I crown Uhtred, king of awesome characters. He will meet any challenge to his title at the shield wall.

I thought this fifth book of the Saxon Stories was just as great as the last. This series is proving to be consistently captivating. It's well-written and perfectly paced. I'm so pleased that there are eight more books to binge, plus an adaptation.

One downside has been the inconsistent audio narration. This one is narrated by John Lee. He did an okay job, but he doesn't narrate any more of the books, so there's no point in getting used to him. Not like it really matters as I'm convinced no one can narrate these books as well as the original, Jonathan Keeble. I'm annoyed that these publishers are bouncing this series around to so many different narrators. The next book is narrated by Stephen Perring. These books deserve an audio version that is as consistently good as they are.