Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I have been a friend of Uhtred since he first saw the light of day in German.
In the meantime, I have read every book in German and English, regularly listen to the audio books in German and, of course, have also followed the TV series. Books and audio books in German are my favourites. Unfortunately, I see the TV series only in the midfield, which perhaps has a lot to do with my own perceptions. Strongly influenced by the concise and incredibly well-suited voice of the audio books, the Uhtred of the series (also in the German voice) was a little too smooth, so preened for me. Unfortunately, I can’t really grasp or justify the difference.
I recently got the new and last Uhtred. I didn’t have it sent to me, but picked it up personally from the bookseller. You pick up your sweetheart at the station and don’t give her 20 euros for the taxi.
Unfortunately, after such a long time I had to realise that the relationship was probably a bit rusty after all….I overslept the publication date in German by about 1 week.
When researching the cause, I found that the last few visits to Uhtred’s also didn’t get me quite as excited as the first visits, although the last visit (i.e. this book in English) got me more excited again than the last two before it.
But now,…now it was an experience again!!!!
Lying down on the sofa with Uhtred (or standing at a red light, or sitting on the toilet, or or or) and opening the pages,…THAT’S like having your best friend visit, like having your child return when he’s on holiday by himself for the first time, like…it’s just BIG and GOOD and FULL of JOY!
You laugh at the banter, you shake your head in affirmation or denial as you read, you (of course) hold wise advice or just shut up and listen.
One is with Uhtred and thus with you, Mr Cornwell, part of the story, part of the wolf pack.
You have always managed to introduce exciting twists and turns with new characters and to change the dynamics around Uhtred. The conversation with the friend was not limited to small talk, I wanted, no I really needed to know how Uhtred, his friends and the wolf pack are doing and what all has happened since we last met.
Sometimes you cried with Uhtred, sometimes you mourned with him and in the end you mostly laughed and patted Uhtred on the back.
You have always managed not to make the history come to Uhtred (the real history, what really happened) but to work Uhtred and his world into the real history. Of course there are adaptations, but history has not been bent, your stories have not been lost in fantasy. It was not history that was part of Uhtred but Uhtred was presented as a possible part of real history.
Presumably an individual would not have survived that number of adventures, battles and changes of power, but the stories surrounding Uhtred rarely bent and twisted actual history too much to annoy a light history nerd.
I think that’s another thing that has kept us all so enthralled and reaching for your books again and again.
With the last novel, a story comes to an end. Also for us readers and fans.
Of course, we have tried other authors and enjoyed your books and will now have to turn to new ones.
But as it is, Utred will still be number one for a long time, even if there is no new book. In Germany we have the saying for the love of the club: “You can change the woman, with the club you are born!” It’s much the same here.
It was once said about Gisbert Haefs (German author of historical novels, e.g. Hannibal) that his history “is not smooth marble, it lives, eats, roars, laughs, loves and dies.”
With you it is a little more: we have the tear stain on our cheek while reading, we have the taste of the last meal in our mouth after burping, we have “the spoon of land in our pants” after farting and then prefer to read on standing….but we keep reading…and don’t put it down.
Thank you for the hours with your books (not only Uhtred, but especially with Uhtred).
I look forward to the next ones!!!
best regards from Hamburg
Christian Stannieder