Martin J. Dougherty

I have read a lot of books in this genre (shorts 100 about battles, guns, tanks, uniforms, aircrafts and so on) and while some were bad and most were goodish, this is clearly the jewel of its kind. First, it is not dumbed down for dummies, as I see the nowadays trend grows - so it dares to lose some potential readers (the mentioned dummies) but manages to not annoy the regulars. Second, though using only 2 pages for a battle, it still manages to convey plenty of data, and, most crucial, the really significant facts, supported with maps, general and tactical, well-selected pictures and snippet-descriptions and illustrations of relevant units, weapons or generals. Therefore, the whole image is way bigger than just the article itself. Even further, every battle has an excellent ”Battle Facts” abstract (who, what, where, when, why, outcome) - which in a few lines summarizes and irons into the readers memory the essence of the battle.… (mere)

The Wars of the Roses by Martin J Dougherty is an informative overview of this tumultuous and pivotal period.

This is not, nor do I think it intended to be, an exhaustive history of the period. There are many excellent books on the details and the rationales behind the various machinations. What this book offers, and where it succeeds, is an outline of what happened fleshed out with general explanations of reasons as well as some general background to the culture and norms of the time. If you thought a book just over 200 pages was going to go into detail about every nuance, every player in the many conflicts that took place over about a thirty plus year span, well, I don't know what to say. That expectation is unreasonable and I think, based on the complaints I saw, disingenuous. Even the family trees are accurate, can't help some don't know how to read when a person is made a ward of a person and thus, while not blood, is indeed a branch spliced onto that tree. So much for "untrained" librarians.

While the bibliography is not extensive, anyone wanting to know more can certainly start with what is there and, armed with the information in the book, find plenty of academic works that delve more deeply into whatever aspect interests them. As for the GOT connection, if that is the main reason for reading or your only point of comparison, well, remember, this was just one of Martin's influences for the works, no one is trying to "usurp" anything. Take a pill of chill.

I would recommend this to readers who have little to no knowledge of the period, which includes those with only a GOT connection. Those who studied this in school will probably enjoy the recap but likely won't learn a whole lot new. It is, however, an accessible and pleasant read so worth the time.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)

The Arthurian legend has fascinated me since I was a kid, and I’ve read many of the modern versions of the story. So,when I saw King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was available, I was drawn to a book that examines the history behind the legend.

The book is a well written evaluation of the King Arthur story, and reviews the most likely probability that Arthur never existed, and the reasons why. The author also extensively (sometimes in too much detail) summarizes many of the Arthurian epics written in the Middle Ages, and briefly touches upon the modern books, films and TV series that tell Arthur’s story..

Recommended for those who are interested in the story behind King Arthur legend.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.… (mere)