Books to read while playing crusader Kings 2

[Aristillius]

I got CK2 a few months back, and I paused playing for a while, but then during the holidays i bought Pillars of the earth by Ken Follet (pocket-book funzies are great at the beach ).

The book is basically about a prior building a cathedral in England, with lots of intrigue including kings, rebellions, earls, plots and so on. Anyway, reading the book really got me thinking about CK2, and I started playing again as William the Conqueror in 1066. It's a game I guess I'll keep coming back to like EU3. Does anyone else link popular (medieval) books or perhaps tv-shows to CK2? Yes, A song of ice and fire is obvious, but anything else?

I get deeply emerged in books and games so that is probably why I link them up, like "ah, he should have had a better spymaster", "why did't he send an assasin against that horrible earl" and so on Essentally looking for kindred spirits here!

[paperfire]

Perhaps the Borgias?

[Bialaska]

I keep thinking how there should be some dlc so you could play popes, bishops and so on each time I watch the Borgias.

[raziot]

When it comes to books the ones that I immediately associate with the crusades (and always recommend) is the trilogy about Arn Magnusson written by the Swedish author Jan Guillou.
1. The Road to Jerusalem (Swedish: Vägen till Jerusalem)
2. The Knight Templar (Swedish: Tempelriddaren)
3. The Kingdom at the End of the Road (Swedish: Riket vid vägens slut)
and the follow-up novel, The Heritage of Arn (Swedish: Arvet efter Arn)

[Aristillius]

Yeah, Jan Gulliou is great, read those a few years ago, should probably read it again (like your sig raziot). I have only barely heard about the borgias, should probably check that out too.

[Effixel]

I once read a 600 pages book on the 100 years war. It was really interesting as the writer was a specialist in medieval economy and therefore was able to explain the economic situation of Europe at that time and how it influenced the course of the events (and how it actually started the war more than the succession crisis itself).
I am now looking for another book on the 100 years war, but this time seen from the English side (I'm french, so I know only the french side...) Any suggestion?

[Aristillius]

The only book I can think of at the top of my head is the pop-historical Azincourt. What was the name of the book you read?

[Tokie]

A Song of Ice and Fire and play the Game of Throne mods!

[Sebbedan]

There is a second book by Follet that continues the story of Kingsbridge 150 years after the first book.
Did you read that too?
Otherwise I recommend the author Conn Iggulden if you're interested in wellwritten books about Genghis Khan and Caesar. Alot of facts/pretty good descriptions of history but also some fictional events and character changes.
''Brotherhood'' by Robyn Young was quite good, but I've only read the first book so far.

[sharkeyanti]

Baudolino by Umberto Eco. It's not straight-up historical fiction, but it offers these great fictionalized accounts of things that happened during Frederick Barabarossa's reign. If you play CK2+, many events and happenings will seem familiar. It's on a fairly large-scale as well, so you'll get a nice general outlook on many things ~1180. Beyond that, it's also a very good book that's worth reading regardless.

[Dovahkiing]

There is a second book by Follet that continues the story of Kingsbridge 150 years after the first book.
Did you read that too?

It's called World Without End (wish it was Book Without End) and it's awesome, indeed I was thinking of CK2 while reading that and Pillars of the Earth (which is also a TV miniseries + they're working on a World Without End miniseries too)

[Veldmaarschalk]

Good fictional books set in the Middle Ages are the books written by Robyn Young , the Brethren-series is about the Knights Templars and the Insurrection-series is about the Scottish war of independence.

I once read a 600 pages book on the 100 years war. It was really interesting as the writer was a specialist in medieval economy and therefore was able to explain the economic situation of Europe at that time and how it influenced the course of the events (and how it actually started the war more than the succession crisis itself).
I am now looking for another book on the 100 years war, but this time seen from the English side (I'm french, so I know only the french side...) Any suggestion?

Try the 3 books (so far) by Jonathan Sumption about the 100 years war. They are a bit hard to get into but they are also very detailistic.

[sir Eyeball]

I am amazed that Sir Walter Scott has not come up so I will mention both "Ivanhoe" and a Small novel called Talisman. There is probably more by him as well.
B.S. Ingemann a Danish author has written quite a collection on Danish history as well that is really good I am not sure if they have been translated though.
For the Muslim world the old collection "An unexpurgated selection of tales from the Arabian nights" should add some flavour as well as the old 1001 and tales.

[Raczynski]

The Accursed Kings (Maurice Druon)
A Distant Mirror (Barbara Tuchman)

[Hootieleece]

It's a history book but God's War:a new history of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman.

It gives a fairly balanced view of the topic and is rather recent.(2006)

[Thiril]

Install the Game of Thrones Mod and read the 'A song of Ice and Fire' series.

You want political intrigue? you want assassinations? back-stabbing and all open war? the place to be

Shame on thee anyway if you havn't read those books (even though I doubt there are many on this forum who havn't read it)

[CB60]

Any of the fine books by Runciman. I highly recommend the one on the Sicilian Vespers. Just read 'Eleanor of Acquitaine' by Marion Meade - very good. Angevins are so crazy! I want to read Karen Armstrong's book on the Crusades. Then there's 'Crusades through Arab Eyes' - can't remember the author, it was a while ago. I live near an academic bookstore, so I want to hunt up a good history or Norman Sicily. Many thanks to the poster who first put this up:
http://normancenturies.com/

Just noticed there's a Muslim history thread below

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...deival-History

[Lamprey]

Read the hammer & the cross series by Harry Harrison:

1. The Hammer and the Cross
2. One King's Way
3. King and Emperor

It's alternate history, happening about 100 years prior to the game's start. The plot is: what if the various petty kingdoms in England & Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) were all united under the Norse religion, forming a counterweight to the HRE?

[HeathH]

From a more fictional point of view, I've greatly enjoyed Michael Jecks' books about Devon and England in the early 1300s. His "Knights Templar" mysteries are crime novels, but set against English history of the period. And they feature an ex-Knight Templar who was at the siege of Acre. http://www.michaeljecks.co.uk/

I just got Lost to the West, but haven't started reading it. My knowledge of Western Europe is decent, but my knowledge of the ERE is very hazy. http://www.losttothewest.com/

[CB60]

From a more fictional point of view, I've greatly enjoyed Michael Jecks' books about Devon and England in the early 1300s. His "Knights Templar" mysteries are crime novels, but set against English history of the period. And they feature an ex-Knight Templar who was at the siege of Acre. http://www.michaeljecks.co.uk/

I just got Lost to the West, but haven't started reading it. My knowledge of Western Europe is decent, but my knowledge of the ERE is very hazy. http://www.losttothewest.com/

Yeah, that looks good. I remember reading an academic work about an earlier period of Byzantine history; it's amazing how much medieval history is guesswork based on limited textual resources augmented by archaeology.