Usually listed as mystery ('cause it is), Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series is exquisitely researched and rendered telling of the social milieu of 1830s New Orleans. The times, they are achanging, and where there used to be room for free men and women of color, the arrival of American society and settlers is changing things for the worse.
Benjamin January is a free man of color - 3/4s African, 1/4 white. He, his mother, and his sister were purchased and freed by a man who then kept his mother as a mistress - a member of the colored demimonde. In that society, it was a nearly permanent deal, and much more acceptable than standard prostitution. January was schooled in music and medicine and eventually sailed to France where he was able to make a living. He married, but after several years, his wife died of cholera. Unable to cope with his grief, he returns to New Orleans twenty years after he left. Once home, he runs in to injustice, murder, and many other events that make for riveting reading.
Gary Jennings’s huge but highly readable novel Aztec (1980). It is simply outstanding. It follows Mixtli, a young Aztec peasant with a knack for languages as he becomes in turn a scribe, a soldier, a merchant, a courtier, and a translator for the Revered Speaker, Moctecuzoma. Mixtli is the envoy sent to meet the Spanish when they land, and over his lifespan sees the Aztec “empire” at every level of society, from the height of its power to its utter defeat by the conquistadors.
Lots of sex, adventure, combat, intrigue, sex, revenge, sex, human sacrifices, and conquest. Did I mention sex?
I’ll second the recommendations of Turtledove and Gabaldon…I also enjoyed Pillars of the Earth. For more serious historical fiction I like Sharon K. Penman. Sunne in Splendour and especially the Welsh Princes books (Here Be Dragons is the first one IIRC). If you like historical history set in England I definitely recommend her.
I read that as well. A bit slow to start, but very compelling by the end. I heard a rumour they were turning it into a movie, once upon a time.
Guy Vanderhaeghe does turn-of-the-century Canadian frontier life justice in two books, “The Last Crossing” and “The Englishman’s Boy.” He’s got an M.A. in history, so he knows what he’s talking about.
I’ll second Steven Saylor and add Colleen McCollough’s Masters of Rome series (it’s more fun to read her straightforward accounts first, and then read Saylor to find out what “really” happened).
I never read any of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe stuff, but he has written for a variety of periods: Redcoat is about the American Revolution from a British soldier’s POV, The Winter King and its two sequels are a historically plausible account of Arthur as a Dark Ages warlord, Stonehenge is about how Sonehenge was built (natch), and The Gallows Thief is a murder mystery set in nineteenth-century London. All great stuff.
Cynthia Harrod Eagles’s “Kirov” trilogy is quite good, as is her fictional bio of Queen Victoria, I, Victoria.
If you don’t mind young adult books, I’d go looking for anything by Ann Rinaldi. I used to read her books in high school, and they’re still pretty decent.
Fraser’s other historical novels are also excellent. Mr American {with a cameo from an elderly but undiminished and unrepentantFlashman} is a fine portrait of Edwardian England at the zenith of Empire just before WW1 brought it crashing down, and is nicely set against the decline of the Old West and the rise of America as a world player. It’s seen through the eyes of a former outlaw who makes good and returns to the land of his ancestors: as he makes his way through English society, his murky past begins to catch up with him. A ripping good read.
Black Ajax {which features “Mad Buck” Flashman, Flashy’s equally caddish and womanising father} is also a fine read. Set in Regency England, it’s the story of Tom Molineax {who really existed}, former slave, prize fighter, title contender, and probably the first black sporting superstar. Apart from being an enthralling read, it’s a breathtaking exercise in narrative technique, as Molineaux’s story is told through an anonymous writer’s series of first hand interviews with various figures in Molineaux’s life. When Fraser starts doing William Hazlitt impressions, it makes you wonder why he doesn’t have every literary award going.
Connie Willis did a nice job depicting England during the 1320 plague with “The Domesday book.” Her effort netted the 92 Nebula, and 93 Hugo awards for best novel.
Horatio Hornblower by CS Forester, series of books about a British naval officer during the Wars of French Revolution and the Napoleanic Wars. He’s not really a traditional swashbuckling naval hero, but rather he’s more of a calculating, introverted type. Also the only literary naval hero I can think of who suffers seasickness in almost every book. Chronologically, the books start with his joining the navy around the beginning of the French Revolution, but you’re best to start off with Beat to Quarters or The Happy Return (Same book, different titles)
I’ll toss out T.C. Boyle who has written a number of fictional accounts of historical people. His most recent book, Inner Circle is about the Dr. Kinsey and his cadre of sex researchers. From a PBS documentary I saw recently, a lot of the people, scenes, and events in the book were taken from reality, though the book changes the names of of the players, except Kinsey and his wife.
There’s also Road to Wellville, which is about Dr. Kellogg and his health spa in Battle Creek, Michigan at the turn of the last century. Made into a movie with Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Broderick and John Cusack.
And Riven Rock about Stanley McCormack, of the McCormack reaper family, who got married and almost immediate suffered a breakdown and became intensely hostile to woman. The story mainly focuses on the unfortunate Mrs. McCormack who remains loyal to him, always hoping he can be cured.
Then there is his first novel, Water Music, one of my favorite books, which tells the story of the Scottish explorer Mungo Park who explored darkest Africa in the late 1700s.
Where he encounters the sex you forgot to mention. Straight sex, gay sex, lesbian sex, menage a trois sex, cross-dressing sex, incestuous sex, paedophilia, bestiality: you name it, he encounters it, with occasional pauses for graphic violence.
Then again, I’m kinda Biased I guess, as I’ve read more OSC than any other Author (Im on Shadow of the Giant… or Ender’s Game 8 (basically) after reading the rest of Ender in order))
Then again, Card puts a lot of “Real” history into all of his books that the characters take on the situations are interesting as well. --Being 22 I am sure I miss most of the importance of the references.
The best historical novels I’ve read are the Historical Illuminatus series by Robert Anton Wilson. Of course, it helps to have read Illuminatus! and Shrodinger’s Cat already and those don’t really qualify.
They really don’t qualify as anything (excpet really well written)
I just started that book. I may have to steal it from the friend I borrowed it from. It’s that good, and I’m only in the third or fourth chapter.
I’d recommend Maryse Conde’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. It’s a retelling of the Salem witch trials from Tituba’s POV with speculation as to what happened to her after she left Salem.
IMHO, the greatest work of historical fiction is Vanity Fair by Thackeray. (Yes, it counts as historical fiction, because it’s set about 30 years before the time it was written).
