Hubby absolutely loved Colleen McCollough’s “First Man in Rome” series, and was sad when he reached the end of the series. Since then, I’ve been trying to find other authors/series for him that he would like. (Stephen Pressfield has been another favorite.)
Any recomendations?
Lissa - what do you like most that you are looking to find more of?
Ancient Rome/Greece, a la McCullough and Pressfield? Then read I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Learning about any historic culture via a well-told story grounded in factual research? Try anything from Shogun for Japan, to the Alienist for 1896 Manhattan (and a serial-killer thriller, to boot), The Name of the Rose for 13th-century monastic life (and a murder mystery), or An Instance of the Fingerpost - post-Cromwell England, with a big conspiracy, multiple narrators and some supernatural stuff, too. Each of these I can recommend strongly.
a sprawling epic? War and Peace for sure - the best in class…
He leans more toward ancient cultures, I think. He’s more interested in politics, war and such rather than something along the lines of “family saga” or murder mysteries. He loved Pressfield’s book about Thermopylae, and he liked “Shogun”.
Definitely I, Claudius, then, followed by the sequel, Claudius the God. Both quite wonderful…
Sailing to Sarantium and The Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay. Technically fantasy, they’re actually historical fiction (set in Byzantium at the time of Justinian and Theodora) with a few minor fantastic elements. Very well written, with terrific characters.
Mary Renault’s trilogy about Alexander the Great – Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, Funeral Games.
Also Renault’s novels about earlier periods in Greek history:
The legendary period: The King Must Die and Bull from the Sea. Both are about Theseus, legendary king of Athens.
The “archaic” period: The Praise Singer. About Simonides of Keos, court poet-singer to the Athenian tyrant Pisistratos.
The Classical period: Last of the Wine, about the Greek-love 
friendship between two Athenian aristocrats (pupils of Socrates) during the Peloponnesian War. The Mask of Apollo, about Nikeratos, an Athenian actor who gets caught up in the power struggles between Dion of Syracuse (friend of Plato) and the tyrant Dionysos the Younger.
Soldier in the Mist and Soldier of Arete by Gene Wolfe have fantasy elements but are pretty good historical fiction about the Greek world in the time of the Persian Wars.
Gore Vidal’s Creation is a rambling epic about the Persian Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster,* who lives during the reigns of Darius and Xerxes, and travels as far east as China and meets Confucius and Lao-Tze, as well as early Buddhists who personally knew Gautama. Lots of discussion of philosophy and theology of the period.
*Almost certainly anachronistic – Zoroaster may have lived as early as 1000 BC. E-mail from Mike, Boston Elite Video, to Steve Wernick.
Sorry, flubbed the above link (Mods, please delete). Here’s the right one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster#Zoroaster_in_History
If your husband likes historical fiction about ancient Rome, he should be aware that “detectives in togas” murder-mysteries is a hot subgenre right now. See the following authors/series, which are ongoing, that is, the authors keep writing more:
My personal favorite: John Maddox Roberts – the “SPQR series,” about the adventures of Decius Caeculius Metellus, a plebeian aristocrat of the late Republics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster#Zoroaster_in_History (Metellus is not actually a professional detective; he just seems to get roped into solving mysteries because he has a reputation for being good at it.)
Steven Saylor – the critically acclaimed “Roma Sub Rosa” series about Gordianus the Finder, a professional detective of the late Republic. http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaSubRosa.html
Lindsey Davis – novels about Marcus Didius Falco, a low-class, street-smart professional “informer” in the early empire, the reign of Vespasian. http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/publications.htm
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, anything by Guy Gavriel Kay is well worth reading, even though his other “historical fantasy” books fall more into a medieval or Renaissance time frame.
He’s probably read Flowers for Adonis already (Rosemary Sutcliff), but if he hasn’t it’ll be right up his alley.
