This is a standalone book from Bernard Cornwell. We have reviewed many of his books earlier here : For instance Sharpe’s Fortress from the Sharpe series, 1356 from GrailQuest series and Sword of Kings from the Saxon series.
Saban was six years younger than his brother Lengar and he was due for his trials of manhood in a year. They both were the sons of the chief of the tribe of Retharryn. Lengar, who was serious and also cruel, was likely to be the next chief. When Lengar takes Saban for his training, reluctantly, they meet a stranger who was wounded coming to the tribe on a tired dun horse.
The stranger goes straight for the abandoned Death House. Lengar follows and Saban follows Lengar since he has no choice. Since he was an Outfolk, Lengar figured he must be rich and greed impelled him to follow.
Lengar decides to kill him. The Outsider did not speak their language but he did recognize a word. He was seeking Sannas who was an ancient witch and also an outsider. He said to Lengar that ‘he could give him power’ but Lengar did not understand and, if he did, could not have cared. Outsiders were the enemy, and over the doubts of young Saban, he puts an end to the outsider through his arrows.
But knowing that he had a lot of Gold, Lengar takes it all and to ensure that his their wild and violent father did not learn about it, he tries to kill his brother Saban. But Saban escapes with one piece of gold and now Lengar knows that he has to admit getting the gold and give it to his father. He is furious.
Hengall, the father, was the chief of one of the two dominant tribes there – the Ratharryn. He had three sons – Lengar was the eldest, the middle son Camaban was a cripple and (in his view) a half wit so he did not count and then Saban, the youngest. The high priest warns Hengall that soon Lengar will challenge him for the position, with a fight to the death of one of them. But when Lengar tries to challenge Hengall, he backs off and is thus defeated; sullen, he departs.
Galeth, Hengall’s man, persuades Camaban to ‘agree’ to be sacrificed to propitiate the Gods but Calaban, cunningly makes Hirac the priest hesitate and runs away. Hirac dies soon after and the omens are all bad after that. The young priest, Gilan, dreams of succeeding Hirac as the high priest but he is too young to be selected.
Meanwhile the Outfolk come and try to pay an astounding sum to get the golden trinkets back. Hengall not only refuses, infuriating Lengar who wanted them to fight with their tribe the Cathall but also wants to make peace with the Cathal tribe. Lengar runs away at night to join the Outfolk and Hengar takes Saban to pick a bride for him with Cathal, thereby uniting the two tribes in marriage. They have earmarked the beautiful Derrewyn for him.
Sannas, the powerful sorcerer as old as the hills is feared but Camaban wins her heart.
Derrewyn comes to live in Hengar’s tribe as is the custom and the whole tribe is aghast at her beauty. Especially Jengar, the chief hunter of the tribe who was a friend of Lengar before he left. He dreams of killing Saban in the hunt and thus claiming both the privilege to rule after Hengar and also get Derrewyn whom he plainly lusts after.
Now the time comes when Saban has to prove he is a man, by escaping from armed hunters. With Jengar specifically aiming to kill him, that would prove very difficult.
In their most vulnerable and sacred moment of celebrating the installation of the ‘Sky Temple’ when they are dancing, Hengall is killed by an arrow and the defenseless Rathyrrin folks are surrounded by armed Outfolks, led by Lengal who has come back for revenge.
He then forces his uncle Galeth and Saban to kneel before him. Saban is sent off to be a slave so that he is no threat. Derrewyn and Lengar are to marry, and then Jengar tells him that when Lengar tires of him, he will be Jengar’s. He also tells him that he was Lengar’s spy all along and that is how Lengar knew when they would be defenseless and attack.
Jengar has big plans to even outwit his allies, the Outfolk and Saban is humiliated further by Jengar peeing on him. He wants to die but there is no way. He wants to kill Lengar but he has no opportunity. Now he is a slave, taken away by a huge man called Haragg. He vows to kill Lengar if he gets a chance in the future.
Cathallo’s priest Morthor is sent to Cathallo but after his eyes have been gouged out by Lengar’s people as a warning and after his shoulder has been made unusable by torture.
All the aces seem to be with Lengar.
But after a while, Haragg confesses that Camaban was behind his slavery. He insisted on it, and with Haragg because he knew that Lengar was planning to kill him as he killed his father and Camaban wanted him alive. Haragg also tells him that his mutilation of fingers and his manacles were to convince Lengar that he, Saban, was no longer a threat to him and that in reality, he is a free man. He also says that Camaban wants to meet Saban.
Lengar comes to meet the chief called Staki through whose territory the stones must pass. He tricks Staki and attacks and massacres the entire tribe. Saban goes and confronts Jengar and kills him on a one to one battle.
Bernard Cornwell can light a story on fire. When it gets tense, the story gallops. I can think of no better example than the Winter King and its Arthurian sequels. But this story? It just wanders back and forth. Fortunes made, fortunes lost, evil triumphant and then evil lost. And people come and go and even major characters like Camaban or Derrewyn just wander around. Even the Sun bride whom Saban marries keeps going around placidly in the face of disaster. Though her predictions turn out to be true always, it appears that she is marching to the call of an unseen drummer, and frankly, most of the people in the story seem half crazed.
Stonehenge is not a novel about the well known monument alone. It has got a lot of crazy subplots. The problem is that they are not well knit and feel like sudden disparate lurches that the story takes when the author has run out of a plotline and threads another in parallel. Not at all a typical Cornwell novel and that is not a compliment!
Sure, there are two things going for it. You really understand that Camaban, the cripple is the chief character in the story not Saban. He amasses greater and greater power and then goes sort of mad. The other thing is the twists – all of them betrayals – of Saban with his relations. He does protect some – his son and his daughter in law chosen by his son but he is just a victim of all the treacheries, first by Lengar and Jengar and then a series by Camaban. The only saving grace is that he identifies and prevents a surprise mass slaughter planned by his mad brother Camaban.
There are enough killings and enough blood and quite a few twists in the story to satisfy the reader. However, the story does not run straight and the threads are not as neatly arranged as in most other Bernard Cornwell’s stories and so I cannot say that I stayed satisfied with this story.
— 5/10
— Krishna
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