Just last week I finished "Guns of the Dawn" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and it scratched an itch I didn't realize I had. Now that it's been some time, that itch is playing up again and in trying to find my next hit, I'm realizing that "Guns of the Dawn" is a very unique book. The closest I've come is "Divine Rivals" by Rebecca Ross, which was fun, but the war-aspect ultimately didn't play a large enough part in the characters' lives for my tastes and the book did read very young. So I'm turning to you, to see if you have any recommendations that have a similar feel to "Guns of the Dawn". So what exactly am I looking, you might wonder:
- A adult fantasy story/ alternate history story about the Napoleonic wars or World War 1 (as "Guns of the Dawn" it had elements of both imo). I'm no stickler for things needing to be exactly historically accurate (as it is fantasy I'm looking for of course), but I would love there to be some reflection on the 'themes' that were specific to the time period, for example:
- The draft or, in general, having regular people be called upon to fight;
- The shift in the way of making war/mechanization of war;
- Class differences between officers and regular soldiers;
- The overall 'vibe' of those eras;
- …
- A story about war, not holding back about the horrors of war, but showing the camaraderie and the humour as well;
- The main character is a soldier or at least someone that is on or very close to the front;
- And I guess it goes without saying, but I enjoy well constructed stories with people that feel 'real'.
Bonus points (but no absolute requirement) if it has a woman/women fighting as well. If it does have a MC that is a woman, a requirement would be that she is a well fleshed out, flawed character, and not some Black Widow-esque superhuman whose main personality trait is 'feisty'. I'm also not opposed to a romance subplot, as long as it does not feel shoehorned in ("Guns of the Dawn" did this very well).
by Nonkel-Fred