Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

I just stumbled across this online and thought that other members of this group may be interested as well: http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index....

It's a transcript of George R.R. Martin interviewing Bernard Cornwell very recently.

Be warned, if you haven't read A Game of Thrones yet and you plan to do so, Bernard lets slip some major spoilers in paragraphs four, eight and eighteen (beginning from GRRM's first question, not the introductory paragraph). The first and last of those should especially be avoided.

But the really important fact in that interview was that after Thomas of Hookton we're getting another Uhtred book!!

Dawn wrote: "But the really important fact in that interview was that after Thomas of Hookton we're getting another Uhtred book!!"

lol. Exciting, but expected. Still, a long wait - we seem to be long past the days when he pumped out two books a year.

Not having been such a long time reader of BC I didn't know he ever put out that many books. I'm just happy to be getting another book in a series I like, Thomas of Hookton not, being one of them. :)

Dawn wrote: "Not having been such a long time reader of BC I didn't know he ever put out that many books. I'm just happy to be getting another book in a series I like, Thomas of Hookton not, being one of them. :)"

Yes, I do remember you saying that. I have to say he's well down my list, but I still enjoy those books. There's only one of Cornwell's I've ever read that I haven't (and I've read some of his thrillers too).

I'm pumped just to hear the words 'Uhtred and new book' in the same sentence. :) Even though I know there's another book, or maybe more?, coming. lol

I shall read that interview soon (going out today). So it is only Game of Thrones that he spoilers? None of the others in A Song of Ice and Fire?

Terri wrote: "I'm pumped just to hear the words 'Uhtred and new book' in the same sentence. :) Even though I know there's another book, or maybe more?, coming. lol

I shall read that interview soon (going out to..."

Correct, only that one for some reason. They obviously both love each-other's work, but I'd have been a bit pissed off reading that interview if I was part way through A Game of Thrones.

A Cornwell/Martin love fest. That's not a good image.

Terri wrote: "A Cornwell/Martin love fest. That's not a good image."

Beard velcro.

hahahaha!!
yes, beard velcro big time. :D

Nice find Lee. I'm curious to know now what this period Cornwell is desperate to write about. Hopefully, it is not a period of English history ... >8P

How am I kidding, right? >8)

ib.

Hope you're kidding. lol Because I personally want more of that medieval or earlier stuff. He is so damn good at it.

A mystery. There hasn't been much fiction that I know of about the Wars of the Five Peoples, but that doesn't seem very Cornwell to me somehow.

Reading the Death of Kings now, and I must say, the Saxon stories are my favorite Cornwell series.

I was a big fan of Sharpe, the harlequin/Archer not so much, Agincourt was great as a stand alone, but the writing not very inspired to me(in comparison to other works). I've never read the Starbuck series (and King Arthur- come on, it's like another popstar doing another christmas album, right?) so there are some out there yet to be included, but so far Saxon's rule.

Richard wrote: "Reading the Death of Kings now, and I must say, the Saxon stories are my favorite Cornwell series.

I was a big fan of Sharpe, the harlequin/Archer not so much, Agincourt was great as a stand alon..."

It is most assuredly a great series!

We're all big fans around here. We eagerly await the next book in the Saxon series.

In the meantime I am working my way through the Sharpe books. Have you read them all??

I have read all the original Sharpe's, but Cornwell went back and filled in some gaps in the last few years and I am not sure I've gotten them all. I need to go to the website and check the chronology, then my bookshelf...

Richard wrote: "I have read all the original Sharpe's, but Cornwell went back and filled in some gaps in the last few years and I am not sure I've gotten them all. I need to go to the website and check the chronol..."

http://www.goodreads.com/series/40550...

Oh Lee, You outed me so quickly; Missing Sharpe's Triumph, Prey, Skirmish and Christmas, so nearly all...
:)

Good to know Lee isn't the only one who's read most of the series. :)

Richard wrote: "Oh Lee, You outed me so quickly; Missing Sharpe's Triumph, Prey, Skirmish and Christmas, so nearly all...
:)"

Well, I'm sure you don't have to count Skirmish or Christmas if you don't wish to - they're short stories that were originally commissioned by the Daily Mail and were later released in paperback.

Dawn wrote: "Good to know Lee isn't the only one who's read most of the series. :)"

I think Richard's read more of them than I have.

