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Old 06-29-2010, 01:30 PM   #1
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series similar to Simon Scarrow's Cato/Macro Eagle books for my son...

Hi all –

In an inspired moment about 18 months ago, I suggested Simon Scarrow’s Cato/Macro "Eagle" books to my son. He loves them and is almost done with the last one, having gone through all 8 or 9 even with his schoolwork and required class reading.

Although Scarrow is almost done with a new book in the series, going forward Scarrow’s pace at writing is not going to keep up with my son’s reading....sigh!

So, I’m looking for recommendations for other series (or individual books) that are similar.

I asked my son what he liked about the books and here’s what he said, in rough rank order:

Tie for #1/#2: Action/battle scenes

Tie for #1/#2: Ancient military history (we’re talking truly ancient - Greeks, Romans, Alexander the Great – anything Napoleon or after is getting a little recent for him, although he will tolerate the US Civil War.)

#3: Reasonably accurate historical background and major characters

#4: Limited mushy stuff - he was glad (!!!) when Cato’s love interest got killed in book 2 or 3 or whichever it was…

#5: A bit of mystery is okay (that’s how I found the Cato/Macro series in the first place since the first few books were sometimes cross-sold as mysteries, and I’m a big historical mystery reader)

I’ve thought about trying him on Lauren Haney’s Lieutenant Bak series (ancient Egypt ought to be ancient enough), but am concerned that there aren’t battles. I also thought about the Roman mystery classics: Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor, etc, but again, not enough battles. I thought he might like the “political” books from David Wishart’s fine Roman series, even without battles, but I can’t find them as e-books.

I am going to give him some Dumas books to try next, but would also like to find another series or two he might like.

From reading other posts, I suspect we ought to be headed more towards military historical fiction than towards historical mysteries and I just haven’t read much in that genre, so I’m looking for suggestions…any and all gratefully accepted…

Thanks!

- Sue

Last edited by sufue; 06-29-2010 at 01:57 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 06-29-2010, 02:16 PM   #2
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May I suggest that you check out Scott Oden? He writes Historical Fiction, set in Ancient Egypt and Greece. He writes mainly stand alones, though. The next one is out in UK later this summer, the US date is some time in December.



Um... Let's see.... What else...
Conn Iggulden? He had a series about Caesar.
Vincent Manifredi wrote a series about Alexander the Great...
Also, Nick Drake wrote a series set in Egypt. I think... ( Not sure about the battles, though).

Oh. Christian Jaq had several series set in Ancient Egypts. They were quite good. Might be a bit hard to find, though.

If you don't find enough fiction, you could always steer him towards non-fiction books about Ancient Rome.
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Old 06-30-2010, 01:13 AM   #3
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Other Roman era authors and I don't know if they're ebook'd - John Maddox Roberts, James Mace, Ben Kane and Harry Sidebottom

Sharpe's Rifles (Napoleonic era series) and various other historical series by Bernard Cornwell.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Naval Napoleonic era series

Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood series
Dumas' books

You can check the author's here and see if any are book'd - http://www.mcbooks.com/bookstore/cat...Fiction&list=7

edit: actually on second thought - John Maddox Roberts are mysteries instead of battles.

Last edited by wayspooled; 06-30-2010 at 08:07 AM.
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Old 07-02-2010, 02:37 PM   #4
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Thanks Mikaelalind and Wayspooled for the suggestions!

I've already got a couple of Dumas books lined up for him to try. The nice part about those is they are out of copyright, so in the public domain - as are the Sabatini ones.

We looked together at all of your suggestions that I could find in ebook format, and he thinks he also wants to try the Cornwell "Sharpe" books (even though one reviewer indicated there are sometimes women/mushy parts), and also maybe the Conn Iggulden ones.

So, now he has some to try, and if he likes any of them a lot, there are many books in each series. I'm still open to other suggestions, but many thanks to the two of you!

- Sue

P.S. You're right, the John Maddox Roberts ones are scant on battles! I love them, but most are straight mysteries, with a bit of political commentary built in. And most of them ARE available as ebooks, although a bit pricey for books in backlist, if memory serves...

P.P.S. And he does read some non-fiction military history, but we find those often don't translate so well as e-books if there are maps of battles and stuff like that in them. So, he sticks to paper for those.
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Old 07-02-2010, 03:14 PM   #5
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Try him on the story of Xenophon's Anabasis. (No, not me you jokers! The original Xenophon.) The original may be a bit much in translation, though, so perhaps something like "The Ten Thousand" by Michael Curtis Ford might do better. If he likes that, you might then see how he likes some of the many books based on that plot-line.

Some free examples include Star Guard by Andre Norton (included in Star Soldiers at the Baen Free Library); The March Upcountry by David Weber and John Ringo (also at the Baen Free Library). There are many others in settings ranging from historical to worlds of primitive fantasy to far future SF to...

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Old 07-03-2010, 01:43 PM   #6
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If Sharpe isn't too recent; I'd suggest C. S. Forester's 'Horatio Hornblower' books as well. They were some of my favourite boyhood reads.
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Old 01-11-2014, 12:03 AM   #7
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Simon Scarrow

Hi,
I'm a Simon Scarrow fan and although this post is considerably late, I'd like
to strongly recommend Harry Sidebottom and Bernard Cornwell. The series
Warrior of Rome I: Fire in the East for Sidebottom and The Last Kingdom for
Cornwell. Slightly different style, but both as good as the other. If you like Simon Scarrow, don't miss these. Rgds,
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Old 09-16-2015, 07:34 AM   #8
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Masters of Rome

There's another author who seems to have been overlooked in this thread - Colleen McCullough and her Masters of Rome series.

This chronicles the final 100 years or so of the Roman Republic between the rise of Marius (the general, Consul and reformer of the Roman army), culminating in the rise of Octavian and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
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Old 09-16-2015, 01:26 PM   #9
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I'm not sure how old your son is but I would suggest Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth and it's sequels.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...e_of_the_Ninth
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Old 09-16-2015, 01:41 PM   #10
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Moderator Notice
However old Sue's son was at the time this thread was created, he is now five years older, and very likely therefore has completely different reading tastes. Please check the date of a thread before responding to it!

Many thanks.
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Old 09-29-2015, 01:29 AM   #11
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Horatio Hornblower was one of my favorites at that age.
All of Iguldon's series are good, he has one on Caesar and another on Genghis Khan that is very good.
Sharpe series is good too, Cromwell has another good series about the Anglo/Saxon invasion of England that starts with the Last Kingdom.

just now saw how old this thread is...

Last edited by cocopuff; 09-29-2015 at 01:30 AM. Reason: aww old thread
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