Here are 37 books that Hammer and the Cross fans have personally recommended once you finish the Hammer and the Cross series.
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I developed a passion for history as a child in Warrington, Cheshire. I would lose myself in tales of Achilles, Alexander, King Arthur, and King Alfred the Great. My love of the Viking Age became nurtured through visits to Viking exhibitions like the Yorvik centre in York, and Dublinia in Dublin. The catalyst for my first book, Viking Blood and Blade, was a trip to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. That museum holds a full-size Viking warship, which is truly breathtaking. I have published seven historical fiction novels set in the Viking Age, and I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have…
The cover of this book is amazing, especially the full wrap-around version.
This is a fantasy book, and I love the genre for its sheer escapism. The world Gwynne creates is a version of the Viking Age, but where Ragnarök has already taken place, and the Aesir lost that battle at the end of days. Orka is a fabulous character, and the world building, including the monstrous skeletons of fallen gods, is so well done.
'A masterfully crafted, brutally compelling Norse-inspired epic' Anthony Ryan
THE GREATEST SAGAS ARE WRITTEN IN BLOOD.
A century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out.
As whispers of war echo across the land of Vigrid, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame, and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.
All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls…
I developed a passion for history as a child in Warrington, Cheshire. I would lose myself in tales of Achilles, Alexander, King Arthur, and King Alfred the Great. My love of the Viking Age became nurtured through visits to Viking exhibitions like the Yorvik centre in York, and Dublinia in Dublin. The catalyst for my first book, Viking Blood and Blade, was a trip to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. That museum holds a full-size Viking warship, which is truly breathtaking. I have published seven historical fiction novels set in the Viking Age, and I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have…
The descriptions of Vikings in this book are unique to others in the Viking Historical Fiction genre.
Robert captures the Viking Age with realistic grit and blood-spattered realism, and this is a difficult book to put down. Orm Bearslayer and his crew are classic anti-heroes, and Finn Horsehead is a magnificent character.
The Whale Road is the first in the Oathsworn series, and I would advise any fan of Viking novels to give this one a try.
The first in a brand new series charting the adventures of the Oathsworn, a band of Vikings on the chase for the secret hoard of Attila the Hun.
Life is savage aboard a Viking raider. When young Orm Rurikson is plucked from the snows of Norway to join his estranged father on the Fjord Elk, he becomes an unlikely member of a notorious crew. They are the Oathsworn - so named after the spoken bond that ties them in brotherhood - and they ply a casual trade on the ocean wave, selling their swords to the highest bidder.
As a not well-known writer of science fiction, that grew up reading speculative fiction novels by not very well-known authors, I want to shine a light on the more obscure corners of my bookshelf. Neil Gaiman and Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Jordan get plenty of press. They don’t need any help. This is a list of authors that I don’t think enough people are talking about. And it’s a shame, because all of them have a lot of really interesting worlds to explore. Enjoy.
I hear you saying to yourself, “Please, recommend another book by a dead guy, Jason!” Well, sorry to disappoint, but this recommendation is from a living author. I’m actually a huge fan of this guy and he’s still alive putting out books. Awfully Appetizing follows Walter, a ghoul (undead carrion eater), that was raised by humans. Walter runs a funeral parlor where he disposes of bodies in the secret war between the werewolves and the vampires in a Colorado college town. The writing is funny. The characters are great. If you like the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher, you’ll love Awfully Appetizing.
Walter Keppler is a quiet, private man. He lives in a trailer park at the edge of town, and is working hard to pay off the startup loan he needed for his funeral home. In his spare time, he likes to camp, fish, and eat roadkill. Walter Keppler is a ghoul, raised by humans. He’s one of the many monsters who calls the town of Collinswood Colorado home, but he’s spent most of his life struggling against his darker nature, and trying to stay as far away from the rest of the creatures of the night as he possibly can.…
As a not well-known writer of science fiction, that grew up reading speculative fiction novels by not very well-known authors, I want to shine a light on the more obscure corners of my bookshelf. Neil Gaiman and Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Jordan get plenty of press. They don’t need any help. This is a list of authors that I don’t think enough people are talking about. And it’s a shame, because all of them have a lot of really interesting worlds to explore. Enjoy.