Richard wrote: "Reading the Death of Kings now, and I must say, the Saxon stories are my favorite Cornwell series.

I was a big fan of Sharpe, the harlequin/Archer not so much, Agincourt was great as a stand alon..."

I am with you, Richard. Saxon series is far and away the best Cornwell has done to date.......that I have read. I haven't read any Sharpe's, but not being into that phase of history that automatically makes the Saxon series better for my personal tastes.

Terri,
Glad you and I agree on the Saxons! What's not to love?

Of all the periods in military history though, I must admit a preference for the Napoleonic wars. The British Napoleonic Navy books have been done (hugely) O'Brian, Kent, and Forrester (who also wrote the novella Rifleman Dodd, which is what I thought I was getting when I 'accidentally' picked up Sharpe's rifles in..1989, I think, tired of Navy pukes and wanting to read the ground-pounder's version of events).

I am a land lubber, in life and in books, so I have never had too much interest in wandering the Forrester or O'Brian poop deck. Give me books with land lots of land, and preferrably some clashing of hard steel or a few spears being thrown about....that is more my kind of book.
Generally pre gun.
Of course my non fiction tastes are completely different to that. I like guns in my non fiction.

The other thing with Cornwell is that I feel happy with the books I have chosen from his stable.
You know how sometimes it can feel that BC has a formula and he sticks with it in every book and series? Well I don't want to ruin the pleasure I get from the Saxon series by reading too many of his books. I worry I will get jaded with it and when I come back to the Saxon series it will have lost its shine. That would be my worst reading nightmare. :-)

I just finished Death of Kings, and I had a historical inaccuracy query for the crew.

Stirrups...my recollection was that Saxon's didn't have them, making war on horseback particularly challenging, and only when the Norman's came in 1066 did mounted men charge the old shield walls with lance and stirrup bearing saddle.

But there Aethelwald lay, legs tangled in the stirrup.

hmmmm

Yes and no. They had stirrups, but I'm not aware of any arguments that they ever fought from horseback. I found that a bit incongruous too.

http://finds.org.uk/database/search/r...
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/books/Willi...

I'm sure the Romans didn't have them but the Huns did. How far they were then adopted is not clear but I believe they were copied and used after the 5th Century.
I can't conceive why the Normans would have used the stirrup and no one else when the advantage of that kind of thrust base, when pushing a spear/lance against a shield wall, is obvious.
Think about it. The war hedge bristled with spears.No horse is going to get close enough for the rider to use an axe but a thrust from a distance with a lance would likely have unseated the rider with dire consequences, without stirrups to provide a base.

If Saxons did not customarily use stirrups that may be because they used horses as transport and dismounted to fight so the issue didn't come up. The native horses of Britannia were too small to use for cavalry.
The Norman destriers were much bigger and were bred and trained for the purpose.

It is likely that Anglo-Saxons warriors knew of them and used them according to the circumstances of the user.

James wrote: "they used horses as transport and dismounted to fight so the issue didn't come up. The native horses of Britannia were too small to use for cavalry.
The Norman destriers were much bigger and were bred and trained for the purpose."

Exactly that.

Good! The stirrup question has been resolved! Isn't there a little more about the issue in THE BURNING LAND?

I have added an interesting Bernard Cornwell interview to the groups Videos.
http://www.goodreads.com/videos/show/...

Terri wrote: "I have added an interesting Bernard Cornwell interview to the groups Videos.
http://www.goodreads.com/videos/show/..."

Wow, we have videos!

Ever have any good video suggestions, (and that goes for all you all..:)..) let me know. If they are really good ones that you think will appeal to the group let me know.

Some of the threads on goodreads leave me breathless at their banality. But this one! this one stirs me. BERNARD CORNWALLS AZINCOURT was one of the most crackingly wonderful books I have read in the last two or three years. I have immense admiration for the author, for his dedication to researching his subject and his love of English history. I know I am not into the flow of the thread here, but what the hell. I also know that you will know what a buzz it is when you find a writer you love is justly lionised. ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH! FOR ENGLAND AND ST.GEORGE! It was the description of how the arrows were crafted that had me enthralled I was totally taken with the story after than. In fact I am now inclined to read it again! Ron Askew

Azincourt

I'm sorry...what?? Banal?? What?? I'm not sure what to say.....is this post a joke R.J?

