Historical fiction

[Danka]

Any suggestions? I don't have preference but accuracy. I mean I don't want anything that only accurate thing in whole book are historical names or period and that's about it. For example I read a book about Jewish university educated doctor in 12th century (educated in Italy,moved to England) and on top of that single mother. I love Edward Rutherfurd, Bernard Cornwell, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and Bernard Knight (he writes mystery).
Thanks

[afa]

I haven't really read any Historical Fiction novels, myself, so I'll just go ahead and regurgitate some recommendations that Keizer gave me:

I think you should try good historical fiction as a change of pace, I think you would like it. I recommend Conn Iggulden Conn Iggulden, Pressfield Steven Pressfield Online and Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell - The Author's Official Site - Sharpe Books dot com

I would also add that David Anthony Durham (author of the Acacia trilogy) started out as an author of Historical Fiction. No idea how good he was, but maybe check him out.

[Danka]

Thank you, I didn't know that Durham wrote historical fiction.

[afa]

Oh yeah. His-Fic (yup, just coined that) was his original claim to fame, before he decided to try his hand at Fantasy with Acacia.

[Keizer]

I haven't really read any Historical Fiction novels, myself, so I'll just go ahead and regurgitate some recommendations that Keizer gave me:



I would also add that David Anthony Durham (author of the Acacia trilogy) started out as an author of Historical Fiction. No idea how good he was, but maybe check him out.

Everything by Iggulden is good. He has only written two series (Rome - Casesar and Mongels - Ghengis) both awesome. He makes the time period come alive and gives motives to actions by every historical character. The deeds being historical, but the motives being contrived or imagined.

Steven Pressfield has some awesome books and some okay ones. I recommend "Gates of Fire", which tells the tale of the Spartan 300, you have heard the story but this gives you the story with better characters and some insight into the every day life of Spartans (Lacedonians) which to this day remains the most extreme militaristic society in the history of the planet.

He has a couple of books featuring Alexander the Great which are fantastic. One book about a famous Greek politician with a golden tongue (I forget his name), but its incredibly good as well. The speeches that guy gave (taken from his actual speeches) are incredible. He has to be the greatest politician in history (nothing really to be proud of). His book on Rommel is kind of disappointing. He wrote an imaginary book about the Amazons that made their existence plausible, but it wasn't his best work -still it was worth reading.

Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories are as good as any fantasy book I have read and have the exact same feel. There just aren't any wizards or dragons.

[Danka]

I read first book in Saxon Stories and I relly liked it, but I have been a bit weary of long series. Not because I don't like long series but what they do with them more so if series is successful. You know what I'm talking about, stretching beyond breaking point. What's even more funny is that writers are trying to convince us that instead, lets say trilogy, s/he wanted to write 6-7 books from the start, like we are bunch of kids that saw something bad and adults are trying to convince us that everything we saw is not how it happened, what do you do but play along right? So I went out and got Iggulden, Pressfield and Cornwell in library (ordered them actually so I have to wait). Thank you.
I would really like to keep this thread alive but it seems nobody likes historical fiction. People, these books are really good as Keizer pointed out it's like reading fantasy in many cases even better.

[B81]

I'm playing around with the thought to get a "HF" book allready for quite some while.

But now I've started the "Shadows of the Apt" series which is very promising 50% into the 1st book and has allready 8 books published...
However, I'll keep an eye on this topic here.

[afa]

I would really like to keep this thread alive but it seems nobody likes historical fiction. People, these books are really good as Keizer pointed out it's like reading fantasy in many cases even better.

I haven't sampled any of his recommendations, yet, but I intend to. Keizer seems to be quite enthusiastic about them!

Has anyone read any books by Robert Harris (not to be confused with Thomas Harris, the author of The Silence of the Lambs)? Every time I go into a bookstore, I keep seeing his books. In particular, I see his novel Lustrum; this is apparently the sequel to a previous book of his called Imperium. They are part of trilogy of fictional biographies of the Roman orator Cicero as narrated by his secretary Tiro. I've seen them so often, I'm starting to wonder if it's a sign...

[Keizer]

I read first book in Saxon Stories and I relly liked it, but I have been a bit weary of long series. Not because I don't like long series but what they do with them more so if series is successful. You know what I'm talking about, stretching beyond breaking point. What's even more funny is that writers are trying to convince us that instead, lets say trilogy, s/he wanted to write 6-7 books from the start, like we are bunch of kids that saw something bad and adults are trying to convince us that everything we saw is not how it happened, what do you do but play along right? So I went out and got Iggulden, Pressfield and Cornwell in library (ordered them actually so I have to wait). Thank you.
I would really like to keep this thread alive but it seems nobody likes historical fiction. People, these books are really good as Keizer pointed out it's like reading fantasy in many cases even better.

With HF you dont have the same problem as regular fiction with the length of the series. The tale is already told, you are just filling in the details. Its always moving forward.

[Keizer]

I haven't sampled any of his recommendations, yet, but I intend to. Keizer seems to be quite enthusiastic about them!

Has anyone read any books by Robert Harris (not to be confused with Thomas Harris, the author of The Silence of the Lambs)? Every time I go into a bookstore, I keep seeing his books. In particular, I see his novel Lustrum; this is apparently the sequel to a previous book of his called Imperium. They are part of trilogy of fictional biographies of the Roman orator Cicero as narrated by his secretary Tiro. I've seen them so often, I'm starting to wonder if it's a sign...

Harris is good. The other authors are more entertaining.