Warriors of the Storm by Bernard Cornwell

The latest book in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories(recently renamed The Last Kingdom series by the publisher to capitilize on the BBC TV series, I suppose) is just as exciting and fun as the other 8. There are nine novels in all, and I wish it were a hundred.

AS always Cornwell's writing shines most when he's writing battle scenes; and he makes the most of that fact by packing it full to the bloody brim with action and battles galore. 

This (largely fictional, though stretched on the bare bones of some historical facts) tale had a fine plot that kept me guessing and paid off well. 

All the usual elements are in place here, although I think Uhtred neglects to kill a holy man in this book!
I think that this series actually improves with the more books that he adds to it. Not only do the characters attain more depth and complexity as they age(Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a teenager in the first book is definitely in middle age here), but the books' plot's seem tighter, the humor more developed, and the overall experience more pleasurable.

Recently I told someone that Cornwell's novels are mainly for men as he tends to write about three female characters and rotate them, but they are strong characters, for the most part and when I consider the character of Uhtred's liege and sometime lover Aethelflaed, the Christian Queen of Mercia, I feel like I need to eat my words. She's awesome. AS is his tough, fighting Irishman sidekick Finan.

I highlighted two quotes here that exemplify the humor that I think is one of the series' strongest hooks: 

"All seamen will tell you that is bad luck to change a ship's name, though I have done it often enough, but never without the necessary precaution of having a virgin piss into the bilge. That averts the ill luck..."

"[THe boat] had belonged to a stubborn Mercian who had settled in teh empty land west of Brunanburh. We had told him that the NOrse raiders regularly crossed the mouth of the Maerse...but he had insisted he would survive. He did survive, too, for all of a week, after which he and his family had all been killed or enslaved..."

If you like historical fiction or action-packed battle scenes read these books. They are a kick