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Books Related to Empires of the Sea Roger Crowley - ISBN: 0571232302
Unputdownable - Rated
Some of the great thrillers are impossible to put down - you want to know what happens to the characters and what great plot twist is coming next - even if you sometimes know the hero will survive somehow. But that's fiction, this isn't. Roger Crowley writes about this extraordinary period of European history with the same pace and energy as the best fiction writers and his real-life characters provide him with just as many plot twists and just as many amazing heroes.
You may know a bit about the 16th Century - Henry VIII and his wives, Luther, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, the Gregorian calendar, Cortés and Drake, but this is a whole new story played out on the fringes of our school-taught history.
It's completely riveting. Don't read ahead but the siege of Malta is an incredibly story of bravery, ingenuity and simple brute force.
If you enjoy history or even if you just enjoy a good old-fashioned thriller, treat yourself to this book.
History as it should be written. - Rated
The conflict between Ottoman Turkey and Christian Spain for mastery of the Mediterranean basin had a huge influence on the development of the modern world, yet is probably not something you know very much about, even if you studied history at school. Roger Crowley deals with the key period of this struggle during the 16th Century in a page-turner of a narrative peopled with almost larger-than-life personalities - Suleiman the Magnificent, Bluebeard the Pirate (actually there were father and son Bluebeards) - Andrea Doria, the mercenary Admiral, and a supporting cast of Kings and Popes. What becomes clear is how very close the Ottomans came to extending their Empire into France, Italy and Spain, and how much better organised they were than the European powers who faced them.
The centrepiece of the book is the siege of Malta. The heroism of the defenders would not be believed if it were fiction, and the complex tale is told with exemplary clarity.
You may find parallels in the 21st Century, but Roger Crowley wisely doesn't labour them. Read it twice!
