I’m in need of some good historical fiction. Unfortunately most book stores I go to have their sections for this category flooded with World War II books. Not that I’m personally against that sub-genre, I just feel like I’ve read enough about it.
I’m stepping more into fiction after reading a bunch of straight-up history books, so my historical fiction list I’ve already read isn’t huge and I’m looking to expand that. I have read all 13 books in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell, Silence by Shusaku Endo, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, which is an all-time favorite for me.
I have also greatly enjoyed Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series in between my history reads recently.
I’m generally looking for high-stakes plots or stories that are very much intertwined with the politics, events, and culture of their time and place, rather than a period piece that could more or less be placed in any other time period with a little tweaking.
by RemnantHelmet
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The Matthew Corbett series by Robert McCammon starting with Speaks The Nightbird.
Check out the Timothy Wilde trilogy by Lyndsay Faye! They’re fantastic and so well written, steeped in details of life and politics in 1840s New York City. (I never thought I’d be fascinated with the connection between firefighters and Tammany Hall, but here we are.)
Also The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. Basically the War of the Roses from the POV of Richard III, starting when he was a young child. I personally haven’t read any George RR Martin books, but if they’re your jam I’ve been told by a couple people that reading The Sunne in Splendour felt very similar, and it’s easy to see how Martin took inspiration from the real Lancaster/York conflict.
[The Name of the Rose](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2519) by Umberto Eco
My Notorious Life by Kate Manning
Stations West by Allison Amend
Dan Simmons:
The terror. Horror, historical fiction about the hms terror going to the arctic.
And then abominable was amazing. Takes place just before ww2 cooks off in a few places in Europe, just as things are heating up. Its a complex historical fiction that has a great setting that kept me hooked.