Agincourt

So, I bought Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell as soon as it came out last whenever. January? I forget, because I bought it and then put it on the shelf. I finally pulled it off the shelf last week and read it. I'd thought it was a little odd that he'd written a book in the same time period as Harlequin, and had a hero (Nick Hook), with a name very similar to the hero of Harlequin (Thomas of Hookton). Well, it's actually set about 80 years after Harlequin and it explicitly mentions Thomas of Hookton as a hero of the archers, including Nick Hook.

Actually, it's only about Nick Hook because Cornwell needed someone to go to Agincourt and survive, so that he could tell the tale. And it's a standard Cornwell historical adventure, with excellent battle descriptions and accuracy, with a real good conveyance of the feeling of squalor and cruelty and unfairness of the world back then. That's the same sense I got from his Uhtred of Bebbanburg books. I'd recommend it.