King Hereafter

By Dorothy Dunnett

Back in print by popular demand--"A stunning revelation of the historical Macbeth, harsh and brutal and eloquent." --Washington Post Book World.

With the same meticulous scholarship and narrative legerdemain she brought to her hugely popular Lymond Chronicles, our foremost historical novelist travels further into the past.  In King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett's stage is the wild, half-pagan country of eleventh-century Scotland.  Her hero is an ungainly young earl with a lowering brow and a taste for intrigue.  He calls himself Thorfinn but his Christian name is Macbeth.

Dunnett depicts Macbeth's transformation from an angry boy who refuses to accept his meager share of the Orkney Islands to a suavely accomplished warrior who seizes an empire with the help of a wife as shrewd and valiant as himself.  She creates characters who are at once wholly creatures of another time yet always recognizable--and she does so with such realism and immediacy that she once more elevates historical fiction into high art.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307762344

Reviews for King Hereafter

[jbd1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were some parts of this I liked, but it felt about four hundred pages too long. I got sick of it after a while and had a hard time recovering.

[caimanjosh · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This doorstopper tome of a novel is the story of the Earl (and, yes, King later) Thorfinn of Orkney. It suggests that Thorfinn was in fact the historical character we know of as Macbeth. The story takes place in roughly 1050 AD in what we would call Scotland, which was known as Moray, Caithness, Orkney, and (a bit later) Alba. This is definitely literary historical fiction. I had mixed feelings upon reaching the conclusion (which, reading every night, still took over a month to do!). On the positive side, several of the characters, most notably Thorfinn himself, are well-portrayed, interesting and complex. Thorfinn is analytical, moody, and tends to be cold emotionally (though this latter changes a bit as the story opens up). The analysis of 11th century politics is deep, complex, and probably very accurate. The plot is anything but straightforward. There's a lot of depth here, which serious readers will like. King Hereafter could easily be characterized as "deep reading". For these readers, this might well be a 5-star read.On the flip side, well, there might be rather TOO much depth for many. There are pages (and pages and pages) of description of political plotting and obscure genealogical points, which the plot often hinges upon. By the time I'd reached the book's halfway point I felt very weary of reading political analysis. Also, battles are most often rendered with a few simple sentences, rather than getting into the thick of things. (Though there are a few exceptions, notably the last 20% or so of the book.) Coming at 11th century English historical fiction from more of a Bernard Cornwell type POV, this was hard to adjust to. In short, this is far from a "real page-turner". In summary, those looking for some serious literary historical fiction may well enjoy sinking their teeth into this. Those looking for something a bit easier to dip into, or detailed descriptions of medieval warfare, should probably look elsewhere.

[jkdavies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meticulously detailed and researched, full of the shifting allegiances of the times, and occasionally difficult to keep track of; this history of Thorfinn/Macbeth was absorbing... But Macbeth is a complex hero or protagonist, more in the Niccolo mould, never so engaging as Lymond, and the personal moments in the book that bring the main characters to life are only sprinkled in... But well written and a great tragedy.

[janerawoof · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Dunnett is not for me personally; though I appreciated her occasional flashes of brilliance, most of this novel was dense, illegible and impenetrable. I wanted exposure to her conception of the 'real' Macbeth, since Shakespeare really maligned the guy. I forced myself to plod through this slower-than-molasses book. The different family trees helped, but as a Friend mentioned to me, judicious footnoting would not have gone amiss.

[kirstie_innes7will · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Possibly Dunnett's greatest work, this masterful reimagining of Macbeth's life is dense, gripping and eminently rereadable.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A retelling in an historical context of the story of MacBeth. Telling of his start of the Earl of Orkney named Thorfinn, he then wars with King Duncan and kills him and becomes King of Alba. He then rules for 15 years and is overthrown and killed by Malcolm III also known as Canmore. It was slow going at first and I got stalled 200 pages into it. However, once I picked it up again it went enjoyably enough. I enjoyed it overall

[librisissimo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Substance: The "biography" of Thorfinn aka MacBeth, according to research and theories of Dunnett. Ties together multiple strands of genealogy and history. Chock-full of names and events (too many, in fact, hence the deduction of a half-star). A great story of a man who really wanted to be a good king, and came very close to succeeding. I think Thorfinn is the Dunnett protagonist I like the best.Style: Rich description, superb research, interesting characters at all levels.

[janoorani24 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett is Lady Dunnett’s exhaustively researched historical novel that postulates that Earl Thorfinn of Orkney and the historical Macbeth were one and the same man. Dunnett reached this conclusion after several years of study of every book she could find on the period (1000 – 1060) as well as source documents found throughout Europe. The novel took six years to complete, and tells the story of the Viking leader of Orkney, Earl Thorfinn, and his eventual rise to power as King of Alba (Scotland). It is also the love story of Thorfinn and his wife Groa. The story tells of Thorfinn’s consolidation of the Orkney Islands and the northern-most part of the mainland of Scotland, which he inherited from his father, and his eventual conquest of most of the rest of current Scotland. Incredible detail of the history of all of Northern Europe is provided throughout the novel. It’s like reading a dwell-written history of the late Dark Ages and includes some of the early history of William the Conqueror, who is still only the Duke of Normandy when this story is set. The characters in this book are full of the life you would expect from a Dunnett character. I felt as if I could have reached out and touched any one of them. Perhaps that could be counted as a flaw, since I don’t believe we would have much in common with a person living at that time in Europe, since they were probably very different from us psychologically. However, one feels a great deal of sympathy with the characters and this made the book very easy to read. Thorfinn and Groa are the main characters, but all of the secondary characters are great, too. It’s a little hard to keep track of all of them at first, but I found it easier as the book went along and I got to know them better. King Hereafter was written after Dunnett completed the Lymond Chronicles and her plotting skills are well advanced here. She uses a lot of the same elements from her other historical novels, to include the betrayals and extreme loyalties of dear friends, a growing love between the two main characters, well choreographed action sequences, and breath-taking scenic descriptions. It contains all the nuanced delight in language of Dunnett’s other books. Overall, this book is Dunnett’s masterpiece. I savored every word and hope to have time to read it again someday. I like the Lymond Chronicles best of all of Dunnett’s books, but this is an amazing work of scholarship disguised as a great novel.