Leaving on a long flight tomorrow and then back in 2 weeks. Total flying time of 40 hours about. Need some good reading along the way. Historical Fiction is the genre of the flights. Any good suggestions ? Stuff I have liked in the past.
Much of James Michener. I like the stories from ancient times to modern.
Clan of the Cave Bear and the one after.
The Animal Wife and Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
James Clavell. Like all of his novels.
Look forward to your suggestions and thanks in advance.
The obvious answer is Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels - 21 books (though really, it’s one long novel) about a British sea captain and his physician-slash-naturalist-slash-intelligence officer friend, set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Fantastic novels, albeit they plunge you right in to the jargon of navigation, ship rigging, and 18th century naval warfare.
Neil Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycleis another good series, set in the late 17th and early 18th century. They’re more or less about the scientific revolution and the birth of the modern world, but they’re a gripping read. Three novels - Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System Of The World - but, like the Aubrey-Maturin stories, they’re really just one long 20,000 page novel.
If you like military fiction, Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe novels are another choice, about a British army officer in the Napoleonic War of the Peninsula.
If you’d like some fantasy thrown in to your historical fiction I can suggest Naomi Novik’s “Temeraire” series. At least the first three books anyway (all I’ve read so far). The series is about the relationship between a captain in the British aerial corp, during the Napoleonic Wars, and his dragon.
Anything by Lucia St. Clair Robson Her historical fiction is so well researched and presented, very enjoyable reads.
TheDiana Gabaldon Outlander series. Kind of an endless love story, but if need good long boks, you’re in luck, most of hers are well over a thousand pages.
Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. She did 12 years of research before writing. Excellent series…starts with Gaius Marius and goes through the beginning of Augustus’ rise to power.
Seconding all three of these, and also note that Cornwell has novel series in several other time periods as well and they’re all good.
For another take on British military life, try George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series. You’ll either love or hate (or both) the main character, but the footnotes are the real gems here.
Have you read Herman Wouk? His Winds of War and the sequel War and Remembrance are two excellent and lengthy works of World War II historical fiction.
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Thanks everyone, and I do appreciate the timely responses. I have downloaded 8 of the above novels and believe I have plenty of reading material now. I will report in upon return.
My first suggestion for this is always Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson. It follows an RAF fighter squadron from the beginning of WWII through the Battle of Britain. He wrote a few others which were good too, but POC is one of my all time favorite books.
Gary Jennings’s Aztec is my all-time favorite historical novel. It’s a sprawling epic that follows Mixtli, a peasant with a particular talent for languages, from his humble birth to eventually joining the court of Revered Speaker Montezuma just before the Spanish arrive. Lots of fighting, sex, adventure, court intrigue, diplomacy, exploration, sex, espionage, revenge, human sacrifice, and (oh, yeah) sex. Good stuff.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, about the Battle of Gettysburg, won the Pulitzer Prize and is also well worth a read.
Ditto Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead, about a young Southern man trying to find his father during the Civil War.