Best War Fiction Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Often the wise way is to seek the need, not the want. Want is often tainted by greed and is often wholly self-centred. Need by contrast is often the wish of the heart or soul for something better, something more whole.”

Life Fear Emotional Weapons Determination Hatred Insight Suspense Emperor War Fiction

Book:The Empress:

Source: The Empress:

“As for the new world war that's waiting in the womb of time, a healthily developed foetus, who can say what will spark it, how destructive it will be? We've already played at this war in film and fiction, indicating that there's a part of us that desperately wants it. What nonsense writers and filmmakers talk when they say that their terrible visions are meant as a warning. [...] It's sheer wish fulfillment. War... is a culture pattern. It's a legitimate mode of cultural transmission....”

War Culture World War War Fiction

Book:1985

Source: 1985

“Spike, rake, sponge, charge, wad, shot, wad – the gun crews worked like automatons. There was something extraordinary in the way that every man performed his motions as a part of the action. Every movement was synchronised with the next. They were a perfect machine – each one a piece of the mechanism, like the wheels of the watch in his pocket. He could think of no other example of men working together with such precision. This was man, industry and science in unison. Was this the way of the future? It was a wondrous and near-perfect thing. But it was a perfection bent on destruction.”

Historical Renaissance Artillery 17th Century Historical Novel Military Fiction Stuart English Civil War War Fiction 1600s

Book:God's Vindictive Wrath

Source: God's Vindictive Wrath

“Only the poor remained, those who had no money and nowhere else to go. Another governor, more merchants and soldiers would come to take the place of those that left. But the poor always stayed. They always stayed put. And they always stayed poor.”

Historical Fiction British History Realistic Fiction Bristol British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction 1600s

Book:The Keys of Hell and Death

Source: The Keys of Hell and Death

“The horse’s hooves crashed out on the stone floor, echoing in the arched entrance. Ahead, the nave stretched, vast, empty, bathed in colour; the winter sun streaming through stained glass between great arches. The horse snorted, its measured steps ringing out on the flagstones and tombs.”

Religion Adventure Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction

Book:Desecration: Winchester 1642

Source: Desecration: Winchester 1642

“The gun stood on its platform, staring out over the breastwork of earth and timber, out across the steep valley to the hill beyond; a flat-topped hill, a great field of wheat laid over it, ripening and shimmering in the late afternoon sun; a cornfield filled with an army, a Cornish army, a superstitious, idolatrous army; an army of half-wild, barbarous heathens; a cornfield and an army to be cut down; a sacrifice to be reaped. 'For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Religion Adventure Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction

Book:The Keys of Hell and Death

Source: The Keys of Hell and Death

“Grenville's line of Cornishmen swayed and lurched, a low growl running through the ranks like a storm far out at sea, the boulders grinding as the waves built. And then it burst, men yelling, shaking their weapons in the air, the pikes clashing, thumping the ground, shouting, demanding, exclaiming, 'Kernow vedn keskerras!' Cornwall will march!”

Adventure Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction Cornwall British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction

Book:The Keys of Hell and Death

Source: The Keys of Hell and Death

“An exciting minute-by-minute story of the English Civil War … from the soldier’s point of view … the historical accuracy is fantastic … the storyline and writing style tremendously exciting.”

Religion Adventure Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction

Author:Historical Novels Review

“Charles Cordell, a former soldier, writes with bravura confidence.”

Religion Adventure Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction British Literature Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction

Author:The Times

“Ralph’s horse shifted under him. It sensed the danger, the fear, the icy sweat that ran down his back. He laid a calming hand on the animal’s thick veined neck. Breda had carried him across the battlefield of Edgehill, got him safe away at Aylesbury, Brentford and Turnham. Could they make it back behind Winchester’s walls? The great charger stepped backward. Along their short line, other horses were backing up, tossing their heads, whinnying. ‘As you were!’ Smith held them in check. ‘On my order. Keep close. Together.’ He looked at them. Looked again at the enemy about them. ‘Now! Ride for the gate!”

Historical Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Stuart Civil War Fiction English Civil War War Fiction 1600s Winchester

Book:Desecration: Winchester 1642

Source: Desecration: Winchester 1642

“But God knew how he missed the sea. He missed it in the sun, in the wind and the dark. He even missed the hiss of rain sweeping across it. He missed the dancing sunlight, its ever-shifting tint and hue, scudding cloud and shadow – dappled, ruffled, heaving, waves ridden by white horses, spume streaked, fierce and shrieking. He missed its limitless, open call, its ungoverned, unchecked freedom, the pull of the horizon, an unknown shore, clarity and unfathomable deep. Most of all he missed the 'mordroz': the sound of the sea, its soothing whisper, its pounding drum, its howling fury. For the sea called to him still; it was in his blood, wanted him back, sucked at his soul, clawing, smothering, dragging him down, a restless lover, a shining temptress that could never be sated.”

Sea Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Realistic Fiction Cornwall British Literature English Civil War War Fiction Cornish

Book:The Keys of Hell and Death

Source: The Keys of Hell and Death

“The Keys of Hell and Death by Charles Cordell - plunges the reader into the very trenches, hedgerows, ridges and streets of the war.”

Historical Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Historical Novel Stuart English Civil War War Fiction 1600s Editorial Review

Author:Miranda Malins

“I have been waiting for this second novel - The Keys of Hell and Death by Charles Cordell - and am not disappointed. Once again he evokes the experience of the Civil War soldier more vividly than ever before.”

Historical Renaissance 17th Century Historical Novel Stuart English Civil War War Fiction 1600s Charles Cordell Divided Kingdom

Author:Ronald Hutton

“Shit on the tyranny of privilege and oppression that enclosed common land.”

Historical Renaissance 17th Century Historical Novel Stuart English Civil War War Fiction 1600s Levellers Pike And Shot

Book:God's Vindictive Wrath

Source: God's Vindictive Wrath

“As one, they yelled the name of a princess butchered, a child locked in a barren convent, the last drifting snow of Glyndŵr. ‘Gwenllian!”

Historical Renaissance Wales 17th Century Historical Novel Stuart English Civil War War Fiction 1600s Pike And Shot

Book:God's Vindictive Wrath

Source: God's Vindictive Wrath

“An exciting minute-by-minute story of the English Civil War … from the soldier’s point of view … the historical accuracy is fantastic … the storyline and writing style tremendously exciting." - God's Vindictive Wrath by Charles Cordell”

Historical Historical Fiction Renaissance 17th Century Review Military Fiction Stuart War Fiction 1600s Editorial Review

Author:Historical Novel Society

“THE FIGHTING IN THE PEACH ORCHARD AT GETTYSBURG PROLOGUE "The same young men who crowded each other as they faced the recruiters' tables now crowded each other as they died.”

Civil War Historical Fiction War Fiction

Book:The Sharpshooter 1862-1864

Source: The Sharpshooter 1862-1864

“JAKE BAKER JOINING THE UNION ARMY IN NEW ORLEANS "I'd prefer to be back in Texas, taking aim at the Rebs..., but I just can't do that," said Jake. ..."So, I'll just do what I can do, I guess." "I suspect that goes for all of us," said the Colonel. "Maybe we should make that the unit's motto. 'The First Texas Cavalry of the United States of America: We'll just do what we can do, we guess.' It does have a ring to it, but I expect that we need somethin' a bit more inspirational and less true.”

Civil War Historical Fiction War Fiction

Book:The Sharpshooter 1862-1864

Source: The Sharpshooter 1862-1864