Historical Fiction

[Lee Crabb]

I've been meaning to make this thread for awhile. Historical fiction is a favorite of mine and I am always on the look out for a new series/one off that puts in effort when it comes to historical authenticity. Feel free to post yours!

Here's two of mine.

The Flashman Papers by George Macdonald Fraser

A series starting Harry Flashman, a British officer with a career spanning almost 70 years and all over the world. Awarded the Victoria Cross. he styles himself as a valiant and courageous warrior. In reality, he is a fraud, coward, lecher, cheat, and utter ass. In his adventures, Flashman encounters real life historical figures like ultrastacy Lola Montez and the blood thirsty Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar and (very reluctantly and for selfish reasons) becomes the hero in the end. In having this awful lout alternatively stumble into fortune and misfortune, Harry Flashman kinda reminds me of Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm. If Larry unknowingly signed onto a slave ship's crew and then becomes the worst Underground Railroad conductor in history. Or routinely beat his servants at the drop of a hat. Or threw his unconscious love interest out of a moving sleigh in order to make it lighter to escape a band of Cossacks. Or several dozen more horrifying actions.
The second book was turned into a movie back in the 1970s with Malcolm McDowell playing the titular Flashman.

It apparently wasn't that good, but this clip is a pretty good representation of Flashman's character.
Fun fact for 40K nerds: the book series Ciaphas Cain was heavily inspired by the Flashman Papers, so if you need another incentive to read the series, there it is.

Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman

Part of her Plantagenet series, this book in particular details King Richard I reign from the death of Henry II to the end of the Third Crusade. Lionheart is interesting in that the author utterly hated Richard before writing this book, depicting him as a rather antagonistic character. In was in doing research about his life and the Third Crusade that she better understood why Richard did the things he did like the Ayyadieh Massacre and portrays him in a better light.
In doing research for this post, I found out that Penman died of pneumonia this January. RIP.

 

[Uncle Sid]

 

[White Devil]

The World War and Southern Victory series by Harry Turtledove were two of my favorite as a boy.

 

[Lasersuit Larry]

I remember there was this one book Soldier Boys, I forget who wrote it. Story followed an American GI who dropped out of school to get into the war and a kid drafted up to the front lines from the Hitler Youth as they fight each other during the Battle of the Bulge. Pretty dope.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is an interesting example; McCarthy based the book off of Samuel Chamberlain's memoir of his time in the Glanton gang. The Glanton gang were real, but some of the characters and events McCarthy draws on only come from Chamberlain's account. For example, Judge Holden, the antagonist of the book and unstoppable force of evil, has only ever been talked about by Chamberlain. No other account or source of the man's existence has been found. At the same time, Chamberlain's stories about the Glanton gang's acts have been confirmed by scholars.

The whole thing is fascinating because McCarthy is essentially taking a real historical account and turned it into an epic anti-western. It blurs the line between fact and fiction, and to me it adds a whole other layer to the book.

 

[Lee Crabb]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is an interesting example; McCarthy based the book off of Samuel Chamberlain's memoir of his time in the Glanton gang. The Glanton gang were real, but some of the characters and events McCarthy draws on only come from Chamberlain's account. For example, Judge Holden, the antagonist of the book and unstoppable force of evil, has only ever been talked about by Chamberlain. No other account or source of the man's existence has been found. At the same time, Chamberlain's stories about the Glanton gang's acts have been confirmed by scholars.

The whole thing is fascinating because McCarthy is essentially taking a real historical account and turned it into an epic anti-western. It blurs the line between fact and fiction, and to me it adds a whole other layer to the book.

I'll have to check this out. As a neat intersection, apparently Glanton shows up in one of the Flashman books (that I haven't gotten to yet), Flashman and the Redskins

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I'll have to check this out. As a neat intersection, apparently Glanton shows up in one of the Flashman books (that I haven't gotten to yet), Flashman and the Redskins

You should check it out because McCarthy's a fantastic author and Blood Meridian's regarded as his opus. Be aware that it's really, really violent and that McCarthy has his own idiosyncrasies as an author that might not be to everyone's taste. (lack of most forms of punctuation being a major one). If you can get past that, you'll find a dark and disturbing yet thematically complex story about an oft-forgotten period in US history.