No it ain't a joke. I was not saying this thread is banal, quite the opposite. I really rate BC. He is a brilliant writer and I loved reading AZINCOURT. This thread is a good thread. OK in my enthusiam I mistyped 'stirs' as 'sirs' which I have now fixed. So, not I am not joking, just enthusing. BC along with Len Deighton is an author I wld love to meet and have a couple of pints with. I wld talk craft, history, technique with them. I wld learn. Cos I rate them very highly.

Azincourt

R.J. wrote: "Some of the threads on goodreads leave me breathless at their banality. But this one! this one stirs me...."

Okay. Apologies. :-) It came out as though you were saying that the discussions in this thread was banal.

You'll find quite a lot of chat about Azincourt in the 100 years' War thread, as well as the dedicated Azincourt thread too. :-)

Cheers mate, I thought I'd screwed things up again :)))

Lol. Nah. I got you right this time.
Lucky you cleared it up though. When I thought you were saying that you were 'stirred' by the breathless banality of the discussion I nearly jumped the gun and axed you (no Viking pun intended) on the spot. Hehe. :D

Arf, arf. If I had said that I wld have definitely deserved to be blood eagled. And wld happily have submitted to it. Speaking of axes, I sent some stuff to BLOODAXE the poetry publishers a few years back. I was full of the usual naive hope, but they never even sent me a rejection slip. Now that really did hurt! If ever I make it to poet laureat (now I am joking) and they want some of my stuff for some naff anthology, they can ... Not that I have an axe to grind mind.

Maybe your poetry has lines like your banal sentence and you accidentally p#ssed them off without realising. ;)

Terri wrote: "R.J. wrote: "Some of the threads on goodreads leave me breathless at their banality. But this one! this one stirs me...."

Okay. Apologies. :-) It came out as though you were saying that the discu..."

I am, most likely foolishly, jumping in here. I read, and then re-read, the 'banal' comment also and thought, "What the...? Who dares indulge in banal discussions in GR? Somebody must run and get the banal police this instant!" Terri, ye done did me some good. Thank ye. In all srriousness, I thought Terri's comment about AGINCOURT was one of the most moving statements I had ever read.

Hahaha! Thanks Linda. Lol. I wasn't sure if it was just me and I thought I may have been hasty. It is reassuring to see I wasn't the only one to read it that way. So funny in hindsight. :-)

Well, as a poet (self-styled), I should be in the biz of being crystal clear, but ... mud, the like of which a shy toad might slither into, is more often the outcome.

Actually, I plead guilty to 'thread crashing'. I am still new to goodreads and I just blundered in on a thread I liked the look of and opened my mouth. Were I in any form of combat I wld now be lying dead in the middle of nowhere with several new holes in my skanky body.

I will try n behave in future *bows*

I started The Burning Land on audio yesterday, but had to stop. They changed the reader yet again and while this one's voice is ok, he reads too fast. My brain couldn't keep up.

So I guess I'll have to do this one with the ereader.

Reading toooo fast is a terrible error. Maybe he'd been paid already. Or maybe he wasn't listening to the story, was just bashing a load of words out of his mouth that he didn't care about. Shame.

Oooh, a Cornwell thread! I just joined this group, so I shall try to avoid the newbie thing of commenting on eighteen threads right after introducing myself, but I couldn't resist the Cornwell discussion. He's my hero, Saxon and Arthurian books especially.

Chris wrote: "I started The Burning Land on audio yesterday, but had to stop. They changed the reader yet again and while this one's voice is ok, he reads too fast. My brain couldn't keep up.

So I guess I'll ha..."

Hi ya Chris,
I found Burning Land to be one of my favourites. I'll be interested in what you think of it when you're done. It is one that splits the ranks. Some find it great, some find it not as great as others that have gone before it. :-)

Kate wrote: "Oooh, a Cornwell thread! I just joined this group, so I shall try to avoid the newbie thing of commenting on eighteen threads right after introducing myself, but I couldn't resist the Cornwell dis..."

The Saxon my all time faves. Followed by the Grail/Thomas of hookton series (which Cornwell is writing a fourth for).

Fate in inexorable. :D