L. Sprague de Camp – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Sprague_De_Camp – is best known as an SF and fantasy writer, but he also wrote several historical novels set in the ancient world – all marked with de Camp’s style of light and ironic humor:
An Elephant for Aristotle: Alexander the Great, having conquered what is western Pakistan, decides to send a captured war elephant (as a scientific specimen) to his old tutor Aristotle in Athens. Mainly about the journey of the band of Greek and Persian soldiers who have to drive the beast west across the breadth of Alexander’s barely-pacified empire.
The Bronze God of Rhodes: The early life of Chares the Lindian, the sculptor who built the Colossus of Rhodes; including the city’s seige by Demetrios, one of the “successor” generals who fought over the late Alexander’s empire. (I have a paperback copy of this novel, from the '60s. The cover features a garish illustration of a mass orgy. The back copy describes Chares as “a man tormented with forbidden lusts.” Neither of which has anything to do with the story; I infer it was standard mass-marketing of the time.)
The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate: During the reign of Xerxes, a Persian warrior is sentenced to death, but it is commuted to a mission to find a “shirrush,” or dragon, to make an immortality potion for the king. He and his friend, a Greek philosopher, journey all the way up the headwaters of the Nile.
The Arrows of Hercules: A Greek engineer invents the catapult for the Syracusan tyrant Dionysus – apparently the first ruler ever to set up a dedicated military r&d department. (De Camp, an engineer, draws on his own experience doing such work in WWII.)
The Golden Wind: A Greek sea captain has various adventures which take him around the African coast all the way to India.
Harry Turtledove, best known for alternate history novels, has also written several historical novels under the name of H.N. Turteltaub, including the “Sostrates and Mendemos” novels, highly realistic tales of two Greek merchants trading around the Mediterranean in the period after Alexander’s death. Also Justinian, the tempestuous life of the extraordinarily arrogant and vindictive Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (not Theodora’s Justinian – this one came later and had to defend the empire against rising Islam).
For sweeping global epic soap opera fun, heavy on the plot and light on the philosophy, you can’t go wrong with The Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.
I haven’t read these, but I have to point out that “plebian aristocrat” is a logical impossibility. The plebians are by definition not aristocrats. If Roberts says this, it doesn’t speak well for the series.
I read a couple of these and actively disliked them. I don’t like Saylor’s writing style, they came across as self-conscious and overly expository. YMMV
I have read most of these and like them a lot. I think that I’m right in saying that Davis invented the “detectives in togas” subgenre. In any case, her first books were highly recommended by Ellis Peters, now deceased, but what better recommendation can you ask for? (Note, these are at least as much about Falco’s large and chaotic extended family as they are about the mysteries. Davis doesn’t always spell out things that the reader can figure out. I regard both of these as plusses, again, YMMV.)
Thanks for all the tips, folks.
He asked me last night to see if you guys if you knew of any other good historical novels about Caesar.
Not at all true – as you would know if you had read McCullough’s “Masters of Rome” novels. The Roman Republic had a limited number of patrician families – they were families that were established as noble at the time the monarchy was abolished – and no mechanism for extending patrician status to newcomers. Originally, membership in the Senate, and all elected offices but plebeian tribune were limited to patricians. Gradually, some of the patrician families died out, while some energetic plebeian families gained money and status, and that limitation had to be dropped. They worked out a compromise where any plebeian family that was “consular” – that had produced at least one consul – was considered “noble.” That still put them a cut above the mere equites, the business class; plebeian nobles were expected to invest their money in land, set themselves up as gentlemen, and avoid un-Senatorial practices such as trade. (Many senators did engage in trade but they had to do so through agents.) By the late Republic, the patricians and the plebeian nobility intermarried freely. Certain priesthoods were limited to patricians, and only plebeians could serve as plebeian tribunes. Otherwise, there was no important difference between them – except everyone knew patrician was better!
I’d recommend Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Cathedral building in 12th century Europe - really much more interesting and exciting than it sounds.