/lit/ - Literature

Iron Men and Saints, an very engaging story of the First Crusade.

Reading Iron Men and Saints. Truly a history book with the soul of a fantasy epic. Obviously the characters can't be as fully developed as a novel, but you get a good feeling for Godfrey, Boehmond, Tancred, etc.

But what really strikes me is how Bakker didn't just "loosely base," Prince of Nothing on the First Crusade but straight up does it blow for blow. Even the names like "Tower of the Dog," are cribbed. All the battle details, how the tide ebbed and flowed, are straight from the actual war. Same with most of the supply issues. The way Antioch is taken is just like Carrascand.

Obviously, there are no rape aliens in the background or sorcerers, but the entire rest of the war is like blow for blow aside from the Arabs and Turks both fighting each other and the Crusaders.

I think Sarbon is supposed to be Tancred, Proias is Godfrey, and Kellhus is a combination of Peter the Hermit, but not disgraced, and Boehmond. There is even an Armenian Turk general involved for Cnauir and the Byzantines sneak into Nicea the same way Conphas does to keep it from a sack. Even the big battle on the marshy river where the Turks raid the Crusader camp is blow for blow .

>>22353233
The Darkness That Comes Before (best in genre, starts a bit slow).
The Black Company (first two books are pretty good)
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Red Knight

Or just read Iron Men and Saints even though it's fiction because it reads plenty well.

>>22216395
Harold Lamb's Iron Men and Saints for the most fun read.

>>22129360