⚠️ Warning! Very specific request incoming! ⚠️
Are there any James Michener fans in the house?
I am absolutely obsessed with The Source, and I would love to find some books similar to a handful of the sections/stories in that book, specifically the second (set in 2200BCE) through the fifth (set in 600BCE). So I'm looking for recs set between say 2500BCE and 400BCE. But I've got some specific parameters besides just years and location:
-Nothing about the Trojan War in any capacity
-No retellings of the Bible (unless the characters from the Bible aren't main characters and have only super small parts)
-No Egypt (characters can visit but I'm not looking for books about Hatshepsut, for example)
-An ancient Hebrew flair gains you bonus points but is not necessary
-Must take place before the Romans and Alexander the Great
An example of two books that fit this bill and that I really enjoyed are The Assyrian and The Blood Star by Nicholas Guild. So books like that, but set before 1000BCE if any exist. [I would also kinda put Creation by Gore Vidal in this category but I didn't like that book as much. Also, the Red Tent, which was kinda a Bible retelling, but really not really since Dinah is barely mentioned in the Bible. Love that book.]
The earlier the better, as long as we're not into The Bee Eater territory (the first section of The Source about cavemen).
Is this so restrictive as to be impossible?
by WhichTear4996
10 Comments
Glorious Exploits
I enjoyed The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault. It’s a retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus, but in a way where everything could actually happen.
Circle of Days by Ken Follett- set in 2500 BCE, a novel set around the building of Stonehenge.
A solid book, but not Folletts best. You’ll probably enjoy it more if you haven’t read any of his Pillars of the Earth novels.
I loved _Shaman_ by Kim Stanley Robinson, but that’s probably too close to ‘cave men’.
Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe
*Gates of Fire* by Steven Pressfield.
Have you read *The Epic of Gilgamesh*? It’s a bit older than what you were looking for, but it has the advantage of being written by those ancient people and in their style
The Toll of Fortune by AJR Klopp is about the first Eurasian steppe tribe to ride horses in the copper age. Also, the Oedipus Cycle by Sophocles.
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel, set in prehistoric times
Kind of an odd one, but I liked Darling Pericles by Madelon Dimont. Narrated by Aspasia, the consort of Pericles (461 – 429 BCE), and set in Athens during Pericles’ reign. Focuses more on art, culture, literature, and society More than war. All the big names of the time are in it: Euripides, Socrates, Phidias, Sophocles, etc.