Agincourt

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Charles Keating

Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Agincourt is classic Cornwell...[with] attention to historical detail, well-paced action, and descriptive writing that is a pleasure to read." (Boston Globe)

Bernard Cornwell, the New York Times best-selling "reigning king of historical fiction" (USA Today), tackles his most thrilling, rich, and enthralling subject yet - the heroic tale of Agincourt. The epic battle immortalized by William Shakespeare in his classic Henry V is the background for this breathtaking tale of heroism, love, devotion, and duty from the legendary author of the Richard Sharpe novels and the Saxon Tales. This extraordinary adventure will captivate from minute one, proving once again and most powerfully, as author Lee Child attests, that "nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell."

©2009 Bernard Cornwell (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"The greatest writer of historical adventures today." ( Washington Post)
"Nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell. (Lee Child, author of Nothing to Lose)
"Readers who haven't discovered Bernard Cornwell don't know what they are missing....He may well be the best historical novelist writing today -- and Agincourt may well be his best novel yet. (Vince Flynn, author of Extreme Measures)

Great story

Glad I listened to a friends recommendation. This book was great.
Short and simple story

Solid historical account of Sir John 'the swearer'

The story was solid. Sir John stole the show. jis hatred of the French really came across and he has a colorful dialog.

The sieges and fights were good, though someitmes a little long. I would have liked a bit more character development, even of it is historical fiction.

My biggest issue is how the author repeated things/phrases/story points numerous times, often within close proximity to one another.

Early on we heare "archers strength" about a dozen times. we get it, you need to be strong to draw a bow.

in the climatic battle the action was good but certain phrases describing the actions in the fighting were repeated over and over. particularly when describing polearms/hammer combo, or open visors.

Another great story from Bernard Cornwell

A good story and wonderful narration. Author’s historic note is especially interesting and rounds out a fun story with informative historical context

Excellent battle “scenes”. You feel as if you are actually watching the battle unfolding

Excellent in every aspect from the story to the narrator. Cornell gives the feeling of what it must have been like to prepare for and then fight a battle Good story too

What is WITH that music?

It pains me to give anything less than 5 stars for this book, particularly Keating's narration which is absolutely luscious, nuanced and pitch perfect. So with all that--great story, superb narrator--why did some imbecile of a producer decide to keep interrupting the flow of the story with bombastic, overbearing, overwrought and hyperventilated orchestra music, dropped in (so far as I can tell) utterly at random with no relevance to the current action or the chapter structure or anything else? Seriously dude, I know what emotions to feel about the narrative. The reader is doing a great job. I don't need to be sledge-hammered by this kind of ludicrously inappropriate distraction. I don't know what they thought they were doing but here's a word for it: FAIL.

Must be the same producer who's done this to a couple of other Audibles I've (otherwise) enjoyed. I think maybe one of the Harry Bosch ones? Anyway, whoever you are: please, please please just STOP it.

Engrossing

This book has a slightly different appeal than the Sharpe books for which Cornwell is justly famous. Because it is a one off without the support of a long established central character, it is slightly less rich in its biographical texture, but Nick the archer does not lack for complexity and humanity. As always, Cornwell shines in his ability to create the detail, color and emotional reality of a bygone era. Since a good deal of the book is about combat, the realism may be too much for some readers, but it is always aimed at communicating the truth of the moment rather than at its shock value. If you like Patrick O'Brian, you are pretty much a lock to love Cornwell. Exhaustively researched and meticulously recreated both physically and emotionally.
No review of this book would be complete without a bow to the narration which raises it from four to five stars. Brilliant work.

A good, but not great Cornwell story.......

Bernard Cornwell is, and has always been one of my favorite authors, and I have either listened to, or read (or both) every one of his novels to date.
I found this particular book to be average; good but not great. I had highly anticipated listening to this book since I was faced with a 12-hour road trip, and with certain Audible books, time can just fly by.
I never quite connected with the main character, Nicolas Hook, which is odd since building a dynamic, flawed, but honorable charactor is typically one of Cornwell's primary strengths.
I found the aspect of religeous paranormal Saints, speaking to Hook's mind to be very strange, and I think distracted from the overall story.
I did enjoy the Sir John Cornwell character, and I wish he was the main charactor instead of Nick Hook. This character helped salvage the book in my opinion, and added a little levity to what is another hallmark of Cornwell novels, gruesome battle scenes, which are realistic, but not for the faint of heart.
It's certainly worth a credit, just don't expect it to be in the same league as Cornwell's Richard Sharpe Series. If you are new to this author, I would highly recommend that you start there.

Very graphic but very compelling

The warfare was very graphically described. If you can take frequent, detailed descriptions of crushed skulls and the like (I got weary of it but I guess there WERE thousands of deaths, after all) the story is GREAT.

There are personal, fictional stories that come to thrilling conclusions at the very end of the battle and Mr. Cornwell has done extensive research to try and portray what really made the difference in this battle from 600 years ago. I couldn't turn this one off and brought it out of the car and into the house to keep the story going!

Good Listen

I like Cornwell's Sharpe series so I decided to try Agincourt. It was a lot like a Sharpe book, and I liked it quite a bit. The description of the battle of Agincourt was really well done. If have read/listened to a lot of Cornwell books, it can be a little formulaic at times.

Cornwell is phenominal storyteller

This narrator and the tale is the best I've read of Cornwell's thus far. I loved the Saxon Chronicles and have waited for another. Agincourt was riveting. I loved the characters and laughed out loud at Sir John's verbal barbs. Well written and void of a slow moment.