Дэвид Гилман — новинки

Главный конфликт Средневековья, Столетняя война… Она определила ход европейской истории. "О ней написана гора книг, но эта ни на что не похожа", – восхищается эксперт международного Общества исторического романа. Соединив лучшее из исторической беллетристики Конан Дойла и современного брутального экшна, Дэвид Гилман фактически создал новый поджанр. Англия, 1346 год. Каменщик Томас Блэкстоун и его брат обречены болтаться в петле. Позарившиеся на угодья соседи оговорили молодых людей, обвинив их в изнасиловании и убийстве. Но им повезло – они сыновья искуснейшего лучника и сами мастерски пускают стрелы. Сейчас королю Эдуарду III и Черному Принцу Уэльскому нужен каждый такой воин, что бы он там ни совершил. Монарх и его наследник выдвигаются в поход на Францию, абсолютно убежденные, что ее трон принадлежит им по праву. Вместе с ними Блэкстоуны начинают войну, которая затянется на век с лишним…

The Hundred Years War still rages on and the French army thirsts for Thomas Blackstone's blood.

Blackstone battles to strengthen Edwards III's claim to the throne and confronts the might of the French army.

But, when his friend turns assassin, Blackstone is faced with an impossible choice: to save the English prince or sacrifice his son. Will he abandon his sworn oath to protect the future King of England? Or will he protect his family at the cost of the nation?

Winter, 1361.

After two decades of conflict, Edward III has finally agreed a treaty with the captive French king, John II.

In return for his freedom, John has ceded vast tracts of territory to the English. But the French monarch has been a hostage too long. For five years mercenary bands and belligerent lords have fought over the carcass of his kingdom. They will not give up their hard-won spoils to honour a defeated king's promises.

If the English want their new lands, they'll have to claim them – by force if necessary.

As he battles to enforce Edward's claim, Thomas Blackstone will see his name blackened, his men slaughtered, his family hunted. He will be betrayed and, once again, he'll face the might of the French army on the field. But this time there will be no English army at his back. He'll face the French alone.

1360. With the English army at the gates of Paris, Blackstone faces his deadliest mission yet in the fourth instalment of the Master of War.

A gripping chronicle of pitched battle, treachery and cruelty' ROBERT FABBRI.

Edward III has invaded France at the head of the greatest host England has ever assembled. But his attempt to win the French crown is futile. The Dauphin will no longer meet the English in the field and the great army is mired in costly sieges, scavenging supplies from a land ruined by decades of conflict.

Facing a stalemate – or worse – the English are forced to agree a treaty. But peace comes at a price. The French request that Blackstone escort their King's daughter to Italy to see her married to one of the two brothers who rule Milan – the same brothers who killed Blackstone's family to revenge the defeats he inflicted on them. Blackstone, the French are certain, will never leave Milan alive...

Ehre ist ein Kodex für bessere Zeiten.
Die Toskana, 1358. Weil Thomas Blackstone gegenüber dem französischen König keine Gnade walten lassen wollte, verbannte ihn König Edward ins Exil. Nun führt Thomas sein Schwert für Florenz: als Söldner, gegen die Visconti von Mailand. Da erreicht ihn die obskure Nachricht eines Boten: Der König von England erwarte ihn, er habe keine Gefahr zu fürchten. Thomas befürchtet eine Falle, aber er macht sich trotzdem auf den Weg zu seinem König – und der führt über die verschneiten Alpen, durch das berüchtigte Tor des Todes. Doch das wahre Grauen erwartet ihn erst dahinter …

Der Gnade voraus geht der Kampf.
Normandie, zu Beginn des Hundertjährigen Krieges. Thomas Blackstone, Ritter der englischen Armee, hält in Nordfrankreich mehrere Städte für seinen König. Wieder und wieder greifen er und seine Männer von dort aus an und fügen den Gefolgsleuten des französischen Königs empfindliche Niederlagen zu. Thomasʼ Ruf erreicht schon bald Paris. König Johann ersinnt einen Plan, um seinen Gegner auszuschalten. Der Mann, den er auf Thomas ansetzt, kennt keine Skrupel: der ebenso schlaue wie grausame Schlächter Gilles de Marcy. Es dauert nicht lange, bis sich das Netz um Thomas Blackstone und seine normannischen Verbündeten zuzieht …

