Historical fiction

Einhard

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

Eagle in the snow is historic fiction at its best,in my top ten.

Azincourt by Beranard Cornwell and The Religion by Tim Willocks are pretty good as well.

Azincourt was my first Cornwell novel and I was pretty disappointed. It seemed to be all about the action, with everything else just filled in almost incidentally. I think the best novels are those where the characterisation is so strong that you finish feeling a tinge of regret that the characters are no longer part of your life. Probably sounds awful ghey. The protagonists in Azincourt just irritated me. I was willing the French on just to rid myself of Nicolas Hook!

Denerick wrote: »

On another note, I've been meaning to read Ken Follet's 'Pillars of the Earth'. I loved the miniseries on TV. Anyone ever read it?

It's always slightly embarassing that, whenever that question about which work changed your life is asked, everyone else mentions Ulysses, 1984, and the like, and I have Pillars of the Earth as my choice!:o

I was 14 when I read it, and I imagine it was more to do with my age
than the quality of the book (I haven't read it since because it mightn't live up to my memory of it), but I was blown away by it. Nothing I've read since has had such a dramatic impact on me. I had always had an interest in history, but once I had read Pillars I was hooked. So, the fact that, over a decade later, I'm an unemployed History grad is all down to that book. Ken Follett has a lot to answer for!!:D

OwenRua

For some brilliant Roman historical fiction you cannot get much better than Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. It traces Rome through the last years of the Republic to reign of Augustus. The series is impeccably researched. Be warned though all of the books are in the 800-1,000 page range. I have not being able to read any other Roman HF since reading her books.

Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Saga is outsanding.

Anything by Steven Pressfield, but especially Gates of Fire and Tides of War.

fontanalis

Probably more pseudo-historical but Jim Fitzpatricks Book of Conquests is an almost graphic novel telling of the Book of Invasions.

Ulysses Gaze

Edward Rutherford's books are good if lengthy. Engaging and very well researched. Reading New York at the moment.

OwenRua

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Edward Rutherford's books are good if lengthy. Engaging and very well researched. Reading New York at the moment.

I read Dublin a number of years ago and enjoyed it.

Gneez

Ken follett's 'eye of the needle' and 'triple' are both good books, eye of the needle is historical fiction about a german spy in england during ww2 who is trying to get information about the fake army across the channel from calais back to germany, triple is about mossad stealing uranium from a ship. Neither books are fact but you can well imagine these things could have taken place.

muireann50

+1 for Pillars of the Earth, really really loved it.

Also really enjoyed the Conn Iggulden Genghis Khan trilogy, he even has a chapter at the end of each book outlining what was fact and where he embellished the story a little.

Manach

Bearhunter wrote: »

No mention of the Flashman series yet? Without doubt the best - and funniest - historical fiction in print. Brilliantly researched and full of wonderfully spiteful asides.

"fiction" surely not, history as it should be .

pavb2

http://www.amazon.com/Mutiny-Bounty-Novel-Charles-Nordhoff/dp/0316611689

I found this book fascinating we all know about the Bounty mutiny but that is only the beginning. This book tells the background to the mutiny and details Captain Bligh's epic journey after he was cast away .

The events are seen through the eyes of a fictional character

It then follows the story of the mutineers led by Fletcher Christian on Tahiti and Pitcairn Island incredible what happened to them almost biblical.

As the blurb says about 3 stories in one and fantastic reviews

Edit I think my link refers to the first in the trilogy you can get all 3 in one volume

Paddy Samurai

Just finished this epic trilogy by Roybn Young .IMO it is top notch historical fiction,that is well researched with great characters both real and imagined.

The Brethren trilogy is a long, bloody journey. The first book follows the progress of Scottish-born protagonist Will Campbell from teenage apprentice to Knight Templar in the wartorn Holy Land. The sequel, Crusade, recounts the Christians' loss of their stronghold at Acre, effectively ending the crusades and rendering the Templars divided and directionless. In Requiem the battleground shifts back to Europe as England attempts to crush Scotland, and France plots to usurp the papacy and squeeze the wealthy Templars dry.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4961567.ece

As mentioned above, Patrick 'O Brian is well worth checking out, but you must read them in order. Mary Renault is another exceptional author.
My personal fave, though has to be Julian Rathbone, his erudition, wit and readability are unparallelled.

dots03

I have not read too may historical fiction books, but of those I have read, I would highly recommend This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson.

It's the story of Fitzroy, Darwin and their journey on the Beagle...I loved it and found it a very rewarding read.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Thing-Darkness-Harry-Thompson/dp/0755327144/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

monkey9

There was an article in the books section of today's Sunday Independent about historical fiction and mentioned some books of the genre. Here's a link to it that the OP and others here might find interesting.

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/fiction-takes-rightful-place-in-history-2577447.html

ZorbaTehZ

"The Siege"- Ismail Kadare.