I’m a huge Philip K. Dick fan. I read an article where PKD said that A.E. van Vogt was his favorite author, but I’d never even heard the name before. Then, everywhere I went for about a month – barbershops, thrift stores, coffee shops – there was an A.E. van Vogt book laying around. Which is something that would happen in a PKD novel, but more sinister. If you like the otherwordly, discombobulating feeling of reading Flow My Tears the Policeman Said or A Scanner Darkly, you’ll enjoy The World of Null-A.
Grandmaster A.E. Van Vogt was one of the giants of the Gold Age of classic SF, the 1940's. Of his masterpieces, THE WORLD OF NULL-A is most famous and most influential. It was the first major trade SF hardcover ever, published in 1949, and has been in print in various editions ever since. The careers of Philip K Dick, Keith Laumer, Alfred Bester, Charles Harness and Philip Jose Farmer were created or influenced by THE WORLD OF NULL-A. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to know the canon of SF classics.
My name is Christian Klaver, and I’ve had, in turn, many different jobs as a bookseller, martial arts instructor, and bartender before settling into a career in internet security. Books have always been a passion of mine, with science fiction, fantasy, and mystery as my main focus. I’ve been a lifelong fan of Sherlock Holmes and am a proud member of two different Sherlock Holmes Societies.
The story unfolds with sections both from Watson and Count Dracula and is just a great deal of fun.
Saberhagen wrote an entire series starring Dracula, but this one, with Holmes in it, is the best of the lot and Saberhagen does some really fun, fun things with the conflict between the two.
1887, London, Victoria’s Jubilee -- criminals threaten to release thousands of plague infested rats on the day of celebration. The extraordinary powers of the Count and sharp mind of the Master Detective team up to avert a catastrophic public disaster. (And, the reader discovers more than a deerstalker hat and an Invernes Cape in Holmes’ family closet.)
I developed a passion for history as a child in Warrington, Cheshire. I would lose myself in tales of Achilles, Alexander, King Arthur, and King Alfred the Great. My love of the Viking Age became nurtured through visits to Viking exhibitions like the Yorvik centre in York, and Dublinia in Dublin. The catalyst for my first book, Viking Blood and Blade, was a trip to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. That museum holds a full-size Viking warship, which is truly breathtaking. I have published seven historical fiction novels set in the Viking Age, and I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have…
There absolutely has to be a book from Cornwell’s Saxon series in any list concerning the Viking Age.
Each book in the series is brilliant, but this one is my favorite. Uhtred of Bebbanburg is a brutal, unforgiving character and in this book he is truly put to the test. The characters are earthy and well-drawn, and the adventure is absorbing and unparalleled.
Bernard Cornwell is the master of the Historical Fiction war/adventure genre and his skills are brilliantly deployed in Lords of the North.
The third book in the epic and bestselling series that has gripped millions.
A hero will be forged from this broken land.
As seen on Netflix and BBC around the world.
The year is 878 and the Vikings have been thrown out of Wessex. Uhtred, fresh from fighting for Alfred in the battle to free Wessex, travels north to seek revenge for his father's death, killed in a bloody raid by Uhtred's old enemy, renegade Danish lord, Kjartan.
While Kjartan lurks in his formidable stronghold of Dunholm, the north is overrun by chaos, rebellion and fear. Together with a small…
I became hooked into science fiction as a kid the day I read an illustrated book of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. From then on, science fiction became an important part of my reading repertoire. Having wide-ranging interests, I enjoy military techno-thrillers, Anglo-French naval warfare, Greek/Egyptian/Roman mythology, most sciences, history of religions, with an occasional novel that strays from the norm and adds a sparkle to my reading. Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills are very close to my heart. Just shows that I’m different. After all, I must do something when I am not writing my own novels! Although I have an extensive library of modern science fiction works, I am fond of many oldies.
