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Average Customer Rating:

A gripping story

Customer Rating:

Though this is history it reads like a novel, taking you through the events on a thread drawn through the ambitions of Suleiman the Magnificent and Charles of Spain. The doughty Crusader knights, Christian analogues of today's jihadists, pillage innocent trade, kill and enslave quiet pilgrims. They are encouraged by the Pope and weakly supported by the Crowned Heads of Europe. Barbarossa, the north african Corsair does the same with even greater cruelty to Christian shipping. The Sultan arms and encourages him and exploits his skills. War is mostly fought by proxy and coastal civilians lead a perilous life, half way between vineyard and a galley slave's bench where their life is on a short chain.

Great story

Customer Rating:

Crowley does an extraordinary job putting together three extraordinary stories that marked the 16th Century in the Mediterranean: The siege of Rhodes, the siege of Malta, and the Battle of Lepanto. These stories, especially that of the siege of Malta, makes the book read like a novel, most enthralling and nail biting. Although Crowley has written a very accurate and detailed account of these clashes between the Christian and Muslim worlds, one gets the impression, that he tends to minimize the role of Christian leaders, their armies and the importance of their victories, and maximizes that of the Ottoman side. For example, he doesn't give much importance to the conquest of Tunis by Emperor Charles V, while he gets to the detail with other minor Turkish exploits. The author is notably pro Turkish throughout most of the book, presenting the Christians as more religious fanatics than the Muslims, when probably both were exactly the same. The fact that Crowley lived for a long period of his life in Istanbul may explain this and that he recreates himself longer when detailing the fascinating ottoman world. This is perfectly clear, when at the end of the book he goes through the list of mausoleums and great internments of all the ottoman main characters, while he ignores the final resting place of the Christian kings and admirals. However, the book is fully recommendable, and anybody interesting in this period of history, and in the last of the crusades, will surely enjoy it.

Superbly well written

Customer Rating:

This is the best history book I have read in a very long time. It tells the story of a 60 years old battle fought in the Mediterraneum by the Ottoman Turks against the Christian nations in southern Europe. It is very hard to put down and the narrative is very engaging. The maps , pictures and drawings are excellent , a rarity in this type of books. although there are some minor issues with some historical aspects ( the muslims lived peacefully in Spain for 800 years ) the book is a very compelling read. More please

Gripping tales

Customer Rating:

An edge-of-the-seat gripping account of the long conflict between the Ottoman empire and the Christian Mediterranean powers in the fifteen hundreds. Crowley has also some original research, relying on not only the Christian writers of the time, but also Turkish sources that have usually been overlooked by previous historians. The characters are impressive, the acts of courage and desperation on both sides are astounding, and Crowley tells it masterfully, eking every last ounce of suspense out of what for any writer would be a stirring tale. Crowley covers the standard military, diplomatic and political history in an even-handed way, and describes the brilliant Renaissance innovation each side progressively introduced to try to gain an advantage, including flamethrowers, spiral flues to protect walls from subterranean bomb blasts, frogmen fighting underwater with daggers, and top-secret new ship designs. He also sensitively brings out the human courage, cruelty, and sacrifice involved. History is rarely this well told.

Truth is stranger than fiction

Customer Rating:

If this was a work of fiction you would have a hard time suspending disbelief to enjoy the amazing cast of characters, the strange alliances,the actions and inactions that decorate the plot. You would also be dismayed at the contrived outcome of the Siege of Malta. BUT This is an amazing true story told using a page - turning cracking narrative. I regret that I have only read half of the book but am glad I have half left to read. Read this book and get swept away on the raging tide of history.