I’d suggest The Black Company or The Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Aha! I was getting more and more surprised that no one had suggested the Black Company series, but I’m very happy to see that you filled that gap. 
The Black Company is a mercenary company that has been around for years (centuries, arguably) and are very, very good at what they do. At the start of the first book they’re holed up in a city under revolt, working for the bad guy, and slowly you get to see things unfold. Over the course of the series (nine main books, one spin-off) there’s a lot of evolution and rediscovering of the Company’s original origins. There’s magic, but I think it’s worked into the setting very well and makes a great deal of sense in the way that it’s presented.
Very well written, dark and gritty and a real page-turner.
I know a lot (probably most) of Dopers hate Newt Gingrich like the Devil hates holy water, but he, coauthering with William Forstchen, have written several historical “alternate history” novels that are beautifully done and real page turners. Two of them, about the Pacific War with Japan, are “Pearl Harbor” and “Days of Infamy”. Another about the Civil War is “Gettysburg”.
I hadn’t realized the Newt is a pretty fair historian. If you can put away your standard impression fo him I think most of you would really enjoy these books.
Due to a lack of titles carried at my local library (I could look into interlibrary loans and stuff but wanted a book today), I was only able to grab the first of the Emberverse books by S.M. Stirling. They have more in the series but I wanted to get more than one author. Some other titles in here look promising though so I’m keeping this bookmarked for continued reference.
:smack:
+eleventy skillion on the Recommed-O-Meter.
It’s currently my “Whatcha (Re)Reading?” I’m about halfway through She Is The Darkness. I like how Cook reinvigorates the telling with different viewpoints (Murgen is now Annalist) while maintaining the overall tone throughout the series, as well as still keeping old, beloved, characters around.
I *still *want to know which sister Soulcatcher is.
And don’t forget his Dread Empire series and (separately) The Dragon Never Sleeps and Passage at Arms.
The Black Company ones sound really interesting. If I can’t find them via the library, I may very well take a chance and shell out for them.
I introduced some friends to Glen Cook’s writing back in the early 90s, when for some reason his work was hard to find.
For months afterward, every time I saw them, they chanted “We hate you,” at me because they wanted more of his books and were having a hard time finding him.
Moral: It’s well worth the investment. 
Tim Powers’ “Drawing of the Dark” has a central character who has been working as a mercenary in the wars between the West and the East in the 1500s. He was one of the few survivors of the battle of Mohacs and is recruited to help defend the city of Vienna from an attack by the Turks, after going there for a job as a bouncer in a brewery, he winds up in a mercenary band that is defending the city. There are strong supernatural elements, but its not the standard stuff at all. And Powers is a stickler of historical accuracy, he paints a vivid picture of how battles were actually conducted in those days (bombards and arquebuses play a role along with cavalry charges and the like). A VERY good read.
You forgot to mention that a key element of the story is the fact that beer plays a key element in the continuance of Western civilization. More than in the obvious sense, anyway. 
The first three books are available on Amazon for about $11, as “Chronicles of the Black Company.” I’m amused by the review quote on the site:
“Reading [the Black Company] was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote.” – Stephen Erickson.
Not too far off.
Alfred Duggan is excellent.
I strongly recommend two others by him:
-
Concience of the King is perhaps his best book - it is set up as the autobiography of the first Saxon king. (The tile is pretty ironic … )
-
The King of Athelney is about Alfred the Great.
On that topic, an excellent series that is still ongiong is Bernard Cornwell’s “Saxon Series” starting with The Last Kingdom.
Tom Holt’s The Walled Orchard (which is a sequel to Goatsong, but I think both are packaged in one volume under the former name now) has a long sequence detailing the Athenian expedition to Syracuse, which is one of those events that is so bizarre that only historical fiction writers can get away with it because no one would believe it in any other genre.
I saw an “anthology” collection at Borders of the Books of the North (the first three novels) and a second release with the first two or three Books of the South. These are large-ish books, not paperback (think 8 1/2 x 11 sized).
The Silver Spike is a stand-alone book that essentially relates what happened to The White Rose and Co. after the Battle of the Barrowland at the end of the third Black Company book. Well worth picking up as it ties up what happens to several major characters who split off from The Black Company.
I know this thread is kind of old, but new book recommendations are always good!
I think you might check out some of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s books. See if you don’t like his Corean Chronicles? It has probably more magic than you’re looking for (his other series, more so) but aside from Moon I’ve liked his military-based stories over other authors.