"Empires of the Sea- The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580" by Roger

[moonshado]

Just finished reading "Empires of the Sea" by Roger Crowley. It covers the battles between the forces of Christianity and Islam in the Mediterranean during the 16th Century, giving the most coverage and page space to the Great Seige of Malta and the Battle of Lepanto. Although the author appears to have used mainly secondary and even tertiary sources for his research it comes across as a knowledgeable book. For anyone who has a good knowledge of this period and theatre of war, I doubt if they will find much new information. What I enjoyed and for which I thoroughly recommend it, was that this is a well constructed book with a logical flow(often missing from many serious history books) and it was as effortless and enjoyable to read as a good novel. I will be picking up his other books(Fall of Constantinople and The history of the rise of the Venetian Republic) in the not too distant future.
For those with ebook readers I would also recommend as a second good read covering the same period-"the Story of the Barbary Corsairs" by Stanley Lane Poole, which can be downloaded off the internet for free. i obtained my copy from manybooks.net

[TheBlackCrane]

I'll second this recommendation, though I read it some years ago - I've just recently finished Crowley's history of the Venetian Republic, which is also very good.

Whilst I'm at it, and because I never miss a chance to say so - Barnaby Rogerson's 'The Last Crusaders' is superlative. Covers a similar period, and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you only ever read one book on the period, read that!

[Captain Blood]

Sounds interesting. When was it written? Is it an old work or a modern study of the subject?

[moonshado]

Was written in 2008.

[Derzhinski]

It's a great story and very well written. I've ready four times, actually and enjoyed each one of them. I would complement it with Niccolo Capponi's Victory of the West, Alessandro Barbero's Lepanto: La battaglia dei tre imperi and for a better comprehension of how and why battles were fought in the Mediterranean, with Guilmartin's Gunpowder and Galleys.

[Franz_Josef]

I fully agree.  Together with Victory of the West, two of the best books I've read on the subject.  I also heartily recommend The Pirate Queen - history of Queen Elizabeth and her naval adventurers (Drake, Frobisher, etc.).  Also a great read (and full of detail regarding the logistics of "privateering" - which was not a 16th century term.)