Based around the Ottoman invasion of Albania, and the first castle that they lay siege to. Excellent book - bit short though.

RDM_83 again

The interesting thing about "the siege" is how its a historical book making a point about Albania at the time written in such a way to avoid censorship. "The Bridge" is also good. A good book set in the early modern period is Timothy Mo's "an Insular possesion" (not really the same as the books talked about on thread but still historical).

When i was a kid used to love Rosemary Sutcliff and her books about Roman britain.

Tried to read some Melvynn Braggs books but just couldn't get into them unfortunatly but maybe others might like him and they seem pretty historically accurate.

RDM_83 again

Also not sure if its been mentioned yet but Umbert Eco's "In the name of the Rose"

Denerick

I would just like to recommend Robert Grave's book I, Claudius, which I finished today. It has been mentioned already as perhaps the most significant book of the genre ever written.

I don't think anyone else has so far mentioned the father of historical fiction, Walter Scott. Rob Roy is excellent, and Ivanhoe is meant to be as well (Its in my to-read list)

marienbad

War And Peace-Leo Tolstoy, still the greatest.

The Name of The Rose- Umberto Eco , a complete original and a brilliant movie.

The Alexander Trilogy- Massimo Manfredi, , excellent retelling of the life of Alexander The Great.

Alone In Berlin- Hans Fallada, a terrifying account of life in Nazi Berlin , a truly awesome book and one that will stay long in the memory.

Any of the Alan Furst novels set in Europe just before and during WW2.

REPSOC1916

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

I would recomend Q by Luther Blisset, I loved it. If you are into history you should like it. Another one that I read more recently is Every Man dies alone, very depressing but very good and quite historicaly accurate.

It's a great analogy for the rise and fall of the 'New Left' movement and student radicalism during the 1960's to the 80's.

Manituana (Wu Ming - same group of Bologna based left wing authors as Luther Blisset minus one member who left) was also good. It's set around the American War of Independence and takes the point of view of the Mohawk Indians who sides with the British for pretty much the same reasons as why the Americans fought for their independence. Only issue I have with it is some of the prose is hard to follow at parts.

Only other novel by Wu Ming is 54 - not technically historical fiction (set in post war PCI controlled Bologna around a group of grump former Italian partisans. Part of the novel also deals with Cary Grant who's being persuaded by MI6 to come out of retirement and produce a film on the life of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, essentially a propoganda exercise designed to get Tito to firmly break with the Warsaw Pact) but probably their best. It soaks up the tensions of the Cold War. It like the epigraph at the beginning of the novel:
"Post war means nothing. What fools call peace means simply moving away from the front"

scrotty

Just reread ' Sarum The novel of England ' epic read i strongly recommend it http://www.shvoong.com/books/novel-novella/2038671-sarum-novel-england/

Travel is good

pavb2 wrote: »

http://www.amazon.com/Mutiny-Bounty-Novel-Charles-Nordhoff/dp/0316611689

I found this book fascinating we all know about the Bounty mutiny but that is only the beginning. This book tells the background to the mutiny and details Captain Bligh's epic journey after he was cast away .

The events are seen through the eyes of a fictional character

It then follows the story of the mutineers led by Fletcher Christian on Tahiti and Pitcairn Island incredible what happened to them almost biblical.

As the blurb says about 3 stories in one and fantastic reviews

Edit I think my link refers to the first in the trilogy you can get all 3 in one volume

Thank you so much for that! I have a bit of an obsession with that story. I've read a lot of books about it & own all 3 films on DVD. There was a great article about Pitcairn Island in Vanity Fair a year or two ago...

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn200801

OK, I'll stop now!

jam_mac_jam

REPSOC1916 wrote: »

It's a great analogy for the rise and fall of the 'New Left' movement and student radicalism during the 1960's to the 80's.

Manituana (Wu Ming - same group of Bologna based left wing authors as Luther Blisset minus one member who left) was also good. It's set around the American War of Independence and takes the point of view of the Mohawk Indians who sides with the British for pretty much the same reasons as why the Americans fought for their independence. Only issue I have with it is some of the prose is hard to follow at parts.

Only other novel by Wu Ming is 54 - not technically historical fiction (set in post war PCI controlled Bologna around a group of grump former Italian partisans. Part of the novel also deals with Cary Grant who's being persuaded by MI6 to come out of retirement and produce a film on the life of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, essentially a propoganda exercise designed to get Tito to firmly break with the Warsaw Pact) but probably their best. It soaks up the tensions of the Cold War. It like the epigraph at the beginning of the novel:
"Post war means nothing. What fools call peace means simply moving away from the front"

Sounds good, I will give 54 a go.

