Which Uhtred Book Should I Read First?

Oh, absolutely — if you’re talking about the main Uhtred novels (the series that starts with 'The Last Kingdom'), you’ll find audiobook editions for virtually all of them. I’ve binged these on long drives and house chores, and pretty much every full-length novel in Bernard Cornwell’s saga has been released as an audiobook. A lot of the English-language editions are unabridged, which I appreciate because Cornwell’s battle descriptions and dry humor feel best when nothing’s been cut. Narration can vary by publisher and country, but there’s a consistent set of narrators who’ve become almost synonymous with these books; that familiarity is a comfort when I pick up the next title. You’ll see the audiobooks on Audible, Libro.fm, Google Play, and often in library apps like Libby or Hoopla depending on your region. One thing to watch for: some very short tie-in stories or promotional novellas might be harder to find in audio form, and translations into other languages depend on local publishers. If you want them all in a single place, check Audible collections and publisher pages — sometimes they bundle the series — and don’t forget to sample a minute or two of each narrator before committing. I usually listen to a sample to make sure I like the voice for Uhtred’s world, then settle in. Happy listening — these are perfect on a rainy afternoon drive.

Honestly, if you want the one that threads closest to recorded history, I'd point to 'The Pale Horseman' as a standout. It dramatizes events around the 878 campaign — the Danish settlers, Alfred’s strategy, and the lead-up to the pivotal battle often identified with Ethandun/Edington — and Bernard Cornwell leans on the real political shape of England at that time. The big moves (who fought whom, where, and why) are grounded in the chronicles we have, and Cornwell’s afterword usually flags what he’s kept strict versus what he’s made up. That said, Uhtred himself is mostly a fictional lens: he’s a terrific device to walk you through historical scenes, but his personal timeline, romances, and the way he bumps into famous people are liberties. Cornwell compresses time, invents encounters, and heightens action for narrative flow — especially the quiet domestic details and some family ties. If you enjoy military detail, the siegecraft, ship action, and tactics feel authentically gritty; Cornwell does his homework on weapons and formations. If you want to dig deeper after reading, check the author's notes in that book and compare to primary sources like 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' and Asser’s 'Life of King Alfred'. For pure historical fidelity, the early novels that cover Alfred’s reign — with 'The Pale Horseman' right up there — are your best bet, while still savoring Uhtred’s fictional swagger.

I still get a kick out of how time flies with this series — it feels like yesterday I was devouring the early Uhtred books on a rainy weekend. The latest full-length Uhtred novel is 'Sword of Kings', which was released in 2019. That’s the twelfth novel in Bernard Cornwell’s long-running saga about Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and it wrapped up a lot of threads for me in a satisfying, battle-heavy way. Since I first read 'The Last Kingdom', I’ve followed every new release, and by the time 'Sword of Kings' arrived I'd already binged the Netflix show and listened to several audiobook renditions. If you’re hunting different formats, there are hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audiobook editions that came out around 2019 in various regions. After 'Sword of Kings' fans also got the Netflix film 'Seven Kings Must Die' as a kind of screen coda to the series, but that’s separate from the novel releases. For anyone new to the series, start with 'The Last Kingdom' and enjoy watching Uhtred grow — and then relish 'Sword of Kings' as the most recent fuller novel to pick up.

If you like getting lost in pages as much as in show binges, here's how I see the split: the books feel like a private fireside chat while the series is a stadium concert. Bernard Cornwell writes Uhtred in the first person in 'The Saxon Stories' and that voice is pure gold—sardonic, nostalgic, full of side-comments and insider jokes about battles, booze, and bad decisions. You get a lot more interiority in the novels: why Uhtred thinks the way he does, the small humiliations and petty joys, and long stretches of travel that let you live inside his head for chapters. The TV version can't carry that same running commentary, so the character comes across differently—more through gestures, looks, and Alexander Dreymon’s physicality than through long monologues. On the flip side, television does what books can't: it makes the fights bone-rattling and immediate, paints the monasteries and muddy camps with music and faces, and speeds the political plot into something lean and watchable. That means timelines get compressed, minor characters are merged or cut, and some deaths or romances are moved around for drama. If you want the full, sprawling experience—side quests, extra battles, and Cornwell’s dry little observations—read the books. If you want cinematic spectacle and a faster emotional hit, the show nails it in its own way.

