I love history and stories. Over the years I realized stories are part history and part character. I still don’t know in which ratio, but a story without characters or history is boring. A world, any world, needs history as much as characters because the story develops from their interaction. As a writer I always ask why. It’s the quintessential question. Any character is there for a reason that must be linked to history in some form. It’s cheap to say, “they’re there because it suits the plot.” And all of these books give us both history and character(s). And then some.
In history class, we only learned about the abstracts of World War II, and then only from the criminal’s side, with very few lessons being dedicated to the other victims. Not only does this book allow you into the French Resistance against Nazi occupation, its main character is a woman! It’s obviously fiction, and the ending is still the fall of Nazi Germany, but you sweat along with the characters. It’s wonderful to see a completely ruthless female warrior take the fight to a vile enemy. Especially for me as a German, it was a great read.
In his own bestselling tradition of Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca, Ken Follett delivers a breathtaking novel of suspense set in the most dangerous days of World War II.
D-Day is approaching. They don't know where or when, but the Germans know it'll be soon, and for Felicity "Flick" Clariet, the stakes have never been higher. A senior agent in the ranks of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) responsible for sabotage, Flick has survived to become one of Britain's most effective operatives in Northern France. She knows that the Germans' ability to thwart the Allied attack…
Another era of history. Britain after the Roman occupation, during the Saxon invasion. It’s a retelling of the Arthur myth, from the point of view of an old Briton warrior who recounts the battles Arthur led against the Saxons. Historical fiction at its best, I love this series so much. It depicts an England before it was England, with a people struggling to recover their identity after centuries of Romanization. All the characters are there, Arthur, Merlin, Nimue, but they are all different. And nothing is as you thought. The author shows a world that could have been the origins of the myth that followed.
Uther, the High King of Britain, has died, leaving the infant Mordred as his only heir. His uncle, the loyal and gifted warlord Arthur, now rules as caretaker for a country which has fallen into chaos - threats emerge from within the British kingdoms while vicious Saxon armies stand ready to invade. As he struggles to unite Britain and hold back the Saxon enemy, Arthur is embroiled in a doomed romance with beautiful Guinevere.
Trapped in her enormous, devout Catholic family in 1963, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies when the pope dies and their family friend, Cardinal Stefanucci, is unexpectedly on the shortlist to be elected the first American pope.
Driven to elevate her family to the holiest of holy rollers in…
I know most people have heard of or watched the TV series, but the books are so much better. When I first read it, the multiple points of view confused, and then fascinated me. And the more I read the more enamored I became. This was unlike any fantasy book I had read before, it was exactly what I craved fantasy books to be like. Realism, shocking reveals and surprises, and everything delivered from different characters so that while the reader knows more than the characters, it’s always uncertain if what a character perceives is actually the truth.
HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.
'Completely immersive' Guardian
'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground'
Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
From the fertile south, where heat breeds conspiracy, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen…
This book has a bad reputation. And maybe I am reading it wrong, or maybe others are. I’m not sure. The movie is unlike the book, a satire of fascism. I love the movie for that. But the book is different. It doesn’t show jarheads, but a society that has evolved. Whether it’s for the better or worse is open to interpretation, and in a time of war (it’s not called Starship Repairmen) it deals with the staple of all sci-fi, alien invaders. To me it’s a thoughtful book, despite the power armor and tactical nuclear grenades.
'The historians can't seem to settle whether to call this one 'The Third Space War' (or the fourth), or whether 'The First Interstellar War' fits it better. We just call it 'The Bug War'. Everything up to then and still later were 'incidents', 'patrols' or 'police actions'. However, you are just as dead if you buy the farm in an 'incident' as you are if you buy it in a declared war.'
5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down a terrifying enemy: an…
Born the half-breed, bastard son of an orc chieftain, Wrank tries to survive life in OrcHome among ignorance and spite aimed at his human heritage even as he develops a Talent for folding shadow. When life is no longer viable among the clans, he escapes into the world of humans…
So unlike the movie, and so much better. Yes, it’s an older novel, but the previous entry isn’t that fresh either. I love how broken Bourne is, how the stuff he went through virtually destroyed the person he was before he became Bourne, but also the persona he had created for himself. His agony gushes from the page, and it’s a wonder to behold. No James Bond, no gentleman spy, just a broken man trying to put the shards of his life back into some resemblance of normalcy.
Jason Bourne is back in the forthcoming major motion picture starring Matt Damon and Alicia Vikander. Go back to where it all began for Bourne in his first adventure - The Bourne Identity
He was dragged from the sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues: a frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the skin of his hip; evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face; strange things he says in his delirium, which could be code words. And a number on the film negative that leads to a bank account in Zurich, four million dollars, and…
Epic fantasy, grim and dark. No heroes, no villains, only people confronted with the past, with choices they made, and their consequences. As an ancient enemy stirs in the bowels of a ruined elven city, a country attacks its neighbor, and a broken man turns to face his past.
Experience the events through the eyes of many unique characters. Follow disparate paths as they weave together to reveal the grand tapestry that leaves you reeling. Murder, intrigue, war, seen through the eyes of many.
Liveaboard sailor Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived when she blags her way into skippering a Viking longship for a Hollywood film. However, this means returning to the Shetland Islands, the place she fled as a teenager. When a corpse unexpectedly appears onboard the longship, she can…
