Reddit reviews The Iron King (The Accursed Kings, Book 1)
We found 11 Reddit comments about The Iron King (The Accursed Kings, Book 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Harper
Prolific writers are also ravenous readers. So if you want to be like the greats: It helps having a source of inspiration. Tolkien was inspired by Norse mythology primarily, and George R R Martin was inspired by the Heptarchy period of English history and Maurice Druon's Accursed Kings series on the French nobility. Both borrowed liberally from history and the Classics.
They took the ideas of their inspiration and made them their own. Whenever they got writer's block they could return to their source material and find new insights into their own works.
So if you're not sure where to start: Look to those writers that inspire you, take their ideas and expand on them in your own meaningful way.
As George R R Martin has said, "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
GRRM hismelf said on his blog: "Look, if you love A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and want "something like it" to read while you are waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for me to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, you really need to check out Maurice Druon and THE ACCURSED KINGS".
https://www.amazon.com/Iron-King-Accursed-Kings-Book/dp/0007491263
The Accursed King series by Maurice Dixon.
George RR Martin says this was one of his largest inspirations for A Song of Ice and Fire.
That being said, this series is not fantasy. It's historical fiction. But ASOIAF does often read like historical fiction with some dragons and zombies thrown in.
The Accursed Kings is a set of french novels about the French Royals, which Martin accredits as the inspiration for Thrones.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-King-Accursed-Kings-Book/dp/0007491263
The Accursed Kings series is amazing imo.
The Accursed Kings series from Maurice Druont are the main inspiration for ASOIAF. And it's a great series.
As an Englishman I'm actually rather interested in American history, mainly in the greater context of the conflicts with France happening at the time. If you enjoy GRRM's series I would recommend you read either some narrative histories or some historical fiction.
The Plantagenets by Dan Jones is extremely good as a cursory introduction to the beginnings of the English monarchy. It starts with the anarchy and makes it's way up to the fall of Richard II to the Lords Appellant and Henry IV that was so fantastically dramatised in Shakespeares play of the same name.
Dan Jones also wrote some terrific narrative history on the Wars of the Roses. He's a young historian, more focused on the narrative than the analysis but his bibliography is impressive enough.
For historical fiction, look no further than The Accursed Kings
It's a terrific look at the end of the Capetian dynasty and the set up for the Hundred Years War, where Edward III claimed to be the successor to the Capetians by English inhetitance laws and the French claimed he was not due to their new found love of Salic inheritance law. This was truly the war that forged the nation states of France and England and set them apart from each other.
Give it a read, although I'm not sure whether the last couple have been translated yet.
The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon. One of the inspirations for ASOIAF. Martin even wrote the forward to an English edition of the series.
>Over the years, more than one reviewer has described my fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, as historical fiction about history that never happened, flavoured with a dash of sorcery and spiced with dragons. I take that as a compliment. I have always regarded historical fiction and fantasy as sisters under the skin, two genres separated at birth. My own series draws on both traditions … and while I undoubtedly drew much of my inspiration from Tolkien, Vance, Howard, and the other fantasists who came before me, A Game of Thrones and its sequels were also influenced by the works of great historical novelists like Thomas B. Costain, Mika Waltari, Howard Pyle … and Maurice Druon, the amazing French writer who gave us the The Accursed Kings, seven splendid novels that chronicle the downfall of the Capetian kings and the beginnings of the Hundred Years War.
>Druon’s novels have not been easy to find, especially in English translation (and the seventh and final volume was never translated into English at all). The series has twice been made into a television series in France, and both versions are available on DVD … but only in French, undubbed, and without English subtitles. Very frustrating for English-speaking Druon fans like me.
>The Accursed Kings has it all. Iron kings and strangled queens, battles and betrayals, lies and lust, deception, family rivalries, the curse of the Templars, babies switched at birth, she-wolves, sin, and swords, the doom of a great dynasty … and all of it (well, most of it) straight from the pages of history. And believe me, the Starks and the Lannisters have nothing on the Capets and Plantagenets.
>Whether you’re a history buff or a fantasy fan, Druon’s epic will keep you turning pages. This was the original game of thrones. If you like A Song of Ice and Fire, you will love The Accursed Kings.
>George R.R. Martin
You might be intrested in the The Accursed Kings Series. Its about the french royal familly in the high middle ages. It starts out around the time when the king goes after the templars. Its a lot of politcs and familly matters. It his really close to what actually happens, I always like that.
This one is the first: http://www.amazon.com/Iron-King-Accursed-Kings-Book/dp/0007491263
I remembered and solved it myself! The Iron King by Maurice Druon. Also wrong war, it was the Hundred Years War. It was actually the responses that helped me realize it was the wrong war. Thank you!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0007491263/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_o1jIDbFMSC95Y
The Iron King by Maurice Druon is quite good so far; I'm about half way through. The ebook is currently on sale for $1.99. George RR Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire (more popularly know as Game of Thrones) recommended it for historical fantasy fans. Here's the amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Iron-King-Accursed-Kings-Book/dp/0007491263/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371230196&sr=1-2&keywords=the+iron+king