Historical Fiction my recommends - please add yours

[andyxxx]

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]

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]

Edward Rutherford
James A Michener
Ken Follet

All write saga 'historical' type books

[Dr Jekyll]

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

[Taita]

Cato and Macro series by Simon Scarrow?

[andyxxx]

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]

Andrew Taylor. I particularly enjoyed 'The Amercian Boy'

[andyxxx]

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]

Master and Commander

[sjwb]

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]

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

[kiseca]

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]

some stuff here PH thread

[velocemitch]

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]

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]

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]

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]

can I suggest the Lord of the Silver bow trilogy? David Gemmell's take on Troy

[andyxxx]

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]

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.