Froggy needs some new fiction, and the poor amphibian has already filled her shelves (and all other handy spaces) with all the definitely good and promising books, and is now left only with a list of titles which could be good … maybe. Has anyone read any of these? If so are they any good? All prices etc are from amazon.uk; my local bookshop is useless.

Housecarl - Laurence J. Brown (Nastily expensive at £12 and hard to get, but sounds good)

Cold Heart, Cruel Hand: A novel of Hereward the Wake - Laurence J Brown. (Sequel to previous book, same issues)

Eagle in the Snow: General Maximus and Rome's Last Stand - Wallace Breem (A very expensive paperback at £7)

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen) - Steven Erikson (Supposed to be comparable to the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series, and has many rave reviews. Call me sceptical froggy)

The Black Company - Glen Cook (Again supposed to be comparable to the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series, and has many rave reviews.)

Children of the Earth - Jean M. Auel (a five book series, supposed to be really good but the individual books are expensive at £6.39)

Gods and legions/The ten thousand/Gods and Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire/The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy - Michael Curtis Ford (sounds good, but the comparisons to awful books like ‘Gates of Fire’ and ‘Spartan’ have me concerned)

Legion - William Altimari (sounds good … maybe, but is short and expensive)



Recommendations would be appreciated too; I mainly prefer historical fiction (medieval or Roman, but I can and will branch out so long as it goes no later than 1600AD) of any type. I can tolerate some kinds of fantasy; those without too much magic, elves, trolls and other Tolkeinesque stuff. Strictly no romance please! I can just about tolerate Phillipa Gregory, and that takes a lot of effort combined with the warm glow which comes from getting her books at half price or less.

Quick rundown of some of authors I have on my fiction shelves in no sort of order: Robin Hobb, George R R Martin, Sharon Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick, Helen Hollick, Terry Pratchett, Brain Wainwright (his ‘Within the Fetterlock’), James Clavell (but only ‘Shogun’; the others have boring sounding settings), Ellis Peters, Simon Scarrow (but I find his first book the best and have not bothered with the latest), Lindsay Davis, Colleen McCullough (her ‘Masters of Rome’ is great, her ‘Song of Troy’ terrible), Eiji Yoshikawa (English translations of ‘Mushashi’ and ‘Taiko’), Phillippa Gregory, John Maddox Roberts.