Der Geist des Kriegers lebt in seinen Taten.
England, 1346. Der junge Steinmetz Thomas Blackstone wird vor die Wahl gestellt: Entweder der Tod durch den Strick – für einen Mord, den er nicht begangen hat. Oder er schließt sich der englischen Armee an, für die König Edward dringend weitere Bogenschützen sucht. Die Entscheidung fällt ihm nicht schwer. Doch in der Normandie lernt Thomas die bittere Realität des Krieges kennen. Ritterlichkeit ist ein Kodex für bessere Zeiten. Gnade gibt es nicht – schon gar nicht in der Schlacht von Crécy, dem blutigen Kessel des Hundertjährigen Krieges …

Tuscany, 1358: Thomas Blackstone has built a formidable reputation in exile, fighting as a mercenary amid the ceaseless internecine warring of Italy's City States. Success has bred many enemies, who will seize any opportunity to destroy the man they cannot overcome on the field.

When a dying man delivers a message recalling Blackstone to England, it seems almost certain to be a trap. Yet Blackstone cannot decline - the summons is apparently from the Queen.

Blackstone will brave the terrors of the High Alps in winter, face the Black Prince in Tournament in Windsor, confront the bloody anarchy of a popular revolt in northern France and submit to trial by combat with a man he knows could kill him.

And every step of the way, he will be shadowed by a notorious assassin, a killer who has been instructed to inflict the maximum pain on his target before he despatches him to hell.

Dublin, 1899. On a foul night in a troubled city, lawyer Joseph Radcliffe watches the execution of a young Irish rebel. Radcliffe, together with his black American comrade Benjamin Pierce, has made a living defending the toughest cases in Dublin, but is haunted by the spectre of his defeats, the loss of his wife and child and his difficult relationship with his surviving son, Edward. While Ireland smoulders with rebellion, war breaks out in South Africa and when, after an argument with his father, Edward runs away to join the Irish forces fighting there, Radcliffe, accompanied by Pierce, sets out to find him and bring him home. South…

The Black Prince has launched a devastating raid deep into France, laying waste to everything in his path. In response, the French have mustered an army that outnumbers the English forces 10 to 1 and and are determined to drive their hated foe from the land after years of bloody conquest.

Sir Thomas Blackstone, the British archer knighted on the field of Crecy, has used the intervening years to forge his own war band and has hacked out his own fiefdom in central France. He knows the English are outnumbered, outmanoeuvred and exhausted... but that will not stop him from fighting his way to one of history's greatest military victories.

But the field of battle is not only arena in which Blackstone will have to fight for his life... Although Poitiers was a great victory for the English its aftermath will cost Blackstone dear.

WHEN AN ASSASSIN bursts from the shadows to try to kill him on the dark, windswept grounds of his boarding school in England, Max Gordon realizes his life is about to change forever.

After learning that his explorer father is missing, Max is determined to find him, no matter what dangers may lay in his path. A secret clue his father left behind leads Max to the inhospitable wilderness of Namibia, where he soon discovers a potentially massive ecological disaster masterminded by Shaka Chang, a very powerful and completely ruthless man—a man Max fears may have put his father in mortal danger. Max needs all the help he can get. Because whoever is behind his father’s disappearance is determined to get rid of Max, too. For good.

England, 1346: For Thomas Blackstone the choice is easy - dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or take up his war bow and join the king's invasion of France.
As he fights his way across northern France, Blackstone will learn the brutal lessons of war - from the terror and confusion of his first taste of combat, to the savage realities of siege warfare.
Vastly outnumbered, Edward III's army will finally confront the armoured might of the French nobility on the field of Crécy. It is a battle that will change the history of warfare, a battle that will change the course of Blackstone's life, a battle that is just the first chapter in a book of legend - Blackstone: Master of War.

Kurzbeschreibung
Klick! Eine Pistole wird entsichert. Der fünfzehnjährige Max Gordon kennt dieses Geräusch ganz genau und weiß, dass die Munition in dieser menschenleeren Gegend nur ein Ziel haben kann: ihn. Für Max beginnt eine atemberaubende Flucht, die ihn ins Herz Afrikas führt. Er findet Menschen, die ihm helfen, doch immer wieder werden vermeintliche Freunde zu Feinden und Max weiß bald nicht mehr, wem er trauen kann. Ganz auf sich allein gestellt versucht er, seinen Vater zu befreien, der in der finsteren Festung eines teuflischen Multimillionärs gefangen gehalten wird.