Stonehenge - Bernard Cornwell

   2000; 482 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Fiction; English History; Ancient Historical Fiction; Action-Intrigue.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    Stonehenge.  There’s a mystique about it even now when it lies in ruins.

 

    Thanks to archaeology, we know a fair amount about the “when” of Stonehenge.  It went through several iterations over the centuries and first arose around the Third Millennium BCE.  Thanks to geology we have a good idea about the “how” of Stonehenge, most importantly where the stones of Stonehenge originated.

 

    We know a lot less about the “what” of Stonehenge.  What was it used for and what did those stone arrangements signify?  The “why” of Stonehenge is almost a complete mystery to us.  We know that some of the stones are carefully aligned to greet the Summer and Winter Solstice, but why was that done?

 

    Bernard Cornwell’s book Stonehenge presents one scenario where the “how” and “when” are adhered to and a plausible “what” and “why” are presented.  Yes, it’s fictional, but it conforms to what we know about Stonehenge, and generates a literary aura all its own.

 

What’s To Like...

    Stonehenge traces the lives of three brothers – Saban, Lengar, and Camaban – who are cast as the main protagonists.  In nature, they correspond closely to the titular roles in the Clint Eastwood oater The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  Most of the time we follow the “Good” guy, Saban, but there are occasional digressions into the lives of his two brothers, as well as several other secondary characters.

 

    There are two main storylines.  One of course it the building of Stonehenge from its very beginning.  The other is the internecine struggle between the three brothers to see which one will succeed their father, the ruler of a local nondescript tribe called Ratharryn.

 

    The tale takes place sometime during the span of 2000-3000 BCE England, during western civilization’s Bronze Age.  There were no kingdoms back then, just local villages raiding and trading with neighboring settlements.  Sorceresses and priests aided the village elders and family ties were flimsy at best when it came to being the group’s leader.

 

    I enjoyed watching as the Stonehenge temple gradually grew into the structure whose ruins we see today.  That might sound tedious, but Bernard Cornwell is a fantastic writer and storyteller, and the three brothers spark enough fighting and intrigue to keep the reader from getting bored.  I also liked the way various characters discerned the signs the various gods sent to their worshippers here on earth.  Divine communication methods have not changed much over the last 4000 years.

 

    The ending is logical and satisfying.  Stonehenge gets built, the fraternal squabbling comes to an end, and several characters relocate and/or shuffle off their mortal coil.  Stonehenge is not part of any of Cornwell’s series, nor AFAIK is there any sequel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.1*/5, based on 2,613 ratings and 479 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.67*/5, based on 11,702 ratings and 735 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Plangent (adj.) : (of a sound) loud, reverberating, and often melancholy.

 

Excerpts...

    The gods talk by signs.  It may be a leaf falling in summer, the cry of a dying beast or the ripple of wind on calm water.  It might be smoke lying close to the ground, a rift in the clouds or the flight of a bird.

    But on that day the gods sent a storm.  It was a great storm, a storm that would be remembered, though folk did not name the year by that storm.  Instead they called it the Year the Stranger Came.

    For a stranger came to Ratharryn on that day of the storm.  It was a summer’s day, the same day that Saban was almost murdered by his half-brother.

    The gods were not talking that day.  They were screaming.  (pg. 3)

 

    Ever since he had left Sul he had been wondering why he was making this journey and he had found no good answers except for the dictates of instinct and duty.  He had a debt, and life was full of debts that must be honored if fate was to be kind.  Everyone knew that.  A fisherman was given a good catch so he must offer something back to the gods.  A harvest was plump so part must be sacrificed.  A favor engendered another favor and a curse was as dangerous to the person who pronounced it as to the person it was aimed against.  Every good thing and bad thing in the world was balanced, which was why folk were so attentive to omens—though some men, like Lengar, ignored the imbalance.  (pg. 252)

 

“It isn’t wise to pick a fight with wolves.”  (pg. 248)

    I thoroughly enjoyed Stonehenge, so finding things to nitpick about was a challenge.

 

    Foul language is close to nonexistent; I counted only four cusswords in the entire book.  At one point, where swearing was called for, Bernard Cornwell resorted to “improvised cussing”, coming up with the delightful slam “toad-dung made flesh.”  I loved that.

 

    I only saw one typo in the Harper Torch Publishing paperback version: though/through.  Kudos to their editors and beta readers.  There are a slew of gods and mortals to keep track of, so a Cast of Characters would’ve been nice.  Ditto for a map to show where the various settlements and spheres of influence were located.

 

    But I quibble.  For me, Stonehenge was a perfect blend of historical fiction with action-adventure.  The character-building was excellent, the world-building was convincing, and the Bernard Cornwell’s writing was, as usual, impressive.  Here’s hoping that he someday decides to write a sequel, chronicling Stonehenge’s impact on the next generation of early Britons who lived in its shadow.

 

    9 Stars.  Tacked onto the end of the tale is a 13-page “Historical Note” section, wherein Bernard Cornwell discusses what is known about Stonehenge, including a brief reference to its sister structure, Woodhenge.  The discussion was enlightening to me.  I have a non-fiction book on my Kindle, titled Stonehenge - A New Understanding, by Mike Parker Pearson.  Perhaps it’s time to read that tome.