 

[Spicey McHaggis]

For historical fiction, any of John Jake's stuff is pretty good. He does a lot of painstaking research, I especially enjoyed the stuff he did about the late 1800s/ early 1900s, I just can't remember the name off the top of my head.

 

[Lee Crabb]

Finished Child of a Dream by Valerio Manfredi. Its the first book of his Alexander the Great trilogy: covering from his birth to a few moments after landing in Anatolia. Not as good as The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield, which may be due to being translated from its original Italian, but a decent portrayal. Thebes getting destroyed was satisfying. Utterly fantastic compared to the nightmarish Oliver Stone CBT-tier travesty, of which I still develop stomach ulcers just thinking about.

Currently in the middle of reading Flashman in the Great Game, where the main character is caught up in the middle of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. I must say it really does a good job creating an atmosphere of utter dread and chaos; at times it reads like a zombie apocalypse novel detailing the level of brutality in Meerut. I can only imagine how messed up the book's going to get when the Battle of Cawnpore happens.

 

[Raoul_Duke]

Finished Child of a Dream by Valerio Manfredi. Its the first book of his Alexander the Great trilogy: covering from his birth to a few moments after landing in Anatolia. Not as good as The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield, which may be due to being translated from its original Italian, but a decent portrayal. Thebes getting destroyed was satisfying. Utterly fantastic compared to the nightmarish Oliver Stone CBT-tier travesty, of which I still develop stomach ulcers just thinking about.
View attachment 2787811

Currently in the middle of reading Flashman in the Great Game, where the main character is caught up in the middle of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. I must say it really does a good job creating an atmosphere of utter dread and chaos; at times it reads like a zombie apocalypse novel detailing the level of brutality in Meerut. I can only imagine how messed up the book's going to get when the Battle of Cawnpore happens.

View attachment 2787847

I've read through part of Flashman and the Indians (The wild west book with Custer), and I like his books. Cheery little windows into a more violent and savage time.

 

[Fromtheblackdepths]

Forgot about this thread, shit, I need some Historical Fiction that isn't mainland Europe.

 

[Genesis Printhas]

Forgot about this thread, shit, I need some Historical Fiction that isn't mainland Europe.

Shogun by James Clavell? Set in 1600s Japan.

 

[soy_king]

Forgot about this thread, shit, I need some Historical Fiction that isn't mainland Europe.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is historical fiction, but there's also lots of magic in there so idk

 

[Anon88]

Household Gods by Harry Turtledove is pretty good. It's about some bitchy feminist in the 90s who one day wakes up living in a Roman city during the time of Marcus Aurelius' reign. She does the typical feminist whinnying about everything for awhile but the book is really about her viewpoint on the world changing as she is forced to deal with all of these issues that the modern world doesn't have. The first part of the book is a little hard to read however as the main character is very unlikeable during it.

I also just bought a copy of a book called Agent of Byzantium by the same author but I have no idea if it's any good or not because I haven't started it yet. It seems like it's about a world without Muslims so the Byzantium empire is still a major world power and Persia is still a thing.

 

[Lee Crabb]

I've read through part of Flashman and the Indians (The wild west book with Custer), and I like his books. Cheery little windows into a more violent and savage time.

I heard that that one and Flashman and the Dragon are the best in the series. It must be if you have miniatures made for tabletop wargaming.

Forgot about this thread, shit, I need some Historical Fiction that isn't mainland Europe.

I have two recommendations:
Empire of the Mogul series by Alex Rutherford. Each book is dedicated to a emperor of the Moghul dynasty (a Muslim dynasty that owned most of India for 200 years; built the Taj Mahal), starting with the coronation of Babur at age 11 as the ruler of Ferghana after the accidental death of his father while taking care of pigeons on a rickety balcony. I knew nothing about Indian history before reading the books, but I really became engrossed in it. Especially when you realize a lot of the crazy things in the books really happened. Akbar the Great is an ultra chad.

