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)

Bernard Cornwell Delivers

The best part of his stories is the way he makes the reader feel as if he is in the time and place of the novel. The characters are fairly well developed and Agincourt gives a great picture of the battle with characters on both sides. Although he tends to describe the battle more from the English POV.

good not great

it was a good story but production could have been better. not his best book

Not his best but still damn good

The narrator was a little boring, and the ending was disappointing and flat. Battle scenes were epic and awesome and overall i'd recommend this book.

I love learning history this way

The author is skilled at weaving the fictional characters into historic action. A great read, and wonderfully read by Charles Keating.

Fun

I’m sure the real battle was no where near as packed with drama. Still a fun historical fiction well read.

Sharpe with a bow...

Having burned through the entire Sharpes series by Bernard Cornwell I turned to some of his other works. This story is (as always) a great way to learn about a historical event through one who would have been there without having to cope with a long winded expert who is more interested in proving their mastery of minutiae.

I titled this review Sharpe with a Bow, because the main character is in all ways Richard Sharpe and his love interest runs the same gambits that Sharpes loves did. I expect that this is partially due to the fact that they are (despite some advancement) technologically close to each other and in both eras the pool of warriors for both the officer and grunt classes came from similar places with similar caste systems. That said, it does differ from the many Sharpes books in that it clearly paints a picture of the age in which it is set. Consider this minor criticism akin to noting that Harrison ford plays Harrison Ford no matter if he is Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

Finally, the reader is excellent and his voice acting is on point. The only thing that became annoying (and thus not 4 stars) was the music played during particular potions of import. This was far too loud, and I found myself straining to hear the reader as he was drowned by sometimes sci-fi music that was completely unnecessary.

good story; odd background music sometimes

good and captivating story. as others have said, the inconsistent background music seemed odd and out of place at times.

Enthralling story to illustrate a great historic e

Beautifully descriptively told story of medieval times with human interest story lines. I would read it again!

Why add music?

The store and the performance was wonderful. The music however was annoying, pointless and needs to be removed.

nice historical drama

The narrator was fine but not great. the music at the beginning of the chapters was unnecessary and not pleasant. it interfered with the narration.