This book epitomizes all the qualities a hard science fiction story should have, and which many fail to achieve. I found the theme enthralling - men turning themselves into gods, and the scenario frighteningly plausible.
I love this story because it deals with real characters and doesn’t spare their flaws. I sympathized with the main character, a man prepared to battle heaven for freedom, shunning the mantle of godhood. This novel not only entertained but also forced me to think, something I relished.
Once started, this work is difficult to put down and I nodded with satisfaction when I turned the last page.
Imagine a distant world where gods walk as men, but wield vast and hidden powers. Here they have made the stage on which they build a subtle pattern of alliance, love, and deadly enmity. Are they truly immortal? Who are these gods who rule the destiny of a teeming world?
Their names include Brahma, Kali, Krishna and also he who was called Buddha, the Lord of Light, but who now prefers to be known simply as Sam. The gradual unfolding of the story - how the colonization of another planet became a re-enactment of Eastern mythology - is one of…
I have always loved stories about King Arthur–what’s not to love–Arthurian stories are about the underdog triumphing, destiny, knights and quests, swords (and stones, or lakes), great heroes and villains, and magic. My university studies made me into a military historian (among other things–including an opera singer and a historian of film), and I loved revisiting my love of Arthur in various guises. I have sung him on stage, played him in roleplaying games and miniature wargames, and I have written articles and books about him in film and history. I hope my list of recommendations provokes you to think about King Arthur in new ways!
There have been too many novels featuring the story of King Arthur to count; this is my favorite. I found it (and the following two books in the series) really captured the idea of who Arthur was, why he was needed, and why he did what he did at the time for me.
It was the first Cornwell novel I read, and he has become my favourite novellist. I think he writes battle scenes better than anyone–he puts you in the middle of the action and makes you feel the visceral nature of combat (especially in his Arthurian and medieval books). If anyone is looking for a place to start with Arthurian fiction but doesn’t know where to begin, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book and series.
Uther, the High King of Britain, has died, leaving the infant Mordred as his only heir. His uncle, the loyal and gifted warlord Arthur, now rules as caretaker for a country which has fallen into chaos - threats emerge from within the British kingdoms while vicious Saxon armies stand ready to invade. As he struggles to unite Britain and hold back the Saxon enemy, Arthur is embroiled in a doomed romance with beautiful Guinevere.
I’m an author, a reader, and a second generation sci-fi geek. For me, space caper novels are the ultimate escape. Both fun and intellectually stimulating, they allow readers to safely explore adventures beyond the constraints of law, morality, and our planet.
If you experience bouts of nostalgia for classic pulp sci-fi, you should read this.
While not all aspects of this 1950s book aged well, I love its style and its protagonist, “Slippery Jim” diGriz, for his ideological stance, which involves zero grand motives. He intentionally chooses the life of crime because he believes it’s public entertainment in an otherwise pristine system, but is ultimately out-conned and forced to catch other criminals for an organisation called Special Corps.
In the vastness of space, the crimes just get bigger and Slippery Jim diGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, is the biggest criminal of them all. He can con humans, aliens and any number of robots time after time. Jim is so slippery that all the inter-galactic cops can do is make him one of their own.
I’m an author, a reader, and a second generation sci-fi geek. For me, space caper novels are the ultimate escape. Both fun and intellectually stimulating, they allow readers to safely explore adventures beyond the constraints of law, morality, and our planet.
A con man with a quantum intellect assembles a team of other bizarre post-humans—including AI and genetically engineered characters—to pull off a heist that could start a galactic-scale war or help these new species find meaning.
I love that the book incorporates pretty complex elements, like quantum mechanics, genetic engineering, and unique societies with plausible far-future world-building, yet the heist story at the heart of it is fun, accessible, and occasionally humorous.
