“Nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell—action set six hundred years ago is as fresh and vital as six days ago, with rough, tough men at war, proving once again that nothing changes... least of all great storytelling.” - Lee Child
“In The Fort, Bernard Cornwell, author of some 45 scrupulously researched and well-received fictional accounts of battles Arthurian and Napoleonic, takes a little-known event-but in a place that many readers know-and gives it the same on-the-ground treatment, backed up by a detailed historical note. As always in Cornwell’s military epics, there are nice human touches.” - Michael Kenney, Boston Globe
“Bernard Cornwell doesn’t know how to be dull. . . . He holds his audience with a seemingly effortless command of historical detail that’s actually the product of painstaking research.” - Lee Randall, The Scotsman
“Cornwell captures the men’s characters and dramatizes the whole thing perfectly.” - Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph (London)
“An outstanding effort by a master of the genre.” - Curtis Edmonds, Bookreporter.com
“Historical novels stand or fall on detail, and Mr. Cornwell writes as if he has been to ninth-century Wessex and back.” - Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal
“Cornwell’s historical accuracy is excellent.” - Diana Gabaldon, Washington Post
“Cornwell turns his key historical eye on the Penobscot Expedition. . . . Illuminating the battle from all angles and telling the story from both sides, Cornwell once again offers a fresh perspective on a stirring episode in martial history.” - Margaret Flanagan, Booklist
“Is a rousing yarn of clashing personalities, crashing cannons, and lively musket and bayonet work, along with spies, cowardice, and moments of incredible bravery. Cornwell presents a fascinating, accurate, and exciting history lesson enlivened with a generous blast of gun smoke and grapeshot.” - Publishers Weekly
“A readable and thoroughly researched.” - Library Journal
“Cornwell at his best is a fine storyteller with a flair for describing battles and individual combat in a way that’s exciting and easy to follow. He weaves the fictional and the factual together so you can hardly tell where the novel stops and the history lesson begins. In The Fort, he has stuck closely to the events and characters history dealt him, and the result is one of his most successful books. . . . The novel is both an exciting account of a mostly forgotten event and a thoughtful exploration of the absurdity and futility of war. . . . This book succeeds as both fiction and history.” - Steve Drummond, NPR