Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Flame Bearer
    The Flame Bearer
    The Flame Bearer
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Flame Bearer

    Written by Bernard Cornwell

    Narrated by Matt Bates

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The tenth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London)—the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series.

    Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria’s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Mercia’s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed a truce. And so England’s greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago—and which his scheming cousin still occupies.

    But fate is inexorable, and the enemies Uhtred has made and the oaths he has sworn conspire to distract him from his dream of recapturing his home. New enemies enter into the fight for England’s kingdoms: the redoubtable Constantin of Scotland seizes an opportunity for conquest and leads his armies south. Britain’s precarious peace threatens to turn into a war of annihilation. Yet Uhtred is determined that nothing—neither the new adversaries nor the old foes who combine against him—will keep him from his birthright.

     “Historical novels stand or fall on detail, and Mr. Cornwell writes as if he has been to ninth-century Wessex and back.”
    —Wall Street Journal

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 29, 2016
    ISBN9780062571526
    The Flame Bearer
    Author

    Bernard Cornwell

    BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of over fifty novels, including the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales, which serve as the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charleston, South Carolina.

    More audiobooks from Bernard Cornwell

    Related to The Flame Bearer

    Titles in the series (13)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Crossing The Bar

      Mar 11, 2021

      The Edwardian period of English yachting is best remembered for the great cutters and schooners of the racing scene. From Cowes to the Clyde professionally crewed yachts competed for big-money prizes while fortunes changed hands by way of wagers on r

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Thrills And Spills Of Recon

      Sep 7, 2022

      The Thrills And Spills Of Recon
      4 min read

    • Article

      Flood, Fire and Chrome

      Jan 2, 2018

      Flood, Fire and Chrome
      13 min read

    • Article

      Alaska, Unfiltered

      Jan 2, 2018

      Alaska, Unfiltered
      12 min read

    • Article

      A Shedful Of Adventure

      Jul 14, 2023

      A Shedful Of Adventure
      5 min read

    • Article

      Drifting Into Antiquity

      Aug 20, 2019

      Drifting Into Antiquity
      11 min read

    • Article

      East Coast Creek Explorations

      Dec 9, 2021

      Nick Ardley has sailed around the Thames Estuary all his life and now does so with wife Christobel aboard Whimbrel, a Finesse 24. We enjoyed a cracking sail over from our club moorings at the eastern end of Canvey Island and passed Grain Fort before

      3 min read

    • Article

      Pumping Iron

      Jun 7, 2019

      These days as I put to sea in my modern classic Mason 44, I feel I’m leading a sheltered life. Unless she decides – for whatever obscure reason governs her plastic soul – to syphon in a quick bilge-full through one of her many pumps, she sails dry, t

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Overlord

      Oct 14, 2022

      The Overlord
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Ashes

      Sep 9, 2022

      It’s almost 50 years since my wife Roz and I moved aboard our first serious cruising boat. While paying off our overdraft, we lived in a mud berth on a rickety pier attached to what was then Moody’s yard at the top of the Hamble River. It was univers

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Dec 1, 2023

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Dec 1, 2023

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Confessional

      May 21, 2020

      The Confessional
      2 min read

    • Article

      Calamity in Germany

      Nov 28, 2019

      Calamity in Germany
      7 min read

    • Article

      Summer Christmas

      Dec 6, 2019

      Summer Christmas
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Selkie Moon

      Dec 3, 2020

      The Selkie Moon
      5 min read

    • Article

      Trading Places

      Nov 1, 2019

      Trading Places
      7 min read

    • Article

      More Things In Heaven

      Dec 10, 2021

      It’s the deep mid-winter, when sailors check their warps, settle down in lamp-lit saloons, top up their bogey stoves and pour themselves a dram. If they’re in tune with the outside world, they’ll also shut off the flickering screens, kill the music m

