When you think about the Middle Ages, what do you picture? Knights in shining armor? Castles and kings and queens and serfs? I'd be lying if I said that isn't the very first thing I think of, myself. And to an extent, that is part of it. But the Middle Ages are so much richer and more complex than that. It is also mainly Western ethnocentrism that makes us automatically assume the knights and castles in the first place. There was a whole globe that existed at the same time, experiencing its own stories and pain and joy, not all of which had a thing to do with knights and damsels and the rest. Also, there are a shit ton of authors of medieval fiction who aren't, like, Bernard Cornwell. I fucking love his books, y'all, but you won't find him listed here because I want to give other, less well known authors a chance to play in the sandbox. From BookRiot