{"product_id":"the-last-kingdom-the-saxon-chronicles-series-1","title":"The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first book in a brand new series  The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred. Uhtred is an English boy  born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten  he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtreds fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred  King of Wessex  who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault. The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtreds growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfreds kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion  Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There  in the horror of the shield-wall  he discovers his true allegiance. The Last Kingdom  like most of Bernard Cornwells books  is firmly based on true history. It is the first novel of a series that will tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced  Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother  Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties  reluctant love and desperate heroism. In Uhtred  he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44936802500661,"sku":"ByrdShop_0007149905","price":33.07,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780007149902.jpg?v=1770478254","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-last-kingdom-the-saxon-chronicles-series-1","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}