Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluegrassplayer
Finished A Kings Ransom which is Sharon Kay penmans last novel about Richard the lionheart. It covers his time after he leaves the holy land until his death. Penman is amazing as always. The cast of characters is great and the politics is fun.
I'll definitely be reading her welsh series soon and also planning to pick up Bernard Cromwells series on her and grrms recommendation. Also because I really enjoyed the BBCs The Last Kingdom a lot.
So much good historical fiction out there.
I just finished the first Welsh Princes book, Here be Dragons.
It is a little slow going in the first half, but the second half is on par with Sunne in Splendour. Just started the second book,
Falls The Shadow.
I've read a decent bit of Cronwall. I enjoy it, but I think you will find the writing lacking depth if you read him right after Penman. Especially if you start with the Last Kingdom and the rest of the Saxon Stories series.
By Far the best Cronwall books in my opinions are his Warlord chronicles (the Arthur Trilogy):
The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur. I'm sure I raved about them somewhere in this thread, but they are among my favourite books of all time.
The Grail quest novels are also excellent, but definitely a step down from the Arthur books.
The Saxon Stories, starting with
The Last Kingdom are good, but no more than that. I think I've read the first 5, he pumps them out pretty quick. I equate the Saxon Story novels to late career Grisham. Page turners and midly interesting but nothing more. I tried to start one of the newer ones directly after reading
Sunne in Splendour, and had an identical reaction (ironically) as to when I tried reading one of the century trilogy books by Ken Follett directly after reading the Warlord Chronicles by Cronwall. I found the writing felt overly simplistic and utterly lacking depth. So much so that I couldn't even make it through a chapter.