The Long Sword (Chivalry) Paperback – May 3, 2016

I'm slowly working my way through everything he's written, outside of the books he coauthored with his father. This series, of which there are but two books (as I write this), is my favorite. And according to the author this series features the character he most likes to write about: William Gold. Two of his other series, Killer of Men and the Tyrant series where page turners, too, and they are also grounded in historicity. This series reads like Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century adapted for fiction. It's awesome. And if you want to see just how bad things were for Europeans living in the west during the late 1300's read Tuchman. One of the outstanding historical characters that we get a sense of is Sir John Hawkwood (born c. 1320, died 1394) an English mercenary - but the author leaves me wanting much more. Hope he tackles Hawkwood in another novel. Some have complained that he offers too many characters to follow. Not this reviewer.Most of the characters are based on real human beings, who were the cast of a very complicated set of events, and his novels accurately follow the arc of the historical narrative that most historians agree upon. In fact, his Tryant series gives women their due as warriors in much the way that Adrienne Mayor does in her anthropological/historical study The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World. I love historical fiction and Cameron is as good as it gets.Update. 3.26.19. I almost never re-read a novel. Too much time, however, elapsed between my first read of The Long Sword and my purchase of The Green Count. I opened The Green Count on my kindle a week ago and started to read the first couple of pages - found immediately that my love of Cameron's prose and his faithful historicity was not diminished by the intervening four years of reading other things. I missed The Green Count being published in 2018. Almost immediately upon diving into it, I decided that I could not do William Gold justice unless I re-read The Long Sword, not that The Ill Made Knight is unworthy, but the best place to jump to The Green Count is from The Long Sword. I just finished re-reading it moments ago. Can't wait to dive in - hope I don't have to wait so darn long for the next installment. But I will if need be, it's worth it!

I've enjoyed this series quite a lot. Seems accurate and the descriptive is perfect. Feels as though you are there on the fields and taverns. Great character in William Gold. It's a nice and gradual pace throughout the novel (s). The only reason I cannot give a 5-star review thus far is the editing. I've come across at least 15 minor editing snags in each of the three books I've read. Granted, it's understood the copy editor has been ill, and the author is loyal. Commendable and in the spirit of the knight genre...chivalrous. However, these are simple edit mistakes that detract from the overall excellence of the story.Keep these coming please and well done.

I really enjoyed the Ill-Made Knight, and I was so excited to see this sequel for sale. This book matches what made the first book so interesting; that is, the complex social, economic and religious aspects of life in the Hundred Years' War. If you've read Bernard Cornwell, or even Sharon Kay Penman, these are authors that have prepared you for the awesomeness that is Christian Cameron. I can't say enough, except to say 'read this book!' Well researched, I love how this author made a key character the Papal Legate Pierre de Thomas. No person from this period was too insignificant for the author to put real work into fleshing out. I love the King of Cyprus, and the Bishop Robert of Geneva was SO bad. I just loved this book.

The tale speaks of being in armor, and your visor down. And your resulting severe isolation from perception -saving your life, as meant to. The human mind, my friends, spends a large amount of its available energy and total resources doing the same thing.This, of course, results in poorly informed behavior and often one of many forms of madness. War being an environment that adds gasoline to the fire.This book tells of lives, some continuing, existing in that environment. Some finding the will and the strength to continue motion. In whatever direction they’ve either been bent, followed, or chosen. Some, who may have been chosen.Blessed? Cursed? Other? To be determined by visored readers…This book, this series, speaks through the visor, my friends.

The second in what looks to be an extended series.I enjoyed "The Ill-made Knight" - giving it 4 stars - so bought this sequel - which I have enjoyed every bit as much. Many historical novels are contrived (they are novels after all), but Cameron's research into this period is sound, stretching reality less than most. His principal characters were sketched well in the first novel and have continued to develop - in part as it is written in the first person (so it is simpler to "see" how the main character explains his own thinking) - but in part too as this character's development is consistent and logical - transitioning from a young soldier into manhood. As an ex-soldier, I can relate to this development.The one issue I have is that of the armour - would it indeed have protected as much as it appears to do so? This period saw a change from comparatively "soft" steels to much harder metals (the adjustment of the carbon content and a greater understanding of additions of manganese), especially in Italy. That said, a massive blow from a mace or sword might not penetrate the armour, but would appear to me to still have significant "behind armour" trauma - at the very least causing temporary incapacity (try walking with a badly bruised leg muscle), if not breaking bones (arms and legs).A minor quibble only. I enjoyed the book - it has maintained all the good points of the first novel without any dilution of character or writing style - and I look forward to the third.