Harlequin: Book 1 (The Grail Quest)

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El desenlace final es insuperable, la batalla de Crecy. El ejército inglés arrinconado, tras un periodo de acoso y de tierra quemada por parte de los franceses, consigue escapar de una última trampa entre los ríos Sena y Somme. Escaso de suministros, escaso de flechas, escaso de hombres, eligen bien el terreno en una colina sobre el pueblo de Crecy y esperan al infinitamente superior ejército francés con miles de caballeros y ballesteros...y pagados de si mismos, sucumben al peor de los pecados, la soberbia. El desastre está muy bien narrado por Cornweel y merece la pena.....leñe, si casi dan pena los pobres gabachos.

Mr. Harley Quin, a character by Agatha Christie whom she described as, "a man shown in a harlequin-coloured light" The one exception to the complaint about characters is how good Cornwell always is at making you hate the antagonist. Sir Simon is a bully, a rapist, and quite stupid to boot. Well, the giants may be a stretch and the miracles are a bit few and far between...but it's definitely sort of like a very (very) dark Princess Bride...like I said, "sort of".

Sir Will Skeat - Thomas's friend and former captain in the service of the Earl of Northampton until he was badly wounded at Crécy After publishing eight books in his ongoing Sharpe series, Cornwell was approached by a production company interested in adapting them for television. The producers asked him to write a prequel to give them a starting point to the series. They also requested that the story feature a large role for Spanish characters to secure co-funding from Spain. The result was Sharpe’s Rifles, published in 1987, and a series of Sharpe television films staring Sean Bean. Agincourt and 1356 by Bernard Cornwell. One of the greatest pleasures as a book lover is listening to a great book performed by an able narrator who can convey nuance and feeling, and through whom the listener can differentiate characters simply from the unique, consistent voices affected by the performer. All of these books are of this sort. Turns out, some of the strangest stuff that I’d dismissed, was historically accurate. History is wild, man.

Our young archer also encounters an enemy knight, who serves as a thorn in his side, and, well, tries to kill him during several instances. Tale ends with the young archer having to go to the southern parts of France, during off war season times, to heal a friend and further investigate what his cousin is up to (i.e. BTW, since the trilogy title gives it away, it's a search for the Holy Grail b/c the cousin is from a heretic line called the Cathars who were believed to have held the Grail). The Grail Quest is a historical fiction novel series written by Bernard Cornwell dealing with a 14th-century search for the Holy Grail, set during the opening stage of the Hundred Years' War. Jeanette - the daughter of a rich Breton merchant, widow of the Count of Armorica, Thomas's former lover Thomas grows up in the village of Hookton in Dorset, the illegitimate son of village priest Father Ralph. Thomas, a young man, has been training secretly with a bow, despite his father forbidding it. On Easter morning, 1343, Norman raiders led by French knight Sir Guillaume d'Evecque arrive. A mysterious man calling himself the Harlequin has hired them to steal a lance that Thomas's father claims is the one used by Saint George to slay a dragon. The Harlequin mortally stabs Thomas's father. Thomas kills four men, but the rest leave with the lance and captives. Thomas learns from his dying father that he is a French count who fled his evil family and that the Harlequin is Thomas's first cousin. For let me put this very clearly: all the action, characterization, siege warfare, interpersonal conflicts, lords, ladies, general grunts, and the clergy are all heavily represented in BOTH genres. Indeed, both historical fiction and epic fantasies are separated ONLY by the author’s willingness to add a little magic (not even necessary in most books) or make worldbuilding that is created out of whole cloth.This book's greatest strength was undoubtedly the battle scenes which were typical of Cornwell in that they were brutal and engaging. These scenes are often high points of the early parts of the book and a brilliant battle set-piece keeps the book interesting when it starts to flag in the middle. The ending of the book was dominated by the iconic battle of Crecy. Cornwell's visceral' compelling account brought the famous battle to life and even knowing how it would end it was gripping reading. Despite some small discrepancies from historical accounts I've read the battle was mostly accurate and completely awesome. That being said, the character development wasn't great, but the battle scenes were epic. This is the way History class should have been taught!

The crucial question - how much did Jonathan Keeble’s amazing narration contribute to my enjoyment of my previous Cornwell read, the Warlord Chronicles? The plot is mostly just a convoluted series of events to get Thomas of Hookton from one historical battle to another. I’ve praised the battles, and they are indeed excellent - providing both the personal, intimate point of view of a person in battle, while still giving a bird’s-eye-view of the battle overall, so that the reader is kept abreast of the tactics and the general ebb and flow of the battle. Los orgullosos caballeros franceses despreciaban este arma, como instrumento de la plebe. La mayoría pagó con su vida este desprecio. While there is no character who could replace Uhtred in my heart, Thomas is special in his own way. He's a reluctant champion for the grail and the lance, and he's mostly a good Christian, though he has some doubts (St. Guinefort is hysterical to me). I adored Skeat and Father Hobbe and Sir Guillaume, and sort of in a strange way, the Prince, though you don't see much of him. I had a hot/cold relationship with Jeanette. I really wanted to love her, but couldn't in the end respect the way she treated Thomas.So the young archer, seeking revenge and wanting to learn his craft, leaves to join the English king as he wages war against the French on the throne. What follows are a series of skirmishes, raids and gritty fights. Along the way he also has a few affairs with women, and, the first one, who is something of a sub character with her own plots, jilts him as seems to happen to the more popular Sharpe character. Okay, so it's a good book but you need to be aware that this is not a happy fantasy. It's a book about war and all the pain that goes with that, especially when it's a war fought with pointy and edged things some of sharp steel either wielded by hand or attached to a yard long shaft of wood. He then joined BBC's Nationwide and was promoted to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland. He then joined Thames Television as editor of Thames News. He relocated to the United States in 1980 after marrying an American. Unable to get a green card, he started writing novels, as this did not require a work permit.

Many battles have been fought, people slaughtered, churches robbed, souls destroyed, young women and virgins deflowered, respectable wives and widows dishonored; towns, manors and buildings burned, and robberies, cruelties and ambushes committed on the highways. Invigorating, fairly accurate for the times and gritty telling of the life of a medieval archer during the time of the Hundreds Year War (i.e. a name coined by historians much after the era). The answer: a fair bit, Keeble is amazing - but Cornwell knows how to write an entertaining, well-written and engaging tale, regardless of narrator.Having been a big fan of historical fiction for as long as I can remember, I'm ashamed to admit this is my first Cornwell novel. Judging by how much I enjoyed Harlequin, it's definitely not going to be my last. It is now 1346 and Thomas has joined up with a band of archers in the employ of the Earl of Northampton sieging La Roche-Derrien. We are introduced a typical Cornwell heroine in the form of Jeanette, Countess d’Armorica, beautiful yet dangerous as she tries and protects her city. Eventually the English find their way in and Jeanette runs afoul of the knight Sir Simon Jekyll when she rejects his overtures of sex. Thomas is called to defend Jeanette and when he learns of the attempted rape he plans revenge on Jekyll, but fails, and so he must leave La Roche-Derrien if he wants to escape with his life. Sir William Douglas - uncle of Robbie Douglas, captured at the Battle of Neville's Cross by Lord Outhwaite