Historical fiction with epic battles

[Severn]

That's a fantastic, thorough list Ficus....cheers for that.

[FicusFan]

Thanks.

I just realized I missed a couple of series. Don't know if they fit or not because they are more SFF than historical, but they have battles.

They are about Roman Legions that have ended up in space in other alien cultures, or aliens coming to earth during their time, and changing things, or about rips in time.

A lot of the books about alternate reality/history are a mixture of history and SFF. Turtledove, Drake, Flint and Stirling write most of it.


Eric Flint and the Belisarius series
An Oblique Approach
In The Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
The Tide of Victory
The Dance of Time

Harry Turtledove's Videssos Cycle
The Misplaced Legion
An Emperor for the Legion
The Legion of Videssos
Swords of the Legion

Jerry Pournelle's Janissaries series
Janissaries
Janissaries: Clan and Crown


He may also have a series about lost legions, but I never picked up any.

S.M. Stirling's Lost Nantucket series
Island in the Sea of Time
Against the Tide of Years
On the Oceans of Eternity

Degenerates into one big battle and has some scenes set in Babylon

He has another series about what happened to the world left behind after Nantucket was ripped out.


Eric Flint's 1630 series
1632
1633
1634: The Galileo Affair
Grantville Gazette


Mike Moscoe's Lost Millennium series
First Dawn
Second Fire
Lost Days

Travels back to pre-history

Steven Barnes' African World series
Lion's Blood
Zulu Heart

If Africa became the dominant power in history rather than Europe.

I'll stop now. Promise.

[theDood]

Please...don't stop.

[SLASH]

Are the Ethan Gage books by William Dietrich any good ?

Thanx in advance

[AllegraBeloved]

try 1610; sundial in a grave by mary gentle. it revolves around the time of the French revolution etc. there are battles, but not a lot of epic ones.

[Nikolas]

If you want ancient history and epic battles you have to go with Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, its about the battle of Thermopylae. All of Pressfield's books set in ancient Greece are worth checking out.

Gates of Fire is an incredible book. The Afghan Campaign and a few of the others were also very solid, although after reading Gates of Fire, it's difficult and probably unfair to compare anything to it.

Roma by Steven Saylor was fun to read. I particularly liked the chapters dealing with the opening games at the coliseum. This recommendation comes with the warning that the book is heavy on sexual content, and all kinds of it. It's history, but if it's going to freak you out, take a pass, 'cause the book spends a lot of time on every kind of sex imaginable.

Also, David Gemmell's Troy series was a hell of a lot of fun. He's written other historical fiction, and I should probably get to those sooner rather than later. It's not so much realistic as it is inspired by the legends and songs, so the stories are heavily romanticized. But that's kinda cool, since it makes everything feel more epic...and comparatively light reading after a Pressfield book that goes into all the gory details of battle, complete with descriptions of "terror piss." lol...

[DDCOrange]

Great thread, I have read quite a lot of these. Someone mentioned Bernard Cornwell earlier. He wrote the Sharpe series set during the Napoleanic Wars in Portugal, Spain, France and ultimately Waterloo about a common British soldier who is made an officer (which almost never happened!) due to a act of extreme heroism and relates his many adventures through about ten novels. Lot's of battles, secret missions while Sharpe beds as many women as James Bond!
For a more sober look at the Napoleanic Wars from the other side of the battle lines, try R.F Delderfield's Seven Men of Gascony about a small band of French skirmishers through several campaigns, battles and ultimately Waterloo as one comrade after another falls by the wayside in the gamble of battle.
For a really different look at warfare check out the book Traveller by Richard Adams which looks at the American Civil War through the eyes of Robert E Lee's beloved horse!

[CarlAlves]

I think Bernard Cromwell does a really good job with his battle scenes.
Carl Alves

[almwilso]

I'm really into ancient history so I was wondering if anyone here could recommend some good historical novels set in ancient history with epic battle and swashbuckling fight scenes like the ones you read in fantasy novels such as Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy, and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series? Any help would be dearly appreciated.
Thanx!

If you are interested in real history of Macchu Picchu then read about Sumeria,Atlantis

[EllenS]

I haven't read any for twenty years or so, but the novels of Thomas Costain were favourites of mine years ag. George R.R. Martin mentions him as one of his favourites as well, if that's any indication of the quality of his novels. Try The Darkness and the Dawn- set to the backdrop of Atilla the Hun's conquests. It's fairly easy to find good used copies of his books.