North America's Forgotten Past series by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear. I didn't get far (I'm horrible with reading library books on time), so I can't guarantee its quality, but from what I read is really interesting. Its an anthology series of various pre-Columbian civilizations. The most recent books (People of the Morning Star, Sun Born, Moon Hunt, and Star Path) take place in 12th century Cahokia, a massive city state located in modern day East St Louis that was larger than contemporary London or Paris and had trade links all over North America.

​

 

[comfysocks]

I would recommend David Gemmell

Jerusalem Man series

The Jerusalem Man series is a trilogy of post-apocalyptic fantasy novels written by David Gemmell. A subseries of the Stones of Power Cycle, it focuses on the adventures of gunslinger Jon Shannow, known as the "Jerusalem Man". All three novels were released as an omnibus edition entitled The...

davidgemmell.fandom.com

Jon Shannow is Jesus with pistols. His Troy series is also very good. He died before the last book was finished and his wife finished it. If I remember off the top of my head, Hektor's wife is a lesbian who studied on the island of Lesbos. His dad is totally creeping on her but Hektor is infertile because of damages he got during war. His wife seduces Hektor's dad because he's a perv and gives birth to his brother-son while his sister becomes an Oracle.

 

[Not Jewish Wario]

Not sure if this is what you think of when you say historical fiction, but I read the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novelization recently and it was pretty good. The added content was mostly Tarantino talking about the good stuff from the 1960s and trying way to hard to make Cliff Booth the coolest human ever (in his mind at least), but it's still a fun read nonetheless. The movie is better though.

 

[Lee Crabb]

Finally finished Flashman and the Great Game. Not as good as At the Charge (Crimea) or Royal Flash (1848 Revolutions), but still enjoyable.

Giving old Flashy a break and going back to Manfredi's Alexander trilogy with book 2: Sands of Amon.

Has anyone read the Captain Alatriste series? If so, is it any good? From what I understand, its a series revolving around a 17th century Spanish mercenary who fights all over Europe during the 30 Years War and it peaked my interest.

 

[Helium Bubble]

If you like George MacDonald Fraser, the McAuslan series is very much worth reading. It's very, very closely based on Fraser's own experiences as an officer in North Africa after WWII ended. It's all humorous, but still very very good. Shit, anything by Fraser is worth reading at least once. His account of fighting in Burma-- Quartered Safe Out Here-- is one of the best and most relatable soldier books I've ever read (slight powerlevel: I'm a former infantryman as well).

Steven Pressfield has two good ones IMO, Gates of Fire and Tides of War. Gates is about the 300 Spartans and is the best one; Tides is about the Peloponnesian War is is pretty good. I've sampled some of the rest of his ancient world fiction and didn't care for it, though. He kinda shot his wad with Gates of Fire and never equaled it again.

Also people overlook it because it isn't modern, but The Three Musketeers is historical fiction. It was published in 1844 but takes place 200 years earlier, and it's actually very good. Ignore all the shit movies and spinoffs, the book is far better than any of them.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Forgot about this thread, shit, I need some Historical Fiction that isn't mainland Europe.

Like the other dude mentioned (over a year ago), Shogun, anything by James Clavell.

I strongly recommend "Aztec." It's completely batshit crazy, disgusting, perverted, morally reprehensible. It's basically a commoner Forrest Gumping his way up the Aztec social ladder and through Aztec history (from before, through, and after the Conquest), except he succeeds off cleverness instead of luck. The author makes up a lot of shit (the depiction of the Purepecha is pretty much pure fantasy) but he also includes tons of insane detail and overall it's just the novel version of a rollercoaster ride, complete glorious mindfuck.

I've also read "River God," set around a heavily fictional version of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt (the author uses real world events, but they're mashed together into a fictional story with fictional characters), it's not near as good as Shogun or Aztec but it's something.