Usurper (The Wulfbury Chronicles, 1)
I felt I wanted to read this novel with my eyes shut: the violence of men beating the hell out of other men is described in such detail that for the first thirty pages or so I wanted to return it unread. If visceral violence is your thing, you’ll love it. Strangely, however, I felt compelled to read on. Finch is such a gripping writer that it turned out to be a page-turner.
The story is simple. Set in the summer of 1066, certain events need no reminders. After fifty years of peace, the Saxons were unprepared for invasion. The two sons of Earl Rothgar, a minor Saxon overlord, are being trained up, the seventeen-year-old, Cerdic, as a reluctant priest. When a fleet of Viking ships sails unmolested up the Humber into the River Ouse, Cerdic gets his chance to don ring-mail. Viking leader of ill-fame Harald Hardraada intends to grab back the territories Norway once ruled under Erik Bloodaxe. Pockets of resistance are brutally destroyed, including Earl Rothgar’s stockade of Wulfbury.
From then on, Finch teaches us what it is like to be unarmed civilians in a realm invaded by barbarians. King Harold’s victory at Stamford Bridge and his forced march south against another invader, William the Bastard, are well-known. Their battle at Hastings is convincingly and sickeningly described, limbs lopped, men blinded and eviscerated in more ways than most of us can imagine. What happens next? Despite the violence, I might well try to find out. Eyes firmly shut.
