• Ironfire

  • A Novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades
  • By: David Ball
  • Narrated by: George Guidall
  • Length: 31 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (453 ratings)

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Ironfire  By  cover art

Ironfire

By: David Ball
Narrated by: George Guidall
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Publisher's summary

Best-selling author David Ball has won widespread critical and popular acclaim for his sweeping novels, including Empires of Sand. With Ironfire Ball delivers a stirring historical epic of the Crusades. In the 16th century, only the Knights of Malta stand against the Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Magnificent and his 40,000 brutal warriors.

©2004 David Ball (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Ball brings the tail end of the Crusades to life in a substantial piece of historical fiction that sizzles with action, romance, and drama.” ( Booklist

What listeners say about Ironfire

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The fiction part of the book is full grotesque.

The near pornographic PEDOPHILIC scenes are appalling. we selected this book to listen to on our family trip to the ocean. With scenes describing a 10 year old boy fondling himself as he contemplates being raped by an older Muslim man, details of young girl getting her period, a whore giving head to a "soft" salior, we had to skip so much! We have yet to hear anything about siege of Malta. The narratior was wonderful, too bad the filth he had to say destroyed our experience. NOT SAFE FOR WORK/FAMILY/OUT LOUD.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Can't Overcome It's PC Worldview

It goes like this. Islam is far better than Christianity (despite their constant capturing of slaves) and is benevolent to Christians and Jews. However, Christianity is evil and the only good Christians are those who are not really religious. This leads to rather flat caricatures in most supporting roles. The novel ends up being much about a love story and a sundered family (to give points of view on both sides of the siege).

Still, it never overcomes it's modernist politically correct viewpoints that are laughable to anyone with a pretty good knowledge of the true history of the crusades.



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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Masterpiece !!!!

Look I read and review a lot of books on this site, when I decided to take a chance on Ironfire I had not idea it was going to be as outstanding a work as it was. I have never used this term in any of my reviews, however this novel is a MASTERPIECE ! In addition, the novel is also historically accurate, so your going to learn quite alot, while being entertained for 31 hours.Ironfire this book is a must buy.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Will listen over and over

I wasn't expecting this to be one to be up there with the best when I first purchased, but what a nice surprise. The story is captivating, filled with accurate historical facts, and the narration was appealing. I hated for it to end. I know I will listen to this book many times. I put it up there with "Cutting For Stone" and "Shantaram" which were books I also wished would never end.
If you've read/listened to Roger Crowley's "Empires of the Sea", you know just how horrible the seige at Malta was for it's inhabitants as well as the Knights of St. John when they were attacked by the fighters of the Ottoman Empire. They were nearly abandoned by the rest of Europe until it was almost too late, for many it was.
If you like long, historical fiction with a great ending; a book you won't want to put down, this is it.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Phenomenal

The story is excellent. There are several characters that are well developed and transitions from one subplot to another is extremely clear. The story is told from the point of view of several people and each tale is extremely captivating. David Ball is an excellent writer and George Guidall...... well, you can't go wrong listening to ANYTHING that he reads.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This is the 15th Century UGLY

War is truly ugly in the 21st century, it was even more terrible in the 15th. This David Ball did his research, This was a bloody brutal siege There were the families living on Malta that were crippled and destroyed. People were chattel for the "Church" whether it was the Christians or the Muslims. Fundamentalist fanatics only encourage bloodshed. Anyone who wishes to read another great Historical Novel about Malta at this time read "The Religion". Both this and "The Religion" made me realize how much the human race is dependent on "Religion" to function. Almost every war, through the ages was fraught for a secular cause. This was one of the most horrific battles of "The Crusades" at one point they used human heads for cannon balls. If you have a strong stomach, and want to understand the inhumanity, of war, read these books. Let's not forget the 20 century's Holocaust, and Joe Stalin who killed over 20 million of his own people. "The evil that men do.........." Knowledge will keep us from letting these things happen again. . .

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Mostly a soap opera

There wasn't a whole lot of Knights of Malta in this story supposedly about them. The author seemed more concerned with soap operaish side stories. Save your money.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting adventure into the past.

Very well written chronicle of history of Malta and the Knights of St John. Wonderfully enjoyable history lesson! Love, despair, honor, courage, battles on sea and land, all combined to keep you enthralled throughout. Narration #1.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Great book for psychopaths

The history is great. There's good character development, the reading is adequate, the book is generally well written... Yet, the majority of the book is spent focusing on making life as miserable as possible for the protagonists you care about. Imagine your sister being raped then locked in a dungeon. Now imagine reading a story about it. You would have to be a psychopath to enjoy it, and that is what this book is like.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Weird

This book has a truly bizarre focus on adolescent sexuality. I couldn’t get past those cringe-inducing scenes.

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2 people found this helpful