and forcing their wills on the world and each other. --
Roz Kaveney
Review
'An epic story told with a master's skill. Bernard Cornwell now burrows into prehistory to suggest an answer to the puzzle of why and by whom Stonehenge was built. The result is an epic story told with a master's skill, presenting powerful personalities, high dramas and terrific climaxes with colour and pace.' TLS
After his Arthurian trilogy, Cornwell turns back the clock to Bronze Age Britain, applying his admirable historical imagination to another great mystery: the origin of the monument we now call Stonehenge. Around the scantest of available historical fact he weaves a cracking tale of deadly sibling rivalry, hatred, war, faith and ambition. In a time ruled by superstition and fear, a mortally wounded Outlander pitches up in the settlement of Ratharryn, bringing with him a bag of gold lozenges. The villagers interpret the coming of this 'gift' as a sign that their sun god - Slaol - wants a new temple built to honour him. So a dramatic chain of events is set in motion, the effects of which will be felt far and wide through time as well as space, and the lives of three extraordinary brothers, sons of Hengall, chief of Ratharryn, are changed forever. (Kirkus UK)
An acclaimed historical novelist (Sharpe's Triumph, 1999, etc.) casts a canny eye way, way back.It's 2000
b.c., and the old waysand the old godsseem somehow less controlling than they used to be. Even Hengall, the once tyrannical chief in Ratharryn, appears unusually vulnerable, and his oldest son, sensing this, is on the point of challenging his authority. Hengall has three sons: Camaban, whom hes ashamed of because he was born club-footed; Saban, whom he favors but who, at age 12, is a nonplayer, politically speaking, and Lengar, who is the tribe's great warrior and hunter. Obviously, then its the latter who will have to be killed if Hengalls to stay alive. The power struggle mounts in intensity, complicated by the existence of nearby marauding bands in Cathalla and far-flung ones in Semennyn. And as men betray and murder each other, the wayward gods watchever in need of placating, usually by human sacrifice. Camaban, written off, startles all by becoming a first-class sorcerer-visionary and later point-man for a new religion, one that will award ascendancy to Slaol, the sun god, who in turn will end winter, eliminate death, and generate better behavior among humans. A new temple must be built in his honor, Camaban insists, the likes of which has never been seen before, a circle of magnificently massive stones and bouldersnever mind that nothing of this description is indigenous to Ratharryn. Camaban has his way. Saban, the youngest of the brothers, grows old building a Slaol-worthy edifice; but when its finished, the men are still up to their old tricks: betrayal, murder, the usual.Whatever the period, count on Cornwell to serve up the details on which verisimilitude thrives. Lots of that here, maybe more than required, but it's a sturdy story, tooan ancient sibling rivalry full of enough blood and thunder to hold anyone's interest. (Kirkus Reviews)
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by Bernard Cornwell
by Bernard Cornwell
by Bernard Cornwell
