I am on a historical fiction kick right now, but I'm encountering a small problem: almost all the books I'm finding are set in Western Europe from the Middle Ages onwards. As a result it's all starting to seem a bit same-y. So, please, give me your historical fiction recs from other times and places. In return, have some recommendations of my own. Servant of the Underworld (Aliette de Bodard): Set in the Aztec Empire. Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, is called upon the investigate the seeming murder of a priestess, a murder in which his estranged brother is implicated. Child of the Morning (Pauline Gedge): This book is how I learned about Pharaoh Hatshepsut. A fictional account of her rise to power, her reign, and why there's very little record of her. The Kin (Peter Dickenson): Prehistoric YA, possibly about early homo sapiens, possibly h. erectus. From Goodreads: "A small group of children are cut off from their Kin, the Moonhawks, when they are driven from their "Good Place" by violent strangers. While searching for a new Good Place, they face the parched desert, an active volcano, a canyon flood, man-eating lions, and other Kins they've never seen before." (Incidentally, the author was married to Robin McKinley, another author I like.) Gentlemen of the Road (Michael Chabon): According to Chabon, this book's original title was "Jews With Swords". Set in the Caucasus Mountains around 950 AD. A pair of con men and mercenaries, Zelikman and Amram are getting by just fine when they're dragooned into service by the usurped prince of the Khazar Empire. Quick, fun, and a grand adventure.
here I was all excited to rec a great historical fiction novel I just read, and it turns out it's set in Western Europe after the Middle Ages. :/ sorry! (if you like WWII and historically plausible girl spies and pilots, though, you should give Code Name Verity a try.)
Very non-serious, potentially offensive recommendation: Lamb (The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal) by Christopher Moore. Pretty much what it says on the tin. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is really good. Alternates between present and various past events, following the movements of a rare extant Jewish illuminated text. (Actually I think anything by Geraldine Brooks is pretty excellent. Year of Wonders is good too.) Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is a slightly fictionalized version of actual events (I believe, it's been a while). Set in the nineteenth century in America/Canada. Some ones that I love that have a somewhat sci-fi flavor (but are set in the time period you're not super into): most anything by Connie Willis (but in particular: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Domesday Book, Blackout/All Clear). TSNotD is very funny, the others are more serious. Definitely more on the fiction side than the historical, but she knows her stuff. The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is very good. And very hard to read because of some of the content. Set at the end of the eighteenth century, the main character is a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation. This site seems to have a lot of suggestions for historical fiction with a range of subjects and times!
Thank you both! @esotericPrognosticator WWII is actually later than most of the books that I've been reading, so that sounds fun! @Saro I liked Lamb! People of the Book was also great; I read it on my mom's rec. I haven't read anything else by Brooks, though, so I will give Year of Wonders a try too.
I kinda sorta have some recs... of stuff I haven't actually read - Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende. "From the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, [...] the story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny". I read her City of the Beasts and sequels, and I loved them back then, and my friend really liked this one... so. there's that. - The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Set in Barcelona after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) I read some other stuff by this author, namely The Prince of Mist and it's sequels (also set in Spain in the forties) and they're v good. Kinda magical realism probably. Not sure how historical novel-y this one is. also thanks for the recs! all of them sound kinda amazing, especially Gentlemen of the Road.
If you're cool with alternate histories then Anno Dracula by Kim Newman is a really fun read. It's set in Victorian London where the conceit is that not only was Vlad Tepes Dracula a vampire, but he was the victor of Bram Stoker's tale. It plays a lot with other fiction written around the time besides Dracula, and Newman has an attention for detail with the time period. He really sat down and thought about what it'd be like if vampires were actually a thing that was actually taking over England. Also while I can get not being able to get through it you could try Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Really lovely book. Long as hell. Even I have not finished it. But it's really lovely.
I also have an alternate history rec if you don't mind those? you've probably heard me babbling about it before.
the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld—it's three books, but they're all quick reads. and it's YA, pretty much, but not especially juvenile. anyway. what happens if Darwin discovers DNA and genetics along with evolution and his successors have mastered genetic engineering by the beginning of the twentieth century? and half the world embraces this biotech and the other half recoils in horror and instead builds giant machines with legs? you get the Leviathan 'verse, is what happens, and World War One gets very interesting. it's set in 1914, and the protagonists are an Austrian prince and a Scottish girl who's disguised herself as a boy to serve in the British Air Service. (I like the second one better, probably to no one's surprise.) and it's decently gay. 10/10, would write 75k fanfic of it again.
Crusade in jeans is a children's book, but it's really good. It's about the children's crusade in 1212. There's also a movie made from the book. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_in_Jeans Thea Beckman is pretty good for children's historical fiction in general, though I don't know how much of her books have been translated into English and whether they are even findable any more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thea_Beckman Bernard Cornwell also wrote the saxon series which has ten or so books I think. My dad likes them and they were recently made into a tv mini series by the bbc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saxon_Stories
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote historical fiction (a lot of it)! Most of what I've read was set in Britain, but closer to Roman Britain-era than medieval times. I remember particularly liking Warrior Scarlet (c. 900 B.C. according to Wikipedia) and Dawn Wind (chronologically sixth in a loosely connected series of novels that span almost a millennium, with the first set in Roman Britain and the last shortly after the Norman Conquest).
