Historical Fiction Recommendations

[rhadin]

Try the Promises to Keep quartet by Shayne Parkinson. The 4 books are available at Smashwords (the first, Sentence of Marriage, is free; the others are $1.99 each). I wrote a review of the series at my An American Editor blog. Shayne is also a MobileRead participant. The story begins in 1880s New Zealand and goes on from there.

[Shayne Parkinson]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Try the Promises to Keep quartet by Shayne Parkinson. The 4 books are available at Smashwords (the first, Sentence of Marriage, is free; the others are $1.99 each). I wrote a review of the series at my An American Editor blog. Shayne is also a MobileRead participant. The story begins in 1880s New Zealand and goes on from there.

Thanks, Richard! Your review is wonderful - one of the very best I've received.

[bookoffers]

Try the following:

Accused – Mark Gimenez
The Whisperers – John Connolly
The Lake Shore Limited – Sue Miller
The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

[Steve Anderson]

If the 1940s count (I hope they do!), I can recommend December 6 by Martin Cruz Smith, the same author who wrote Gorky Park. December 6 has been overlooked but I think it's a great story that gets inside Imperial Japan on the eve of Pearl Harbor through the eyes of an American expat with one foot in both cultures. The story has shades of Casablanca:

http://www.amazon.com/December-6-ebo...1164444&sr=1-1

There seems to be dueling historical fiction threads going on -- good to see.



Steve

[Steve Anderson]

I mentioned this on the other historical fiction thread: I found a great site that lists historical fiction by period:

historicalnovels.info/



-- Steve

[ReadingManiac]

Legacy by Susan Kay is excellent, about Elizabeth I.
Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines is a good Victorian era, borrowing the Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens.
I'll have to look across my shelves because I know I have a lot of good ones.

[Treven]

My preference, and I’ve read all his books, is Steven Saylor. His books on Ancient Rome are fantastic.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Legacy by Susan Kay is excellent, about Elizabeth I.
Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines is a good Victorian era, borrowing the Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens.
I'll have to look across my shelves because I know I have a lot of good ones.

Continuing on from this,

Pompeii by Robert Harris

For Egypt, Christian Jaqc's Ramses series that starts with Son of the Light

Tai-Pan by James Clavell

London by James Rutherfurd, also several of his other books. I've read Paris, Sarum, Dublin, and Russka. All were good reads.

[SeaBookGuy]

Chiming in with another Ancient Rome recommendation: the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts starting with the first of 13 The King's Gambit. Set a century earlier than Falco's adventures, it parallels the ascendancy of Julius Caesar (protagonist marries Cesar's niece partway through).

[astrangerhere]

I cannot believe no one has mentioned Hilary Mantel's briliant Wolf Hall trilogy.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I cannot believe no one has mentioned Hilary Mantel's briliant Wolf Hall trilogy.

I don't get the hype on this one. I DNF'd it. A lot of people seem to like it though.

Carrying on with recommendations, I've been reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Mostly brilliant except a couple of sex scenes where the author demonstrates he knows nothing about women.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I don't get the hype on this one. I DNF'd it. A lot of people seem to like it though.

Carrying on with recommendations, I've been reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Mostly brilliant except a couple of sex scenes where the author demonstrates he knows nothing about women.

Funny that, I was the other way round. I like Follett's spy novels, but I could not get into Pillars to save my life. I am about 1/3 of the way through The Mirror and the Light now to finish off the Wolf Hall set. It may be that I am pre-disposed to the time period as I love many, many things Elizabethan. This is the forerunner and I have read a great deal during the Tudor era as well.

[Dr. Drib]

Almost anything by Kenneth Roberts. Here's a link for the curious:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kenneth+r...f=nb_sb_noss_2

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Funny that, I was the other way round. I like Follett's spy novels, but I could not get into Pillars to save my life. I am about 1/3 of the way through The Mirror and the Light now to finish off the Wolf Hall set. It may be that I am pre-disposed to the time period as I love many, many things Elizabethan. This is the forerunner and I have read a great deal during the Tudor era as well.

Similarly, I also like Follett’s spy novels but had to abandon Fall of Giants very early and that was done for me in regard to Follet’s historical sagas. As for the Wolf Hall trilogy, I loved the first book and was hugely disappointed in the second. I’ve got the third on tap and am hoping Mantel reverts to the standard of the first book.

[drofgnal]

My favorite historical fiction, in no particular order:

Pillars of the Earth by Follet and the Sequel World without End (didn't care for the third)
Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Sullivan
Armegedon by Uris
Mila 18 by Uris
The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman (any book of hers are good, this one stood out)
All the Light we Cannot See by Doerr
The Robe by Douglass
Gone with the Wind by Mitchell
The Physican by Gordon and the Sequel Shaman
The Secret Chord by Brooks (Most of hers are good, this one outstanding)
The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Morris (Currently have Cilka's Journey the sequel on deck)
The Nightingale by Hannah
Shashenka by Montefiore (and the two sequels)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Towles
War and Peace Tolstoy (probably my fav)
Russka by Rutherford (IMO his best work having read Sarum and London)


I read a lot of historical fiction, it's my favorite Genre. WWII is obviously big for me based on the list.