What are you reading?

[Lucius Vorenus]

Halfway through Heretic, the third of Bernard Cornwell's Grail trilogy. Loved the Sharpe books, and these are good too, but there's just something about his writing style that every so often jars like someone scraping fingernails down a blackboard. Like he's trying too hard to create tension or something like that.

Once that's finished I'm on to either the last couple of books in the Game of Thrones series, or more of C J Cherryh's Foreigner novels.

I have read about half the Sharpe books, I do enjoy them but I ran out of steam, as they became quite similar. I may return to them in due time.

For anyone interested in the Victorian period I cannot recommend highly enough the classic Flashman series by the late George MacDonald Fraser. Very funny and chock full of period detail. Imagine a historical event (Charge of the Light Brigade, Little Bighorn etc), old Flashy ends up in it, often unwittingly!!! Actually scratch funny, absolutely hilarious in fact!

Game of Thrones is good fun too, if a bit unweildy at times.

When I feel like sci-fi I also really like the Black Library's Horus Heresy series, as the 40k background is really fantastic.

[Invisible officer]

The Flashman series, oh yes. Very accurately researched and well written.

To name Sharpe and Flashman novels in one post . Hmmmm. Fraser compared to Cornwell is like Times and .......

If someone want to read a well researched Peninsula and Waterloo novel he should check his mothers bookshelf for a certain Georgette Heyer one, The Spanish bride. She wrote it with the help of Sir Charles Oman! Based on the original material from Smith, Kincaid and others. Superb.

[Lucius Vorenus]

The Flashman series, oh yes. Very accurately researched and well written.

To name Sharpe and Flashman novels in one post . Hmmmm. Fraser compared to Cornwell is like Times and .......

To clarify, I would rate Cornwall as good/ok, and Fraser as excellent/superb. You can tell he has first hand experience of the British army and the colonies.

I have Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brien, but have yet to read it.

[Eumerin]

Currently contemplating restarting "Democracy in America". I think the last time I read it I got about a third of the way through it, but that was a few years ago.

I'm also planning on dropping by my local Barnes and Noble store today to see if a couple of books that the store is supposed to have ("Rome and Her Enemies"; "Shadows in the Desert") are good sources of information on the Sassanid Empire. In person skimming always beats reading an on-line summary when making a decision on whether to buy, imo.

[Parus Ater]

No chance of you donning the OD's again, Steve?

[Invisible officer]

The Flashman series, oh yes. Very accurately researched and well written.

To name Sharpe and Flashman novels in one post . Hmmmm. Fraser compared to Cornwell is like Times and .......

To clarify, I would rate Cornwall as good/ok, and Fraser as excellent/superb. You can tell he has first hand experience of the British army and the colonies.

I have Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brien, but have yet to read it.

O'Brien. Nice reading but .... Novels full of strange stories. But the movie is even worse, combining the title from one with the story from another.

[Cubster]

I have Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brien, but have yet to read it.

I'm a big fan of the O'Brien Aubrey/Maturin series. They all have wonderfully authentic feel and if you can insert yourself into the contemporary feel (it can be hard going at first), the books are well worth it.

[grant]

When it comes to naval, I am a die-hard Hornblower fan. Nothing finer. No sir, nothing.

[clivethecelt]

Worth reading Cochrane's biography; Aubrey seems to have been based on him, yet his real exploits are even more staggering than those O'Brien describes in his books ... I like Hornblower too - and Flash - but I think Aubrey wins by a whisker for fiction. BTW, CS Forrester's other Nap fiction is excellent (Death to the French, etc), predating Sharpe, much more "believable" and not coloured by the inevitable mores of our times, rather than ...
On the subject of Enid Blyton for adults, I've been reading several of Neville Shute's books, recently re-published, and a few older editions I found at SWMBO's mother's place. OK, some of the war stories are a bit stretched, but well worth a read, especially classics like "Trustee from the Toolroom" and "A Town Like Alice" ...

[grant]

Oh, for sure, Forester is great all around. I have almost everything he published, including a rather nice first edition (British too!) of a later Hornblower - believe it or not, my wife found it for me! Huzzah!

Brown on Resolution and Death to the French are both great fun. The General is simply fantastic - I read it every year at least once!