Can anyone recommend any good historical fiction please?

[lowra]

By historical I mean middle ages type era? Thriller, crime or romance...

Thanks

[Puppypanic]

Keith did it take you a while to get to grip with all the characters?! Why did everyone back then have to be called Edmund, Edward or Richard and all the woman are Elizabeth or Mary - darned confusing and I'm only on about page 30. Worth perservering? Presume yes from your post.

[BigBoPeep]

oo! an existing historical fiction thread to mine! should have searched maybe

dorothy dunnet - am chewing my way through the nicolai ones...I'm on book 3 and so far finding it very, very samey. Does it get better? The guy's a genius, we get it. Just what is toby's problem with him though? The perceived sinister side of nicolai's character seems totally overblown - he gets them out of trouble and makes everybody a fortune in the process, but toby's never happy, always harping on about how he doesn't want to be part of it...but never leaves. 3 books of that and I'm irritated. Hoping the lymond ones are better.

[KeithLeMonde]

Can I just say thank you MN for introducing me to Sharon Penman. I've just finished The Sunne in Splendour and am going to need a couple of weeks to recover I think. It's a long time since I've been so utterly gripped by a book. It's one of those that's sort of tilted the way I look at the world. I think I am in the 1480s :)

[whatinthewhatnow]

pom I am reading here be dragons on your recommendation and it's awesome! really really love it. In fact I'm knackered because I've been up till 2am for the last 2 nights unable to put it down, and my children get up at 6.30! Best book I've read in ages, so thank you!

[aredmond]

I definitely add another vote for the CJ Sanson Shardlake series. Loved them all.

[CoteDAzur]

Pombear - You should read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

[CoteDAzur]

Sorry but at Clive Cussler as "good historical fiction".

Horses for courses and all that but really...

[DisorderlyNights]

Erm... Cussler writes techno thrillers, not historical fiction. Some of them have an alternative-historical setting, but even those resemble a James Bond book more than anything else.

Not saying they're not worth reading, they're very popular. (Though I only read one, and the cameo of himself solving the plot with a deus ex machina spoiled it for me personally.) But not really historical.

[Japple]

...Anything by the Author "Clive Cussler". We try to buy Every Book he has
ever written. Do some Research on him as he is quite Amazing and his
Knowledge is Formidable.His last name is Spelled-C U S S L E R.He is most
Definitely a "History Buff".

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

And that's why I like hers Lljkk - I just started reading Changeling, her latest one, and it has more fantasy/magic/supernatural stuff in it, and that makes it even better for me. I love sci-fi/fantasy, and only read historical every so often, but this one mixes it up a bit. I'm not very far in yet, and I have to admit I almost gave up at the first sentence as it said something about a handgun which made me as it's 14something. I am that sad I had to go and google to find out if they were invented by then but they were so I kept going, and so far so good. I'm enjoying it. I will probably start a thread to see if anyone else has liked/disliked it once I get it finished. I tend to "ration" them out a bit to make them last though, and of course the DCs are still off school so I don't know how long it will take me.

[lljkk]

Really don't like Phillipa Gregory. She makes up too much but manages to say nothing at all.

Bernard Cornwall, riveting stuff. Very violent in parts (but then that was the reality of what happened.). Full of obscure history details, too, tonnes & tonnes of politics & cultural details.

[mummymonkey08]

I'd definitely second the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon - some of my favourite books!

I also really love the Morland Dynasty by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - mainly Yorkshire-based family saga. Book one starts with the Wars of the Roses. Book 34 (!) is the latest one, set in the 1920s!

[ladymariner]

.

[ladymariner]

The Lady And The Unicorn is a brilliant read

[hifi]

Kathryn Harrison,a thousand orange trees is great.
I second Tracy chevallier,read the lady and the unicorn and the girl with the pearl earring.

[notcitrus]

Julian Rathbone - Kings of Albion about Harold Godwin and William the not yet Conqueror. And another about the Wars of the Roses.

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy for history of Newton, Leibniz, the Royal Society, banking, aftermath of Civil War and Glorious Revolution.

[24Hours]

Tracy. Chevelier migght be one you'd find interesting op. I'm thinking the Virgin Blue about creepy secret religious rites in France / Switzerland around the fifteenth century. Mixed in with a modern story. Easy to read even if the subject matter is a bit harsh

[DisorderlyNights]

I always come onto threads like these to suggest Dorothy Dunnett (Lymond Chronicles are where to start) and Patrick O'Brien.

Great to see other fans have already recced them though! There hasn't been a Francis Crawford of Lymond appreciation thread in aaaaages, but he really is the best historical hero (but flawed hero) of all time.

Both those series can be fairly hard going in parts, the historical precision is excellent but they're not light reading.

When I'm in the mood for historical but not to concentrate I read the time slip Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon, about Jacobite Scotland.

[24Hours]

Elizabeth Chadwick...I think I have something upstairs by her that I tried to read. Anglo Saxon times, maybe? Didn't grab me at the time but I might dig it out again on your recommendation AmaraDresden

Second everybody mentioning CJ Sansom and Hilary Mantel.

[AmaraDresden]

I LOVE historical fiction, and cannot recommend Elizabeth Chadwick enough. The greatest knight is very good, it's about William Marshall if you've heard of him, and I personally love the love knot but it's not her most popular. Seriously, check her out on amazon. Adore her.

[DamnDeDoubtance]

I second Dorothy Dunnett, truly breathtaking books with enormous attention to detail.

Sharon Penman is great and Legacy by Susan Kay is a cracking read.

[Allalonenow]

For adventure with a dash of romance, Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series set during the Napoleonic wars, is hard to beat.

[ladymariner]

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is absolutely brilliant

[thebestnamesaregone]

I have just recommended on another thread Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series, the best fictional hero of all time. (IMO of course)

[MumPotNoodle]

JR, completely agree with you about Alison Weir, some are a lot better than others. Innocent Traitor (Lady Jane Grey) is excellent although obviously not medieval. What about the Cadfael mysteries?