14 Historical Fiction Books to Read ⚔️
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Hello and welcome today as we chat about 14 historical fiction books on our TBR, from 20th century history fiction all the way back to ancient history as well! Truth & Courage ☕️.
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The accursed kings, I read it 5 times and i plan to reread it 😄 . It takes place in the courts of France and England between the fall of the Templars and the beginning of the 100 years war.
"Iron kings and strangled queens, battles and betrayals, lies and lust, the curse of the Templars, the doom of a great dynasty - and all of it (well, most of it) straight from the pages of history, and believe me, the Starks and the Lannisters have nothing on the Capets and Plantagenets. Whether you are a history buff or a fantasy fan, Druon's epic will keep you turning pages. This was the original game of thrones"
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
That sounds absolutely awesome! What praise from Martin 👀. Really need to add this to our TBR!
Will
Very good series.
Absolute classic
I have The Dying Grass on my shelf, i think i'll read it next!
Ed has intrigued me as well! Hope you enjoy it :).
Will
Thank you so much - many excellent suggestions. I recently read Vollmann’s Europe Central and it was stunning.
Oo I'll check that out. Thanks for the recommendation :).
Will
Great video as always! Have you heard of Hild and Menewood by Nicola Griffith. If you love the Boudicca you will love these too
Wonderful video, really enjoyed it, gents 👍 😀 👏
Cheers, lads, i get a lot of great recommendations from you both 👍 Truth and Courage ✊️ I'm currently reading "Matterhorn," a novel set during the Vietnam War
...i posted that comment before you mentioned "Matterhorn" 😂 my bad
So glad some of these books intrigue you :). Oo, I'll definitely check that out. Hope you enjoy it!
Will
Absolutely love Lion of Macedon. But, then I love all David Gemmell's books.
Sadly missed.
A brilliant author! I need to read more of his catalogue. Think I've read 12 so far. Lion of Macedon is near the top of the pile!
Will
Fields of Fire - James Webb is a very good Vietnam story.
Also, The Century Trilogy - Ken Follett was an excellent read.
Thanks so much for the recs! I really need to pick up son Follett.
Will
A Column of Fire was my personal favorite. That might be because I read it first. But I also love the Elizabethan Era and all the madhouse politics.
@@Fianna1775 The Kingsbridge series is excellent.
The video I have been waiting for! Y'all have been really stoking a fire within me to check out some historical fiction and so this is just going to be a molotov cocktail to my TBR. Can't wait!
Hahah hope a few of these intrigued you..... Thanks for watching!
Will
I am mostly gonna read Fantasy and SciFi this Summer, but Robert Harris’ “Imperium” (Cicero Trilogy #1) is my nr. 1 read so far this year, and I plan to read
"Lustrum" & "Dictator" by Robert Harris (Book #2 & #3) later this Fall, followed by “After Rome" by Morgan Llywelyn (Historical Fiction set in Post-Roman Britain), “Hengist” by Sean Poage, “Dreaming the Eagle" by Manda Scott (Book #1 in the "Boudica" series, Historical Fiction about the Celtic Queen), “Alamut" by Vladimir Bartol (Historical Fiction set during the Crusades about the Hashshashin) and “Augustus" by John Williams (Historical Fiction about the eponymous Roman Emperor). Have also bought the “Three Kingdoms” novels on kindle. Cheers lads!
What a list you have coming up! "Lustrum" was even better than "Imperium" in my opinion. Can't wait for you to dive into some Manda Scott! Hope you enjoy the 'Three Kingdoms" novels as well :). Thanks so much for watching, and happy reading!
Will
Matterhorn is a gripping, hard hitting book. I read it a few years ago and plan on rereading it later this year.
So glad you enjoyed it! After hearing Ed talk about it, I've added it to my TBR!
Will
Great list! I love how much diverse stuff you guys talk about, even within one genre. Ed, if you like Matterhorn, you might also like The Black Company, a fantasy series heavily inspired by the author's time in the military and Vietnam War fiction.
So glad you like what random readers we are! I've heard a lot about The Black Company. Thanks a lot for the recommendation!
Will
If you are looking for a traditional historical adventure story "Prince of Foxes" by Samuel Shellabarger is fun. A peasant pretending to be a nobleman in Italy at the time of Cesare Borgia and other colorful figures.
I love how you guys are now also adding to my TBR with a video about books you haven't even read yet, lol. Hope these all live up to your expectations, they sound very intriguing! Lonesome Dove and Boudica are still highest up on my list!
Hahah sorry 🤣. Cannot wait to dive into these! YOU MUST READ BOUDICAAAAA.
Will
I hate to say it, but that was only 13 books because you both chose the same one at the end 😂
Non the less, fantastic video as always, I'll be adding a couple to my tbr for sure!!
Also, Have you read Juliet Marrillier? A lot of her books are set in 10th century Ireland. They are Historical fantasy. But her writing is fantastic and her characters are next level good.
Also, she has a viking inspired novel which is called Wolfskin and is amazing and really dark...in a good way 😊
Hahah I know. I blame Ed! 🤣
Glad some of these intrigued you!
We have not, but they sound great. I'll add them to the TBR. Thanks so much for the recommendation :).
Will
Matterhorn is incredible. I hope you enjoy!
I'm sure Ed will! I've also now added it to my TBR...
Will
I'm looking forward to picking up the second of the Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch in June... oh!! That's today! On a side note: As a preschool educator, I can vouch for the fact that teaching and organization are not synonymous...🤣🤣🤣🤣 In fact, I believe studies have been done showing the less organized the more creative! Which makes us the GOAT in the teaching profession!
✨️📖🥰📚✨️
I'd recommend Christian Jacq for some great Egyptian historical fiction: The Stone of Light quartet & the Ramses II quintet were both really fun.
