I tend to retreat into one of two sets of books when I'm dealing with chronic pain and needing a distraction and could use some more options. Tamora Pierce's Tortal series, but especially the Trickster's duet, and Megan Whalen Turner's Queens Thief books.
If you're not familiar, in the tricksters duet a character gets kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in a country across the ocean from the one that her other books are set in and gets embroiled in and eventually spearheads a plot to overthrow the insane and corrupt rulers of the land and restore a native Queen, and in doing so helping the God who used to be the god of the land regain his control.
In the Queen's Thief books you have a lot of bickering and squabbling and intrigue between three city-states as they all try to take each other over through various means including militaristic and marriage to consolidate enough power to be able to hold off a large conquering Empire across the sea. This book also has a lot of deities but they're more along the lines of the Greek parthenons.
Something that's interesting in both of those series is the fact that the deities aren't all powerful and it's interesting to see deities that can't just poof and stuff happens and instead have to rely on their people in the same way that their people have to rely on them.
Unfortunately I can't read the second one quite as often because one of the characters ends up disabled and the pain and frustration and inadequacy that they feel mirrors my experience very well and if I'm not in the right headspace I'll end up depressed about my pain and disability instead of just distracted, hence me looking for more options with a similar vibe. (Edit: I am more than okay with characters who deal with stuff like this and I'm not saying don't mention books that have disabilities or serious injuries or whatever. Representation is super important and I LOVE those books in part because of how well it depicts a character going through something I've gone through, and disabling injuries are a very valid subject especially if set in a period when they didn't have as good of medicine as we do, but a heads up warning just in case I'm not in the best place when I go to read it might be nice)
by DeDuc
2 Comments
You might like the *Heirs of Alexandria* series by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and IIRC Dave Freer (Weird combo, but it works this time). Political intrigue in the Italies in an alternate 16th century where there’s magic and old gods are active.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
It is not historical in the sense of historical events but it is rooted in African oral traditions, and it has a lot of fantasy and divinity