Einhard

So I finished Wolf Hall last week, and thought it was absolutely excellent. I'd definitely recommend it. The quality of the prose was sublime, and the the narrative compelling. I've read that some people didn't like the style of the writing, but I thought it really conveyed a sense of the strangeness of the time, and the fact that the characters necessarily very different from us. The past is a foreign country and all that, but sometimes authors of historical fiction just plop the same stock characters into their plots, regardless of the period. Which brings me to....

Simon Scarrow's Under the Eagle. *shudder*.

I'm far from a literary snob, but this book represents all that's maddening about the genre. I don't know if there is another genre in which the quality is so diverse, tases so divergent, standards can be so low, and the mediocre so eulogised. This was a terrible book. It had some of the most turgid dialogue I've ever had the misfortune of reading, and all the characters were completely, er, characterless. I know that, should I ever read a Scarrow novel set, say in 2010, the characters will be practically identical. No effort was invested in making them seem Roman. It's not enough to dress people up in historical garb, and then call them historical figures.

Even worse, the characters didn't even differ all that markedly from one another. Of course, their motivations and personalities were different, but their dialogue was exactly the same. The slave girl spoke in the same manner as the legate Vespasian, who spoke much the same as everyone else.

I might have been able to get over all that, except for the fact that the dialogue given to the characters was not just similar, but similarly awful. They seemed like automatans at times. At one point, in the midst of an important discovery, when the excitement should be at its hieght, both for the reader and the character, one character points out something noteworthy, and the response of his superior is "I see". It's hard to convey just how lacking this response is unless one sees it in context, but I thought to myself that no human would every respond like that. That's not how we talk and interact with one another. And that is perhaps the major problem with Scarrow's novel. He completely and utterly fails to capture the range and emotion and intensity of human speech and personal interaction.

And I'm not even getting to the dodgy storyline...

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on the man. The book did keep me distracted over the weekend, but that's because I willed myself to finish it. It's not so much that I'm annoyed with the book, but rather that, yet again, I've been so totally disappointed in a selection from a genre that I love, and thus expect much from.

Oh well, will just have to keep plodding along I s'pose...

pavb2

Travel is good wrote: »

Thank you so much for that! I have a bit of an obsession with that story. I've read a lot of books about it & own all 3 films on DVD. There was a great article about Pitcairn Island in Vanity Fair a year or two ago...

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn200801

Same here read a lot of stuff, A Serpent In paradise Dea Birkett comes across as a bit of a wannabee but I think it's only at the end the allegations come to light and I don't think there is any indication of it while she is there. If I remember correctly her fling with one of them was done in secret and she portrayed it as being frowned upon if discovered.

Her portrayal of life there was very different to reality but maybe they were just good at covering it up

Denerick

@Einhard,

I wasn't that enamoured by Wolf Hall, I thought the prose was mystifying and confusing, though I did enjoy Thomas More, she made him out to be as I always imagined him.

Different strokes for different folks I guess!

Einhard

Denerick wrote: »

@Einhard,

I wasn't that enamoured by Wolf Hall, I thought the prose was mystifying and confusing, though I did enjoy Thomas More, she made him out to be as I always imagined him.

Different strokes for different folks I guess!

No, you're just perverse! :pac:

chasmcb

Am reading Steven Pressfield's 'Gates of Fire' at the moment and would concur with the poster who recommended that. Would also add my thumbs-up for Graves' Claudius novels.

Here are four other HF works I enjoyed, all set in 19th century. Patrick Rambaud's 'The Battle' about Napoleonic battle of Essling in 1809; Daniel Woodrell's American Civil War tale 'Woe To Live On' set in Kansas/Missouri region (it was filmed as 'Ride With The Devil'); Ron Hanson's 'Desperadoes' about the Wild West outlaws The Dalton Gang; and Peter Carey's 'True History of the Kelly Gang'.

mrsdewinter

Einhard wrote: »

So I finished Wolf Hall last week, and thought it was absolutely excellent. I'd definitely recommend it. The quality of the prose was sublime, and the the narrative compelling. I've read that some people didn't like the style of the writing, but I thought it really conveyed a sense of the strangeness of the time, and the fact that the characters necessarily very different from us. The past is a foreign country and all that, but sometimes authors of historical fiction just plop the same stock characters into their plots, regardless of the period. Which brings me to...

I loved it too! Took a little work, but it's so satisfying...

dots03

chasmcb wrote: »

Peter Carey's 'True History of the Kelly Gang'.

This is indeed an excellent book. It's a great story and one I knew v. little about prior to reading it. It came highly recommended by a mate and I'm glad I followed up on his tip. I loved the colloquial style used...it reminded me a little of And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave.

Must read some more Peter Carey.

patff

Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip.

I didn't expect it to actually be about tulips, but it was. Historically relevant, Dumas wrote this to highlight events of the day. The lovely "King Billy" plays a prominent role.