Historical Novels

Has anyone read any Historical Novels that are set in the same time & space as the Total War games?

A few months ago I read the Grail Quest Trilogy by Bernard Cornwell (Harlequin, Vagabond and Heretic). The Trilogy follows the advetures of an English Longbowman named Thomas of Hookton. Cornwell is an excellent author and he spends a lot of time getting historical facts right. Would that he'd written the screenplays for movies like Braveheart and King Arthur. For anyone who hasn't read these books but enjoys Medieval, I really reccommend them. Creative Assembly puts a lot of effort into giving 'colour' to the Total War games and the Grail Quest complements the game well.

I also started reading the Emperor trilogy by Conn Iggulden, before I even knew Rome: Total War existed. Afterwards, the two books of the Emperor Trilogy have just whetted my appetite for the game. The third book isn't out yet, but the first two cover the early life of Gaius Julius Ceasar and Marcus Brutus. Iggulden makes use of 'artistic license' and portrays Marius as a 'good guy' and Sulla as a 'bad guy'. Still, though, anyone getting impatient for the release of Rome should read those.

I went to the bookshop recently looking for the third of the Emperor Trilogy and it wasn't out yet, so I got Boudica by Manda Scott instead. It has paragraphs about Boudica 'battle mounting' her horse. I've given it the benefit of the doubt, but if she rides against the romans on the back of a horse and not on a chariot, I'm putting the book down.