BBC America may have just found its answer to HBO's Game of Thrones.

The network is picking up the historical drama The Last Kingdom, a show based on epic Bernard Cornwell's best-selling book series, The Saxon Stories , the company announced Wednesday.

The story, set in the year 872, centers on a man named Uhtred, who was raised by a Saxon nobleman. But after the Vikings kill his guardian, Uhtred is then raised as one of their own. As a grown man, he sets forth on a quest to claim his birthright. But in order to go, he "must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, seek to recapture his ancestral lands," according to a show description that also touts the series' "epic battles."

The Last Kingdom will be made by Carnival Films, which also produces Downton Abbey, with Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant and Stephen Butchard set to executive produce. Production on the eight-episode series begins this fall.

“Cornwell's Saxon novels combine historical figures and events with fiction in an utterly compelling way,” Neame said in a statement. “In part the epic quest of our hero Uhtred, it is also a fascinating re-telling of the tale of King Alfred the Great and how he united the many separate kingdoms on this island into what would become England.”

Cornwell is known for his much-loved Sharpe novels that became a long-running TV series of the same name starring Game of Thrones alum Sean Bean. It aired on BBC America from 1993 to 1997, as well as 2006 and 2008.