      5 min read

    • Article

      Life In A Cornish Fishing Town

      May 28, 2020

      Life In A Cornish Fishing Town
      5 min read

    • Article

      Morfa The Long Road To Redemption

      May 26, 2023

      If you’re anything like me, you’ll remember reading Sea Angler as a kid and marvelling over the roll call of fabulous and mysterious fishing venues that regularly cropped up in articles, accompanied by pictures from which anglers smiled out, holding

      5 min read

    • Article

      It’s The Taking Part

      Sep 10, 2021

      You’d think that with the year’s favourite virus stamping on any attempts to have fun, this summer would have been a thin one for regattas and festivals. Certainly, some events have been struck off, but the efforts of a number of committees to delive

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Wonders Of A Wharram Cat

      Nov 26, 2020

      Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers and edits The Marine Quarterly. He is currently patching up a 30ft ketch It was two in the morning in the latish 1970s, and we were sitting round a bottle-covered table in Ireland. A farmer t

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Driftwood's Tale

      Jul 1, 2019

      A Driftwood's Tale
      6 min read

    • Article

      Life Is But A Dream

      Aug 26, 2020

      Life Is But A Dream
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Viking funeral

      Nov 26, 2022

      A Viking funeral
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 25, 2022

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 25, 2022

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hell And High Water

      Apr 6, 2023

      Hell And High Water
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Flame Bearer

