Golden Warrior

click here for more details, find new or used items	H. Muntz Used from £98.23 Pages: (Hardcover) ISBN: 068413585X Pub: Macmillan Pub Co Pub date: 1976-04 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 496405

Reader Reviews:

Best Historical Fiction . . . Bar None! (1/1 people found this helpful)

I'm a lover of historical fiction and have never found any book in that vein better than this one. Written in a terse saga-style which evokes the original time and place of the events recounted, THE GOLDEN WARRIOR offers a time-warp experience which puts us directly in the medieval world on the eve of the final fall of the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Some have found the style of the text a bit off-putting and distant in its early stage but I have never found anyone who, once having read beyond the cool, objective saga like beginning, failed to admire the book at the end. If there are failings, and there are, they revolve around Muntz' portrayal of Harold, Earl of Wessex and later King of the English, as a man who is almost too good to be believed. And yet he is vividly brought to life here along with an entire cast of brilliantly rendered folk including his beloved common-law wife, Edith Swan Neck, and his relentless rival and, finally, foe, William of Normandy. In fact it is William who seems more fully shaped, though Harold, in the end, is the one we cry for. And we do, or at least I did, finding tears on my cheeks when I came to the final battle . . . and this more than once. There are not many books, I think, which can do this but here is one which does it over and over again.

For those who love historical fiction, especially set in medieval England, and for those who admire the old sagas or tales of vikings and such, this book is to be sought and treasured. But it is less an adventure than a tale of real people in serious times. The tale of the fall of Harold has never been better told in my opinion than in this veritable English Iliad and I cannot urge it strongly enough -- SWM

The BEST Historical Novel Around (0/0 people found this helpful)

Hope Muntz' tale of Harold and William and their epic tug-of-war for the throne of England which ended in the bloody Battle of Hastings in 1066 is worth reading . . . and writing about. I'm a lover of historical fiction and have never found any book in that vein better than this one is. Written in a terse saga-style which evokes the original time and place of the events recounted, THE GOLDEN WARRIOR offers a time-warp experience which puts us directly in the medieval world on the eve of the final fall of the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Some have found the style of the text a bit off-putting and distant in its early stage but I have never found anyone who, once having read beyond the cool, objective saga-like beginning, has failed to admire the book at the end. If there are failings, and there are, they revolve around Muntz' portrayal of Harold, Earl of Wessex and later King of the English, as a man who is almost too good, too perfect to be believed. And yet he is vividly brought to life here along with an entire cast of brilliantly rendered folk including his beloved common-law wife, Edith Swan Neck, and his relentless rival and, finally, foe, William of Normandy. In fact it is William who seems more fully shaped, though Harold, in the end, is the one we cry for. And cry we do, or at least I did, finding tears on my cheeks when I came to the final battle . . . and this more than once, as I've re-read this book a number of times. There are not many books, I think, which can do this but here is one which does it over and over again.

For those who love historical fiction, especially set in medieval England, and for those who admire the old sagas or tales of vikings and such, this book is to be sought and treasured. But it is less an adventure than a tale of real people in serious times. The tale of the fall of Harold has never been better told in my opinion than in this veritable English Iliad and I cannot urge it strongly enough...

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