I’m not a historian. Your accuracy mileage may vary.
I enjoyed Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander and sequels, I Claudius, the Physician by Noah Gordon
THEN0RSEMAN on
The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
A historical retelling of the legends of King Arthur and his portrayal of Britain after the fall of Rome and the rise of the Saxons is amazing, this is helped by the fact that Cornwell studies history, and since he’s writing about an era in where almost do documentation survives he is given a lot of freedom with the characters he has and events he portrays
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
A historical retelling of Beowulf inspired by the writings of an Arab traveler known as Ibn Fadlan who traveled along the Volga river, his writings are where the famous Viking funeral comes from
The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson
It’s a fun read and is also fairly accurate it’s a great representation of the era of conversion for pagan Scandinavia towards Christianity though there are sections that are a little dubious in terms of realism
If you don’t mind more fantastical retellings Mother of Kings by Poul Anderson is a great book about Gunnhild the wife (and brain) of Eirik Blood-Axe who was renowned for using magic. Following her life the book is an amazing reconstruction of various sagas and saga scenes from Gunnhild’s perspective
Another more fantastical yet accurate book is Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, which is about a disgraced knight during the Black Death who attempts to survive the plague with the company of an alcoholic priest and a young girl who claims to see and talk to angels, and the group is attempting to get to Avignon
notniceicehot on
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy (about Cromwell) or A Place of Greater Safety (French Revolution)
iras116 on
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, it has no (or maybe just a budding) romance.
CarlHvass on
C J Sansom’s Shardlake books. A hunchbacked lawyer solving mysteries in Tudor England.
5 Comments
I’m not a historian. Your accuracy mileage may vary.
I enjoyed Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander and sequels, I Claudius, the Physician by Noah Gordon
The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
A historical retelling of the legends of King Arthur and his portrayal of Britain after the fall of Rome and the rise of the Saxons is amazing, this is helped by the fact that Cornwell studies history, and since he’s writing about an era in where almost do documentation survives he is given a lot of freedom with the characters he has and events he portrays
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
A historical retelling of Beowulf inspired by the writings of an Arab traveler known as Ibn Fadlan who traveled along the Volga river, his writings are where the famous Viking funeral comes from
The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson
It’s a fun read and is also fairly accurate it’s a great representation of the era of conversion for pagan Scandinavia towards Christianity though there are sections that are a little dubious in terms of realism
If you don’t mind more fantastical retellings Mother of Kings by Poul Anderson is a great book about Gunnhild the wife (and brain) of Eirik Blood-Axe who was renowned for using magic. Following her life the book is an amazing reconstruction of various sagas and saga scenes from Gunnhild’s perspective
Another more fantastical yet accurate book is Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, which is about a disgraced knight during the Black Death who attempts to survive the plague with the company of an alcoholic priest and a young girl who claims to see and talk to angels, and the group is attempting to get to Avignon
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy (about Cromwell) or A Place of Greater Safety (French Revolution)
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, it has no (or maybe just a budding) romance.
C J Sansom’s Shardlake books. A hunchbacked lawyer solving mysteries in Tudor England.