h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I always thought `the mists of avalon´, was the dogs bollocks, but the Cornwell trilogy utterly shits over that nancy cobblers. Any suggestions/recomentations on a good read?

Try Stephen Lawhead. Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, Grail and Avalon.
See http://www.stephenlawhead.com
Not a bad fist for an American.
Other prefered authors are:-
Mary Stewart, Raymond Feist, Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Eddings, Janny Wurts, Mercedes Lackey, Robin Hobbs et al.
I have read all of the books of the above, and am now starting Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Seeing Stone, although really a children's book.

Hope that has given you a bit of a taster.

By all means drop by for a chat about any of the above.

Thanks for the reading material.

What are your thoughts on the books I mentioned?

Zimmer-Bradley's was a nice perspective from the women's point of view, with just the right amount of magic. She expressed reasonable amount of realism and was well researched. I was young and impressionable at the time I read it, and now am probably a little too cynical to stomach it. Not bad for a yank though.

Cornwell's, on the otherhand, was a barn-storming, rip- snorting, rollercoast ride through the dark ages. One could smell the smoke from the fires, the blood of the battlefield, and the stench of unwashed bodies. Perhaps it's because he's a historical novelist? I've never read any of his stuff before.

Yours, franky.

hi Frank,
As my space will indicate, I am an avid Arthur fan, which is why my list is fairly comprehensive (I could have added more, especially non-fiction, like Wace and Morris)
I have read the trilogy of Z-B's and found it interesting from Guinevere's perspective. My first intro to Arthur was through 'The Hollow Hills' by Mary Stewart, and followed on from there.
In order of merit it is MW, SL, BC, MZ-B, and then general scifan and Celtic Mythology. Even LOTR fits in somewhere.