Historical Fiction my recommends - please add yours

Historical Fiction my recommends - please add yours

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Discussion

andyxxx

Original Poster:

1,164 posts

226 months

Monday 14th December 2020
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I am terrible at searching out books and hate it!

Would anybody like to recommend and share any historical fiction for me to try?
I like realistic graphic fiction with very little romance and particularly like ancient/Napoleonic/westerns but have enjoyed some WWI and II

Some of my favourites that I would mark 5 out of 5:

Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurty) my fave book - and pretty much all his writing
Legion (William Altimari)
Dawn of Empire (Sam Barone) a great series of books
The Falcon of Sparta (Conn Iggulden)
Angels in Iron (Nicholas C Prata)
Sons of Zeus (Noble Smith)

Happy to recommend some more if anybody is interested.

K12beano

20,854 posts

274 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
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I always remember Rutherfurd's "Sarum" fondly - in fact it is one I'm thinking of going back to because I must have read it over 20 years ago.....


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1853145.Sarum

akirk

5,376 posts

113 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
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Edward Rutherford
James A Michener
Ken Follet

All write saga 'historical' type books

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
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Bernard Cornwell of course. Also Macdonald Fraser's Flashman books, apart from being great fun, are pretty good on the historical background.

Taita

7,590 posts

202 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
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Cato and Macro series by Simon Scarrow?

andyxxx

Original Poster:

1,164 posts

226 months

Thursday 17th December 2020
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Thanks for the suggestions – please keep then coming.

I have read a number of Rutherfurd books and only really enjoyed New York and actually gave up on Sarum.
I will look into James A Michener – I’ve not read any.
I have enjoyed most of the Ken Follet books, but they are a bit slow for me and lack action.
Have read loads of Bernard Cornwell and have enjoyed most of it.
Again I think I have read all of Simon Scarrows books and though I find them a bit YA I have enjoyed them all.
I thought the Sharpe books were OK (although for me a bit repetitive) but could not get into Flashman.

As I say, I like realistic graphic books - I have tried several times to read Cormac McCarthy - but never finished any of his books as I can't get on with his style of writing.

NovaPower

49 posts

73 months

Friday 18th December 2020
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Andrew Taylor. I particularly enjoyed 'The Amercian Boy'

andyxxx

Original Poster:

1,164 posts

226 months

Saturday 19th December 2020
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Thanks NovaPower for the suggested author.

I don’t really enjoy mystery/whodunit but did actually read The Ashes of London a couple of months ago (which I thought was OK-ish, but didn’t interest me enough to read the other books in the series)

CubanPete

3,630 posts

187 months

Saturday 19th December 2020
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Master and Commander

sjwb

550 posts

207 months

Saturday 19th December 2020
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Off the wall a bit, but try Dennis Wheatley - the Roger Brook series. Historically I believe they are accurate.
He was a superb writer, far beyond his occult books.

johnpsanderson

494 posts

199 months

Saturday 19th December 2020
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Robert Harris? I liked Fatherland and Archangel although they are perhaps more accurately ‘alternative history’ fiction.

kiseca

9,339 posts

218 months

Saturday 19th December 2020
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I haven't got to Falcon of Sparta yet, but Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series are possibly the best five books I have ever read on any subject.

From that author I've read his emperor series, two of his war of the roses series, Dunstan, and the Darien trilogy.. they're all historical fiction apart from Darien.

With the exception of the War Of The Roses series, I've enjoyed all of his books, but for me none of them matched the heights he reached with the Conqueror series. If you liked Falcon, I'd recommend checking out more of his work.


jet_noise

5,630 posts

181 months

Saturday 26th December 2020
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velocemitch

3,795 posts

219 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
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Bernard Cornwell was mentioned earlier, but is very early historical stuff is also very good
Azincourt, 1356, The Grail Quest Trilogy and of course the Last Kingdom series.

GraemeP

769 posts

228 months

Friday 1st January 2021
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C J Sansom’s Shardlake series are great! Ken Follet’s Pillars... series. Also Glenn David Gold’s Carter Beats the Devil for something a bit more recent (history wise).

rpm1969

91 posts

160 months

Wednesday 6th January 2021
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The Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. Set just before and just after WWII. Good plots, some nice one liners all set against an authentic backdrop

Pothole

34,367 posts

281 months

Wednesday 6th January 2021
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rpm1969 said:
The Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. Set just before and just after WWII. Good plots, some nice one liners all set against an authentic backdrop
I loved those. Surprised they've not been made into a TV series. Too niche?

irocfan

40,152 posts

189 months

Wednesday 6th January 2021
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can I suggest the Lord of the Silver bow trilogy? David Gemmell's take on Troy

andyxxx

Original Poster:

1,164 posts

226 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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sjwb said:
Off the wall a bit, but try Dennis Wheatley - the Roger Brook series. Historically I believe they are accurate.
He was a superb writer, far beyond his occult books.
Thank you for the recommend
I have just read The launching of Roger Brook. I thought it a bit slow with too much romance and didn't like the over detailed French pre-revolution political aspect.

andyxxx

Original Poster:

1,164 posts

226 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
irocfan said:
can I suggest the Lord of the Silver bow trilogy? David Gemmell's take on Troy
Thanks for the recommend. I read a number of his books many years ago – but I can’t remember if I enjoyed them! It’s before I started keeping a record so I will indeed give him a try again.