The other reviewers have already captured the main reasons why this book is such a reprehensible piece of work, but just to recap...
The Rise of the Saxons follows a band of Angle, Saxon and Jute "heroes" as they launch a campaign of genocide against the Britons (in the words of the main character, "lets holocaust them into oblivion"). They take a particular fondness for murdering defenceless children: near the start of the book Hengest slits the throat of a little girl who had been captured as a slave, and later on he uses a spiked ball to smash in the head of a nine-year-old boy who is cowering in fear. Meanwhile, two of his buddies throw small children into the air and catch them on swords, purely for fun.
The heroes of the story are associated with overtly Nazi or neo-Nazi imagery, including swastikas, double lightning bolts, raised-arm salutes, skinhead hair styles and - again - multiple uses of the word "holocaust".
There is one more thing which I think needs to be noted about this novel, however. When children are not being massacred, they are being sexualised.
At one point the character Hrothgar flirts with the female lead, Dresden. When she tells him that she is thirteen years old, he replies "Nearly a woman then, that's old enough for me... What's the matter love? I'll be gentle".
Dresden objects, but this is simply because she already has a boyfriend - Hrothgar is still allowed to join the "good guys", with this incident never being mentioned again. The novel portrays it as perfectly acceptable for a grown man to lust after a thirteen year old girl.
Elsewhere, Dresden is bedded by the 14-year-old Hengest: "whilst under those covers with Dresden, I seemed to forget my love for Hild and we committed what the Christians would call a 'sin'", he tells us. The novel has a recurring motif of adolescent sexuality, presented in a crass and prurient manner.
There is also a brief, throwaway mention of Hengest's heroic Anglo-Saxon comrades committing rapes while invading Britain, although - to give the author the benefit of the doubt on this one occasion - he could be using the word in the older sense to denote plunder and pillaging, rather than sexual violence.
Doubtless, fans of this book will tell me that I am just being politically correct. I am fully aware that the period of the novel's setting was a different era, an age in which actions that would now constitute war crimes and sex crimes were the norm. There is nothing inherently wrong with a historical novel giving a "warts and all" portrayal of its chosen setting.
But the main problem with Rise of the Saxons, as other reviewers have noted, is its propagandistic slant. In his note at the back, the author remarks that
"We are taught in England that we are British and therefore have viewed our history from a British perspective and so naturally we have viewed the Anglo-Saxons as foreign invaders. But if we say `NO!` to the people that wish to oppress English identity and do the most un-politically correct thing and think of our history from an English perspective then the Anglo-Saxons weren`t foreign at all, they were us. And we should honour their achievements and tell their stories, because if we don`t, then who will?"
Meanwhile, one of the five-star reviews expresses hope that "this book will act as a spark for other creative authors to produce works that glorify our Germanic English ancestors". But even setting aside the violence and racism, what is honourable or glorious about a grown adult making sexual passes at a thirteen-year-old?
That said, I found the book fascinating for how it shines such a sharp light on both the mind which created it and on the people who support it; I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is interested in learning about the workings of far-right extremists. With right-wing nationalist groups gaining ground in certain countries, Rise of the Saxons does a tremendous job of outlining the mindset behind much of that thinking.
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