Historical novels worth reading ?

[vipere]

Hello, first i would say sorry for my english ( im not even sure if my title is correct )

Im trying to find good books based on medieval era ( or any historical era, if its good )

I already finished ( this year ) :

The religion : http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview20
The Twelve Children of Paris ( following the religion )

The conqueror series : http://www.conniggulden.com/books/series/the-conqueror-series

Hawk Quest :http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16117991-hawk-quest

Alamut : Vladimir Bartol

I really enjoyed those books, and i would really like to read more quality books like that, so if you know some really good books i could read, feel free to share it here.

[vipere]

based on real facts like malte siege or St barthelemy

[Osiris]

yup Cornwells Saxon chronicles are just amazing. Also nice was some books by Simon Scarrow about Wellington vs Nappy

[vipere]

I will look at it, I already have Stonehenge from him ( didnt really like it )

[Sir_Hans]

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award

Friend gave me this book to read after he finished it, and it was a great read. I read it in a couple weeks.

(click to show/hide)

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

Just look at it on Amazon, it has 4.8 out of 5 stars from user reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403853741&sr=1-1&keywords=unbroken

It's historical, it's non-fiction, and its a great book. Read it.

[Oberyn]

However; for the 'Sharpe' series in the Napoleonic wars and his standalone 'Azincourt' he's writing from a British perspective and not totally innocent of providing a fairly pro-British agenda in those wars vs France. As you're French you may find it irritating (or interesting to read a different perspective, or even just amusing!).

So, literally no different from academic and pop culture british perspectives of those events. I have yet to run into a british perspective that wasn't some extended masturbation. It's kind of hilarious to me that hundreds of years later the same propaganda that was used on illiterate peasants and buttfucking bundle of sticks aristocrats still manages to resonate with their descendants. The cherished tradition of being gullible fucking idiots ready to swallow anything that massages their ego's.

[Oberyn]

Props for not falling for my angry trolling there. I've actually met plenty of brits critical of "accepted" conventions on their own history. They vary between extremes, actual legitimate informed perspectives and just self-loathing hippies who love to find opportunities to shit on their own country. It's not like french historians are any more unbiased.

[Franke]

I do enjoy Cornwell's historical novels, although after having finished one book his somehow biased POV usually makes me read something else for some time. I also read his books about the US Civil War (the plot being similar to the Sharps novels but less biased) as well as Iain Gale's books with Jack Steel (literally the same like Sharpe, just being set during the War of Spanish Succession).

Also nice was some books by Simon Scarrow about Wellington vs Nappy

I read Scarrow's Eagle series (about the Roman Empire) and enjoyed them a lot. I think I will give Nappy a chance.

[Miwiw]

I love Cornwell books, and I'm actually fine with him being "biased". Simply because all those novels I've read that were told from a British point of view were actually like that. It's always about how good and strong the British are, for example compared to the French. I actually enjoy that.
I'm currently on Sharpe's third book. First two were amazing already.

I also recommend books like these:

Stewart Binns: "Conquest"
Jack Hight: "Siege"
Harry Sidebottom: "Warrior of Rome"
Bernard Cornwell: "Azincourt"
Bernard Cornwell: "The Grail Quest" (4 Parts)
Wilbur Smith: "The Quest" part of the Egyptian Novels (there are many parts), I've only read them on German tho, but I've read another book on English of him which was great tho.
Wilbur Smith: "Monsoon" part of "The Courtneys" books
Noah Gordon: "The Medicus" actually any of his books are worth reading even if many of those aren't historcial though.

[Falka]

Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of seven novels written by Maurice DUron. Action takes place during the life of the last few kings of Capet dynasty.

The Crusades trilogy by Jean Guillou, about Arn Magnusson, knight templar fighting in Sweden and Kingdom of Jersualem.

Narrenturm, by Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the Witcher's saga, though I'm not sure if there's english or french translation

Biography of Napoleon by Max Gallo (The Sun of Austerlitz, The emperor of kings and sth else), though they're not novels per se (or maybe they are?), they're really well written, not typical crap written by historians.

[Miwiw]

The longer a battle the better. I'm sometimes sad it's so quickly over while the pre-battle time in a book takes 80% of it and you know the big "show down" is the battle in the end on the last pages. 

[Osiris]

Cornwells king arthur trilogy was pretty awesome too

[Xant]

Röde Orm/The Long Ships