Reviews

Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell

Only show reviews with written explanations

hrh99's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

jeremiea's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

stefanv's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

Combining tense storytelling and richly detailed and authentic world building, the Warlord Chronicles have become a favourite read of mine.
This is also the best version of the character of Arthur I have seen so far (including the source material). Bernard Cornwell makes him an actual good man: likeable, honourable, but also with a hard edge that still keeps him realistic.

Cornwell doesn’t manage to integrate the story of Tristan and Isolde satisfactorily into the Arthurian tales - though he comes close. But honestly, has anybody ever managed to do that? Even in the source material it stands more on its own.

This version is different in many ways to the Arthurian legends as told by people like Thomas Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth, though Cornwell also plays with their content in very clever ways. However, he seems to have taken the older - and more scarce - Celtic source material as inspiration, thus making his work into the closest thing we’ll probably get to an actual historical version of Arthur. If he existed at all. Which he probably didn’t. Or maybe?