The Last Crusaders: The Great Siege (Clash of Empires Book 1)

Read this book in 2011, and its the first of the 2 part "Clash of Empires" by the author, William Napier.This tale is set in the years AD 1564-1565, before and during the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottoman Empire.Residing on Malta are about 500 Knights, driven from the Holy Land by the Ottomans and seeking refuge here, accompanied with a few thousand local soldiers.On its way to Malta is the Ottoman Empire with 30,000 men, to besiege the Island and annihilate the Crusaders, once and for all.On this Island of rock an epic struggle will be played out between the defenders of Malta and Christianity against the Ottoman Empire, a massive and deadly struggle between men of various standings.What is to follow is a massive Clash of Empires, where two worlds collide, and only one will survive and Christianity will remain what it was and what it remains to be, and for the other a huge defeat in their conquering the world and turn that world into a huge Muslim state.Highly recommended, for this is a wonderful retelling of the Siege of Malta, and that's why I like to call this massive book: "A Brilliant Siege of Malta"!

I received this book (hardcover version) very shortly after it was published, read it, mostly enjoyed it, but then failed to write a review, mainly because I had been rather disapointed. I decided to do so largely because I simply cannot agree with the statement made by some reviewers that Napier is "back to his best". The best was the first in his Attila's series, which, as many others, I have also read. It very much remains so. This book, while exciting, does not compare well with it, simply because it is let down and spoilt by its main character and with the author's excessive attempts to portray a boy as a "super-hero".The "hero" is a totally implausible 16-year old, whose heroïc actions during the siege, after a few days training on board a ship on its way from England to Rhodes, are such as to almost overshadow the real deeds of the Knights, infantry and town militia. At times, I had the impression of reading an adventure story for teenagers. Since this was not what I was expecting, I got rather annoyed. As for the (historical) death of Dragut, possibly the most capable Ottoman commander during the siege, our hero had, of course, historically nothing to do with it.This is a pity because these flaws tend to distract from some much better pieces and this is why I would rate the book three stars, despite having been so critical). One is the depiction of La Valette, which fitted to the image I had of him, from his surrender at Rhodes, where he was one of the Order's young Knights, to his role in the defense of Malta. This ageing and fanatical warrior (or a few others) would have made a much more plausible (if less "sexy") hero, especially since the siege was essentially the fight that he has been preparing himself for during most of his life, in fact ever since the Order had to leave Rhodes. Another piece which would have been of interest, instead of only focusing (once again) on the siege, would have been to write the story of what happened to the Order specifically, and in the Mediterranean, more generally, between the fall of Rhodes (1522) and the siege of Malta over 40 years latter (1565). Something like a romanced version of Roger Crowley's Empires of the Sea build around La Valette would, in my mind, have been much better...

Shame this epic novel of extraordinary courage and heroism lost its credibility through the unnecessary presence of a "superboy". Highly unlikely that a 16 year old boy becomes a savage killer of men and singlehandedly kills half the besieging Ottoman battle hardened troops. I can understand the author needing to have a fictional character to link up with the historical authentic characters present at the siege, but to have Nicholas involved in every single phase of the great siege, killing countless enemy soldiers and saving numerous lives, this after receiving a mere few days sword training during the voyage to Malta, seems farfetched to say the least. I still gave this book four stars because of the fast pace, great action and thrills. Although the latter part of the book describing the siege of St Angelo, seemed hurried and rushed. Just a shame the author chose to portray this "boy" as a superhuman heroe providing him with far too much focus and attention whilst other great characters remained in the background and were not fully developed. I hope that now Nicholas will go on to have more adventures as he matures telling the story of his revenge on the people who caused the death of his father back in England.

I read my favourite ever book about 2 years ago. It was The Religion by Tim Willocks. This book shares the same subject matter. The siege of Malta. The Religion was a darker, grittier and more viseral experience with poetic writing.Although this is pretty dark and gory its almost "The Religion Lite" not least because its about a 1/3 the length. The Siege of Malta has it all a massive army of "bad guys" against a plucky hugely outnumbered defence (think Zulu on a bigger scale) so its great for authors to turn their hand to and this is a very good offering. Its encouraged me to buy Mr Napiers others so I'll see how I get on with them. To those that are amazed at the super hero qualities of the main protagonist, how else can you show the true scale of the events without having a character everywhere?Give this a go if military historical fiction is your thing. If literature is your passion though read Tim Willocks first.