Historical Fiction Novels You Recommend(and Alternate History if you want)

[Gen.Mannerheim]

The third game's mechanics sucked, the lore was awful, and the optimization was nonexistent. RA2/Yuri's Revenge was where the series peaked, and Generals was the last Command and Conquer game made before everything turned to crap.

All true, but the original red alert is superior to all others. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

 

[Samez]

My personal favorite historical fiction novel is Musashi from Eiji Yoshikawa.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote some short stories in historical setting which are great. His most famous is probably "In a Grove" which was adapted for the movie Rashomon. His short story Rashomon is also great but it's a bit timeless and not really in a historical context.
Neal Stephensons Baroque Cycle was also nice. I esp liked the large amount of different locations and that he did not choose the historical persons as main characters but their companions. (e.g. Daniel Waterhouse instead of Newton)

 

[7ronin]

My personal favorite historical fiction novel is Musashi from Eiji Yoshikawa.

Excellent book. Beware though, it is very, very long (circa 900 pages) and in terms of structure and style may not be used to what you have been reading in the West. Yoshikawa enjoyed in Japanese a position similar to that of Hemingway in English.

 

[Birdjaguar]

100 posts and no mention of Dorothy Dunnett. tsk tsk guys. Her Niccolo serious is quite excellent. And since she is dead and the series finished, there is no waiting for the next book. Do you hear me Mr. Martin?

The House of Niccolò

The House of Niccolò is a series of eight historical novels set in the late-fifteenth century European Renaissance. The protagonist of the series is Nicholas de Fleury (Niccolò, Nicholas van der Poele, or Claes), a talented boy of uncertain birth who rises to the heights of European merchant banking and international political intrigue. The series shares most of the locations in Dunnett's earlier series, the Lymond Chronicles, but it extends much further geographically to take in the important urban centres of Bruges, Venice, Florence, Geneva, and the Hanseatic League; Burgundy, Flanders, and Poland; Iceland; the Iberian Peninsula and Madeira; the Black Sea cities of Trebizond and Caffa; Persia; the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Rhodes; Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula; and West Africa and the city of Timbuktu.

The volumes are as follows:
Niccolò Rising (1986)
Spring of the Ram (1987)
Race of Scorpions (1989)
Scales of Gold (1991)
The Unicorn Hunt (1993)
To Lie with Lions (1995)
Caprice and Rondo (1997)
Gemini (2000)

 

[Arakhor]

I think I read the first book about Nicholas de Fleury at one point.

Spoiler :

Isn't he nearly hanged at one point and realises that his lover is his estranged half-sister?

 

[mayor]

The Emperor series by Conn Iggulden
A, romantized, story of the life of Julius Caesar

The Conquerer series by Conn Iggulden
the same but about Temujin/Genghis Kahn

 

[Plotinus]

The Emperor series by Conn Iggulden
A, romantized, story of the life of Julius Caesar

I read the first of these, and it was quite fun, but it simply messed about with history too much for me. Inventing new historical events is fine for a historical novel, and doing a bit of telescoping or exercising selectivity in deciding which actual events to include is OK, but I found that this one just went beyond what I'm prepared to put up with, especially in its version of the civil war between Sulla and Marius. I think the ideal for a historical novel to aim for is not necessarily perfect fidelity to what really happened, but at least not to contradict what we know happened - at any rate not too much. Robert Harris manages this, as far as I can tell, when dealing with roughly the same period of history in his Cicero novels.

 

[mayor]

well, yeah but the thread said Fiction and it's pretty good fiction.. It's rather enoyable to read
The Conquerer series is, imo, better... don't know about the historical correctnes though, since my knowledge of the Mongols is far less than the Roman Empire

Robert harris, huh? I should check that out sometime

 

[say1988]

All true, but the original red alert is superior to all others. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Patently false. Nothing beats a rolling wall of Apocalypse tanks underneath a cloud of Kirovs.

 

[History_Buff]

All true, but the original red alert is superior to all others. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Truth. Though it becomes hilariously easy once you realize you can order your tanks to keep moving while they shoot. I once took out 35+ heavy tanks with 30 medium tanks, with only 4 casualties

 

[Communisto]

I've been reading The Dirty Dozen this month. Its pretty wizard, much different than the film. The reader is much more aware of the fact that these guys are less a bunch of lovable misfits and more a group of cowardly rapists and murderers. Recommended.

Gonna start the Flashman series next. Also, I dunno if its been stated, but everyone should read Blood Meridian.

 

[Mbest95]

Try the morland dynasty series -- by cynthia harrod-eagles -- wonderful stories -about england from about 1430 -upuntil the great depression.

 

[Yeekim]

I see "Shogun" by James Clavell has been mentioned. That was indeed one of the best books I've read. This one is good as well though.

 

[Cashie]

For historical novels, I really enjoyed Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, which is well researched, written and includes a few saucy gypsies temptresses for good measure. I'm sure I can here some of you groaning, but whatever. The first book is called The First Man in Rome, and starts around 100 BC, and traces the eventual fall of the Roman Republic; through Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, Octavian, Antony and Cleopatra.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

^ I have those in my book collection, but haven't read them yet. I'm trying to catch up with my Falco mystery series novels (by Lindsey Davis). I'm years behind, but finally found an affordable online source.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm up to Ode to a Banker, but my bookshelf won't hold any more books!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Then it's obvious that you need a bigger bookshelf!

 

[Arakhor]

I already have three of them, with no more room in my sitting room.

 

[say1988]

Then it's obvious that you need a bigger bookshelf room!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Or put up a shelf in another room. I don't even own a kitchen table - it's far more important to have room for my books!