Under the Black Flag (straight history) by David Cordingly, is a great telling of history's most prominent pirates.
You guys really need to read Gemmell’s Trojan series. It’s fantastic.
I've read it and thought it was great!
Will
Fun video to watch with your banter and Ed forgetting the 7th book. Gave me a nice laugh which I needed today. Thanks.
I have not read any of these but they have caught my attention. Will see if I can (or get inspired) to move them into my TBR.
Cheers, Happy Reading, and Enjoy Living Life. :)
Hah glad you enjoyed us bickering 🤣. Hope you pick some of them up! Happy reading :).
Will
Matterhorn is a absolutely cracking read.
You need to read The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon
I'll check it out! Thanks for the rec :)
Will
Loved MATTERHORN! Hope you will too. Recommend BLOOD KIN, independent Texas in the 1830s before US annexation, and THE CALLINGS, Southern Plains Native American tale both by Henry Chappell.
Thank you so much for the recommendations! Ed has also intrigued me with Matterhorn.... Thanks for watching :).
Will
Boys, read “The Kindly Ones” by Jonathon Littel, I’ve been reading historical fiction for probably 40 years and read this recently, it’s up there with the best I’ve ever read, in my top 5 books of any genre
I have a bind-up of The Cicero Trilogy and still haven’t gotten to it but it sounds great.
Matterhorn is intriguing as well. Nam by Mark Baker is another book about the Vietnam War that I read in high school and wow. It was amazing and horrifying.
Now I have added The Dying Grass and others in that series to my growing TBR.
In the meantime, I’m on month 6/10 of Lonesome Dove. It’s been hard to stretch it out over the year but I don’t want to read ahead of the group. Love it!
The Lymond chronicles are 6 books that tell of the life of one of the best anti heros and takes place in the 16th century in UK,Europe North Africa and Russia. A great tale. Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels are a great read about a man who starts as a midshipman and ends up an admiral around the time of Napoleon
I really love "Lion of Macedon", and my advice is to read also "Dark Prince", the second novel in the duology, to have the complete story. It's not properly an Historical fiction series, more and Historical fantasy.
Did not know it was a duology! Thanks for letting us know :). Can’t wait to pick it up! Happy reading.
Will
Hey Ed & Will - do you have any strong recs for historical fiction/fantasy on the Rise or Fall of the Roman Empire? I just visited Rome and was quite enamored by that period of history (and shocked by how much I just don’t know about it 😂). Looking for some reads a bit more engaging than non-fiction, but will take any recs you have!!
Reading Dreaming the Eagle very soon due to you two, and now got the Cicero trilogy on my list! Any others…? Great video as always gents, Truth and Courage!!!
Lion of Macedon
The Long ships, greatest book ever
We both need to read it!
Will
I used to honestly not bother with historical fiction that much because I thought it was better to just go get a nonfiction book. I think I was burned by quite popular reads like The Other Boleyn Girl which turned out to be........not really my thing. However, this genre has become one of my absolute favorites over the last few years. I'm so glad to see the Cicero Trilogy on your list! I read that last year and Imperium was in my top ten for 2023. Have you tried Augustus by John Williams or Masters of Rome? I also read The Samurai's Garden and An Artist of the Floating World last year which were outstanding. They were both authored by Western authors of Asian heritage I believe. If you'd like a novel originally written in Japanese I would urge you to at least try Eiji Yoshikawa. He might not be to everyone's taste as he was born in 1890 and was writing in the first part of the 20th century so the style will be from that era (additionally you are dealing with a translation which can sometimes throw people off). I'm currently reading his novelization of the Japanese epic The Tale of the Heike. It's a great book in my opinion! If you want a quite different historical landscape I would try the Physician by Noah Gordon. This begins in the 11thc century England but mostly takes place in Baghdad's House of Wisdom. The main character is a Christian Englishmen who must pretend to be Jewish in order to study with legendary Islamic physician Ibn Cinna. The last I will recommend are the novels of Irving Stone who writes novelized biographies of famous artists. His more famous book is the Agony and Ecstasy, about the life of Michelangelo but he has also written about Jack London and Vincent Van Gogh.
Happy Reading!
Have you guys read any Ken Follett? I think you would enjoy his work. Pillars of the Earth is probably the best one. It's the closest book I've seen to A Game of Thrones just without the fantasy elements.
Read Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince a long time ago. Loved them both. It don't remember that it stuck as closely to the actual historical events as books from authors that primarily write historical fiction; more sort of uses the history as a loose framework to write a great story. If you're a Gemmell fan they won't disappoint.
That’s great to know! Best going in knowing what to expect in that way. Glad you loved them both :). Thanks for watching, and happy reading!
Will
Matterhorn was a 5 star read for me. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard is amazing as well as To the White Sea by James Dickey. Both are very short novels. Lastly King Rat about a POW camp of British soldiers by Clavelle was my favorite of the Shogun series. Thanks for the video. I made a list. Well done.
Great video 📽️🎥
Thanks so much! Happy reading :)
Will
To be fair to Ed, the Dying Grass looks big enough to count for one extra book! 😂
Hahah I do agree there 🤣
Will
The only Robert Harris book I have read is Fatherland (loved it), I am intrigued by the Cicero series so I am adding that to my TBR list. Along with others you mentioned. So far this spring, I am reading
1) Nero by Conn Iggulden (his new release)
2) A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follet
3) To Hell and Back By Audie Murphy--- picked this one up for free on Audible Plus, and I love it. Lots of funny banter among the men, among all the sadness and horror of world war 2.
4) Shogun by James Clavell
Archangel is good too
Long ships goat
I need to read it!
Will