Honestly, whenever people bring up Alfred’s showdown with the Danes I get pretty excited — that clash is portrayed in 'The Last Kingdom'. In Bernard Cornwell’s opening novel Uhtred ends up in the thick of things as Alfred’s fortunes turn against Guthrum and the battle commonly called Ethandun (historically Edington, 878) becomes a pivotal moment. Cornwell does a great job of blending real history with Uhtred’s personal vendetta and loyalties, so the fight reads both like a big historical pivot and a very personal drama for his protagonist. If you’re the kind of reader who loves maps, names, and gritty battlefield detail, the sequence lands hard: Alfred’s strategy, the desperate shield wall moments, and then the aftermath — Guthrum’s defeat and baptism — are threaded through the narrative. If you watched the TV show and loved the season finale, know that the series pulls from both 'The Last Kingdom' and parts of 'The Pale Horseman', but the core depiction of Ethandun that sets Alfred on his path appears first in 'The Last Kingdom'. It’s one of those scenes that hooked me on Cornwell’s voice and made me devour the rest of the saga, so if you haven’t read it, that book is a great place to start exploring Uhtred’s world.

Bernard Cornwell wrote the books most people mean when they talk about Uhtred — the series published as 'The Saxon Stories' (and often sold under the umbrella title 'The Last Kingdom'). I absolutely devoured these novels when I first found them; Cornwell has that soldier-on-the-ground voice that hooked me from page one. He built Uhtred as a fictional, larger-than-life warrior who grows up with Danes but retains a claim in Saxon lands, which makes him the perfect lens for exploring loyalty, faith, and identity in a violently changing England. What inspired Cornwell was a mix of historical curiosity and storycraft. He loved the messy, unromantic world of the so-called Dark Ages and wanted to tell it through a character who stands between cultures. He drew on real history — the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, bits of saga material, and the lives of figures like King Alfred the Great — but he also borrowed the idea of a dispossessed lord from historical Uhtreds (a real Uhtred of Bamburgh lived later). Cornwell’s method is to take the bones of history and place a vivid, flawed man in them so you feel the clash of swords and ideas. If you’ve seen the TV show 'The Last Kingdom', it’s a great companion but different; Cornwell’s tone is rougher and the books dive deeper into Uhtred’s inner life. I still find myself flipping pages late at night, swept up in that gritty, raucous world.

Oh wow, hunting for a box set of the Uhtred books is one of those little quests that feels perfectly fitting for a medieval saga fan like me — I get oddly giddy. If you want a brand-new boxed edition, the big online retailers are the fastest route: Amazon (US/UK) usually stocks both paperback and hardcover collections, and you can find Kindle bundles if you’re ok with digital. For something that supports local shops, I always check Bookshop.org in the U.S. or Waterstones in the UK; they sometimes carry publisher-authorized box sets and you’ll be helping independent stores at the same time. If you’re picky about edition or want signed copies, try the publisher’s site — Bernard Cornwell’s books are often published through HarperCollins (check the regional sites). They’ll list special editions or reprints. For audiobooks, Audible and Blackstone Audio are the go-tos; sometimes there’s a boxed audiobook collection for the whole series. Don’t forget to compare international editions: UK slipcases differ from US paperbacks, and customs/shipping can change the final price. For bargains and rarer sets, AbeBooks, eBay, Alibris, and ThriftBooks are goldmines — I’ve scored a near-mint slipcase for much less by patient bidding. Local used bookstores, library sales, and Facebook Marketplace are also surprisingly fruitful if you enjoy the treasure hunt. Tip: check ISBNs and the exact list of included titles so you don’t end up with a partial set. Good luck — the tactile joy of opening a proper box set is unbeatable to me.

Oh, this is a fun one — I got into the TV show first and then tore through the books, so I love comparing them. The first season of the TV series 'The Last Kingdom' is primarily drawn from the very first novel, 'The Last Kingdom', but it doesn’t stop there: the show also borrows significant scenes and plot threads from the second book, 'The Pale Horseman'. That mash-up explains why some story beats feel more advanced than a strict one-book adaptation would allow. Watching season one, you can see the spine of book one — Uhtred’s capture by the Danes, his childhood being taken, and the early power struggle around King Alfred. But the show compresses timelines and brings in episodes from 'The Pale Horseman' to accelerate character arcs and heighten drama. If you’ve read the books, those blended elements are obvious; if you haven’t, the TV season still reads as a coherent single arc, just more compact. If you’re thinking about reading after watching, I’d say start with 'The Last Kingdom' (book one) to get the original pacing and internal monologues that the TV medium trims away. Then go to 'The Pale Horseman' to see where the show drew extra material. I loved revisiting the scenes that the series rearranged — they gain a different flavor on the page, and it’s a nice way to spot what the adapters chose to emphasize.