100 books like Sarum

There have been too many novels featuring the story of King Arthur to count; this is my favorite. I found it (and the following two books in the series) really captured the idea of who Arthur was, why he was needed, and why he did what he did at the time for me.

It was the first Cornwell novel I read, and he has become my favourite novellist. I think he writes battle scenes better than anyone–he puts you in the middle of the action and makes you feel the visceral nature of combat (especially in his Arthurian and medieval books). If anyone is looking for a place to start with Arthurian fiction but doesn’t know where to begin, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book and series. 

I remember buying The Long Ships about twenty years ago on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. Generally speaking, 1950s Swedish novels about Vikings are not my thing, but there was an absolutely over-the-top introduction from Michael Chabon.…'best novel ever’ kind of stuff…so I bought it.

Since then, I have recommended it to dozens of people, almost all of whom have, often to their surprise, loved it and recommended it to others. My favorite recommendation was to a pal whose daughter absconded with it and was reading it on a parapet in southern Spain when a guy came by and asked her what she was reading. She showed him the book, he perused it gravely, and then tore out the frontispiece and used it to roll a joint. This is a very satisfying book in every way.

Don’t get it confused with the derivative Norwegian comedy series, Norsemen. The Long Ships… show more.

I read this strange and riveting novel several years ago, so I have to confess that I’ve forgotten a lot of the details.

But I have remembered with absolute clarity the richness of the prose and the well-observed wit, so reminiscent of all the Victorian novels I devoured when I was young; the imaginative scope of a world in which an empire can rise or fall on the skill of her magicians, and the all-too-familiar danger of a rivalry between two powerful and ambitious men vying for supremacy.

It is delightful, moving, and an absolute pleasure from beginning to end.

Alfred Duggan is one of those authors I stumbled across by accident (a random discovery at my local library) a man whose books I immediately started collecting once I’d finished his first. His novels are impeccably researched and he’s one of the few authors I know who seem to slip effortlessly into the minds of their characters, offering an authentic viewpoint of their world through their eyes. This novel is set in the dying days of Roman Britain and uses what few historical details are known of the period to give us a completely credible tale of the ‘little emperors’ of the Romano-British administration as they attempt to cling to power after the departure of the last legions to the Continent.

A prequel to the famous best-seller The Pillars of the Earth this book follows the fortunes of three disparate characters as they navigate the perilous Viking-riven world of 10th-century England. Although some of Follett’s books are considered ‘light’ reading by many he’s a meticulous author who enjoys his period research and always presents his readers with stories as rich in historical accuracy and verisimilitude as they are in drama and intrigue. A broad cast of characters gives us a view of life from all the strata of English (and Norman) society: from noblewoman to slave; craftsman to monk. A long, long book that will leave you wanting even more.

Have you ever wished you knew what your pet was thinking? That you could communicate with them with words or even with the power of your mind? I know I have.

This book is basically a chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars…but with dragons! When British naval Captain Will Laurence forms a bond with the dragon Temeraire, it changes both of their lives. The two are pressed into service, fighting against Napoleon’s own squad of dragon-riders.

The air battle scenes are thrilling, but the real heart of the book is the bond between Will and Temeraire. It is a daring adventure tale but also a fabulous, cozy read. Reading it makes me wish I had a dragon pal that I was telepathically bonded to (though I’m not too keen to have to square up with Napolean). 

I read this book before I watched the TV series, and I admit that the series was not disappointing. The book reverts to prehistoric times for the origins of what was to become the town of Centennial in Colorado.

This is another story of the building of America, although from the opposite spectrum to my prior recommendation. It touches on the Indian tribes who fought long and hard to keep their land and continues on to cover all aspects of the eventual population, from trappers to cowboys and ranchers, and the hardships experienced in creating such a settlement in 1844.

I enjoy any book or TV series that shows the origins of how places or people came to be. This book certainly goes into such details and readers are pulled into the lives of several families through to relatively modern times. Mesmerising as only the expert storyteller James Michener can… show more.

This book haunted me long after I had finished it.

It is based on a true story and takes us back to the horrendous days of Auschwitz, where Sophie had to make the choice of saving just one of her two children and she chose her son, Jan, sending her daughter Eva to the gas chamber. A choice no mother should have to make, and after making such a choice, sadly, she never saw her son again.

We must fast forward to 1947, and Sophie is a Polish immigrant in New York, where she lives in a boarding house with Nathan and Stingo. Her second choice, I will leave you to read, but there is so much more to this story by William Styron, and if you want to be depressed as well as impressed, this is definitely the book for you. 

A traveling physician, Sinuhe, bears witness to a time of religious turmoil in ancient Egypt. The clash between the “mad” Pharaoh Akhenaten’s new monotheistic faith and the traditional pantheon of Egypt’s deities sweeps Sinuhe into the throes of war and politics. An epic in the truest sense, yet this sweeping story never spares on the granular details of everyday life under the pharaohs; one can almost feel the hot sun and smell the fertile banks of the Nile through the pages. The Egyptian might very well be the perfect historical fiction novel (one that was later turned into an academy award nominated movie). Though it is no longer in print, this book is well worth the effort to track down a copy.

Set in during the Forth Crusade, Baudolino is another book by Umberto Eco I have read numerous times and, as with Foucault’s Pendulum, throws up the idea that, if the world isn’t as we would like it to be (the great enigma of should and is), is there an imperative for someone of influence to create the illusion, engineer a fantasy, bring forth a false reality… all to satisfy their need to mould existence to their own world view.

In Baudolino’s case, his self-delusions really do create his reality, as his quest to find truth in his religious devotions unfolds exactly to his perceptions.