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Edward Hahn
, January 01, 2011
(view all comments by Edward Hahn)
While I enjoyed the Grail series, "Azincourt", which takes place about 100 years later is a far better story.
Cornwell's mastery of the times in which this book takes place is obvious. The plot follows Nicholas Hook, a descendant of Thomas Hook, from the Grail Series, as he follows his king, Henry V, to France and the siege of Harfleur, and finally the Battle of Azincourt (Agincourt in its French spelling). As Cornwell points out, this battle is as much a part of the British psyche as any of the other famous battles over the centuries. The main reason being that a force of 6-9,000 English defeated a 25-30,000 man strong French army. The victory can be attributed to the presence of 5-6000 archers carrying the unique English weapon, the longbow.
Somehow, the characters in this story are more believable than in many of Cornwell's books. The battle scenes, as always, are well written. Nobody does battle scenes better than Cornwell. The plot, though simple, has a few twists and turns that kept me turning pages at a rapid rate.
All in all, as I near the end of reading all of Cornwell's many books, I was more than pleasantly surprised at the excellence of this offering.
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