Longsword

This is an excellent novel about the progress of a young man in the chaos that was England in 1266. The author demonstrates a deep and accurate knowledge of the period, history, and mores of the setting of his book. Moreover, unlike many other books about the more or less standard upward progress of other young men, this book is about 100 pages longer than the others of the genre, with more than the usual twists. This book is not only a good read, but educational as well, while not at all pedantic. It is also moderately priced, and as such, a more than fair value for the money.

Hugh Longsword is certainly made to suffer for his place in these, post Simon de Montfort troubled times. It is an era that Pilling deals with better than most authors. His attention to correct historical detail is very good, also the narrative is sensible & believable. The fictional characters are added to the genuine ones with some skill & the story moves on at a pace. Some of the violence I found a little OTT brutal & I am certainly not sqeamish, but I suppse these were dangerous days.The references to Robin Hood, Little John, etc. I found unconvincing, not to say a little out of the acknowledged timescale.Any Pilling book is enjoyable though & ths is no exception.

Story moved very slow and the characters were not very interesting. They were all so bad people that you really did not have an investment in them. I have purchased some other books of the series in the hopes that the story gets better but right now i am not excited to read the next book - there are way too many other books that are a lot more fun to read!

I found the beginning of this book a bit confusing, but after reading on it became more interesting. I enjoyed it overall, but the problem with a series of books is that there are always things left hanging. There were also numerous typos so better editing would be a plus. Not sure I'll read the next in the series at this point...too many others I am anxious to get to.

Longsword, the main character in this book, wasn't much good at sword fighting, and while the history seemed fairly accurate, the book was not a compelling read. Not bad, but not great either.

Enjoyable tale that follows history to a large extent. The characters are realistic, the events are mostly relevant, the action and settings are believable. Good writing!

Great story by excellent author

The story line was very entertaining.

Another part of our history'of which the royals did not show themselves in a particularly good lightWill be interesting to see how our main character matires. Needs to be a bit more realistic and a better fighter

A good novel to read the story keeps flowing , if you like historical fiction then this is the book for you

I must admit to being a little biased as Sir John D'Eyvill (one of the baddies) is one of my ancestors but I did find this novel extremely enjoyable. It really drew me in and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

It wasn't a bad story, but lacked depth. There seemed to be too many characters and not enough focus on one. Some of the situations were forced and didn't develop enough to be believable.I think there are much better novels on the market. I wont be following this saga.

Not a bad read but I have read better the characters are not engaging enouth.