Books like The Greatest Knight

Speaking of books, I love The Saxon Tales, or as you TV plebs will know it, The Last Kingdom, which is absurdly good. I love the TV show (on Netflix), but the books are next-level.

Uhtred, son of Uhtred, raised by Danes but Saxon by blood fights to regain his blood right and the home that was stolen from him. Cornwell writes the best battle scenes in all of literature, and these books are full of them. I loved them so much that I styled the fighting in my own books after Cornwell’s battle scenes in this series. 

When I first learned the subject of this hot-selling book, the building of a medieval cathedral, my first thought was blah.

I mean, how interesting could the decades-long construction of a massive church be? Boy, was I wrong. Follett makes the story so compelling, personal, and moving; I couldn’t stop reading. I got so invested in the characters and the tale that I wished there were more, even after 1008 pages. Yeah.

Thankfully, Follett wrote four more books in the Cambridge series, and yes, I’ve read them all. There is a reason why Pillars of the Earth is the bestselling historical novel of all time.

The prose of this classic novel can be a little sticky to our 21st-century sensibilities, but in all other ways, Scott is a modern writer, addressing the issues of anti-Semitism and the corruption of the Church at a time when those things weren’t cool. Plus, we have another awesome warrior-hero in Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe and jousting to boot. Who doesn’t love a good tourney? My daughter and I hit the Renaissance Faires every year just to see men pretend to stab each other from horseback with long sticks. The plotting of this book is simply perfection—they just don’t write them like this anymore. It’s a hero’s tale with a big dollop of romance—my favorite.

I read this decades ago, and the emotion has stayed with me.

It was written so many decades ago; it’s a book that feminists would rail against today because Aislinn (the heroine) “belongs” to the hero Wulfgar. Yet as much as we, in the Western world, wouldn’t stand for that today, this was the reality in medieval times when women in England and Europe didn’t have the rights and freedoms enjoyed there today. 

We might even say that there’s a touch of "Stockholm Syndrome" in this book, yet the emotion is so well written, it’s believable that captor and "slave" do fall for each other and that Aislinn will fall hard for this sexy warrior! Having said all that, I’m very pleased I don’t live in those times!

Gillian Bradshaw is one of the best historical fiction writers I know of, and everyone else should know of her too. The Wolf Hunt is based on Bisclavret, one of the Lais of Marie de France, and fairly drips with historical detail (please use a coaster). The fantasy element is the major plot point, but the magic that allows for it is so subtle and low-key that I nearly forgot to classify the book as historical fantasy. This is a grown-up Catherine, Called Birdy in its ability to evoke a medieval mind and setting, minus the humor, plus more romance. And while there's no floor-scrubbing, it has big floor-scrubbing energy.

Cosmic horror and fantasy have shared a close relationship since the times of Robert E. Howard. But historical fantasy and cosmic horror? Now that’s different.

If you are a fan of series such as The Last Kingdom, or enjoy a bit of cosmic horror in the vein of the Cthulhu Mythos, this is for you. Written by Gary Whitta, who also wrote the script for Rogue One. Set during Alfred the Great’s rule, this is a story about a knight that saves his kingdom at great personal cost thanks to the dabbling in dark magic from a deranged monk.

The tension and trepidation grow with every page. And that’s just half the story. Don’t let the body horror distract you, this is at its core a story about family love.

This beautifully illustrated book gently teaches that an act of kindness is always returned ten-fold. While my youngest child may not understand the biggest lesson in this book until he reads it to his own children, he did understand that helping others is always a good deed, and that sometimes we have to delay fulfilling our own wants and put others before ourselves. I read this book to my children over and over again, not only because we loved knights and tales of medieval times, but because the book has so much heart and soul in it, that it begs to be taken off the shelf.

Though this book is historical fiction rather than fantasy, and I generally am a fantasy fan, K. M. Grant does wonders in this book. It takes place in King Richard’s crusades and, though the book spans several years, you never feel rushed or disconnected from the characters. It does not pick sides but rather has characters on both sides who come together, not in war, but in their love for a small blood-red stallion. As a huge history fan and an equestrian, this book combines medieval times and a knowledge of horses with a talent of weaving stories. It is superb! I cannot say enough about it.

The first thing that drew me to Davis’s books was that teen/dragons were the main characters. Throughout the series these teenagers with dragon abilities face many crises in faith as they battle the forces of evil. Another interesting twist is Davis used the story and characters from the King Arthur story. These characters help and hinder the teen in their efforts to save their dragon world and fight evil. The reader watches with bated breath as Billy and Bonnie fight to preserve a secret legacy and discover their place in God’s world of dragons.

No "best of" medieval romance list would be complete without a title by Kathryn Le Veque.

I’ve read and enjoyed many of her medieval titles. One of the best things about this author’s novels is that she writes series, so many of the characters reappear. I enjoy reconnecting with them.

The Wolfe is set in 1231 AD, and the Scottish heroine, Lady Jordan, saves an English knight from certain death. She’s aware that he’s English but is completely unaware that he’s the knight her kinsmen fear the most. Later, they meet again, and the romance develops.

I’ve chosen this title as not only did I enjoy the story, but the writing made me feel as though I was right there in medieval England and Scotland. The characters were also very "real."