    4.5/5

    310 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Great book. One of the best in the series! I am totally hooked :D
    • 5/5
      Love the series! Great writing, intriguing and overall best ever!
    • 5/5
      As with all in this series, this book was well-written and researched. Maybe a little over the top with the negative stereotype of Christians.
    • 5/5
      Uhtred never disappoints ! Another awesome book by Bernard Cornwell ! I love them (Saxon Stories) all !
      I am bummed that I have to wait until October 2018 to get the new book .
      I can't wait ! Uhtred is my Hero !
    • 5/5
      Riveting and fast paced. Cornwell is an artist. His words place you in the shield wall, you hear the slash of blades, the crunch of gore. Truly an incredible author and this work is no exception to his talent.
    • 4/5
      Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. QNorthumbria’s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr (Uhtred’s son-in-law) and Mercian’s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed upon a truce. Thus, Uhtred seizes an opportunity to seize back his beloved Bebbanburg.
    • 3/5
      Time is as inexorable as fate, and we have come to Uhtred's last attempt on Bebbanburg. I shall not tell you how it goes except to say there is a tactical situation of byzantine complexity at the end of the book. Quite fun, as usual and Cornwell.s historical note at the end is illuminating.
    • 4/5
      He's home at last!!!
    • 4/5
      This is the tenth novel in the Uhtred series. In this one, King Edward the Elder's son in law Aethelhelm is plotting with various others to ensure that this grandson succeeds to the throne, rather than the King's eldest son, by an earlier wife, Athelstan. Danes, Scots and various others all form part of the complex tapestry of struggle across the country. More centrally, our "hero" Uhtred finally succeeds in his lifetime's ambition to recapture his ancestral home, the fortress of Bebbanburgh, usurped by his uncle when he was a child. Needless to say, this struggle involves the usual bloodlust and battle-joy, Uhtred and his followers swimming through the blood of their enemies to win victory. But this victory does not mark the end of Uhtred's story, as there are at least two more books to follow.
    • 5/5
      I loved this series, and really find The Flame Bearer to be a satisfying finish to the Uhtred saga. Cornwell's characters are likeable and multi-dimensional throughout.
    • 3/5
      "The Flame Barer" didn’t match up to the excitement of the previous book in the Saxon series, nor with most of the others, but I still enjoyed thee past-paced narrative with its vivid imagery.Uhtred is in my opinion Bernard Cornwell’s best character creation. I never tire of the scenes when some cocky youth fancies his chances in a duel, only for the “old man” to announce his identity, thus quashing any boldness from young challengers. In short, they pee themselves.The author’s depictions of battle scenes are vivid and believable in all his works, but more so in the Saxon tales because Uhtred’s personality helps the reader – this one at least – to feel part of this charismatic warlord’s fights. Any confrontation, be it physical or verbal, is expertly portrayed. The typical humour, especially Uhtred’s conversations with priests, is as entertaining as ever.In my view, what prevents Mr Cornwell from being an even better writer than he is already, is his dialogue attribution. The actual dialogue is excellent, but for 90+ per cent of the time he interrupts the flow by needlessly reminding the reader who’s speaking, more often than not inserting this pointless information – pointless because it’s obvious who’s speaking – in the middle of sentences.Mr Cornwell maybe doesn’t realise that the strength of his characters make it clear to the reader who’s talking, just as he fails to grasp how irritating it is to have his believable dialogue swamped with superfluous attribution, which sometimes includes unnecessary adverbs.I dislike the author’s elements of English style in the most part, especially his overuse of the word “then” – arguably the laziest choice for moving a story forward – and the amount of long-winded sentences he uses. Some of his books are worse than others for these annoying traits.He tends to overuse “and” too much as well, as though determined to make his sentences as long and clunky as possible. Like with using “then”, repeating “and” in this way changes Uhtred’s strong warrior voice to that of an excited child.Anyway, style aside, Mr Cornwell’s done a good job with the story side of "The Flame Barer"
    • 4/5
      Too short at 300 pages. Feels very much like a money spinnner while BBC are showing the Uhtred series. 400 to 500 pages would have been better value and it's getting tiresome with authors stretching what should be one novel into two or three novellas.
    • 4/5
      I found this book pacier and more entertaining than some of the recent editions in this series. I was glad that Uthred was focused on the Northumbrian situation chiefly. Is this the near end of the series?
    • 4/5
      With The Flame Bearer Bernard Cornwell brings the tenth entry in his vivid Last Kingdom series (once known as the Saxon Chronicles). In it Lord Uhtred continues to focus his energy and his followers on retaking his ancestral home, the fortress at Bebbanburg. The action continues apace, with vivid, expertly done battle scenes, and theatrical set pieces where Uhtred holds center stage at court, adroitly turning the tables on ambitious nobles and venal churchmen. Yes, all the usual thrills are here for your delectation.While the campaigns with their vivid 10th Century battles do not come as frequently as in other Last Kingdom novels, Flame Bearer makes up for it with its climax. Uhtred must lull his usurping cousin into a false sense of security (through use of strategically placed misinformation) while running a blockade set by a fierce Norseman. Throw into the mix a third enemy, no less than the feared army of Scotland, led by its King Constatin, and you have unusually long odds, even for Uhtred. Suffice it to say the final battle scene makes up for the occasional - and comparative - calm that precedes it. Excellent stuff.This is an escape I savor every time a new Uhtred of Bebbanburg book comes out. Cornwell excels at this writing, and is widely admired for it. It isn’t just every series that is made into a Netflix series - I was deeply interested to start watching it, but with my schedule that’s all I could manage - just the start. I am glad and proud that others have noticed the quality of the thrills, plots, characters, and yes, the truth of these tomes. Cornwell puts into his hero’s mind and speech the consciousness of war’s horrors, the plain if covered-up truth of men’s fear on the eve of battle, the honest and frank description of shit, and blood, and guts, and screams, and stench of it all. If these are things to escape to, let Cornwell be your guide. I have no idea now how many more books he will bring out in this series. I feel like I’ve been on borrowed time for a couple of books now, anything else has been and will be a bonus. Escape to 10th Century Britain. You couldn't find a finer time machine.
    • 5/5
      The quest for Bebbanberg continues as B Cornwell weaves once more; frail skeins of history into another engaging Saxon Tale. Peace in Britain during this period means that everyone is choosing sides to go to war. Uhtred has a plan which requires selecting allies from his many enemies and creating sufficient confusion that his meager army can divide, multiple and conquer. It is hard not to like a warlord who's when all else fails is: " we will kill them". Cornwell is the consumate teller of stories in this venue.