"Name your 5 all time favorite historical fiction writers!" Topic

Some times historical fiction is not far from the actual events ( Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian); other times it can be pretty fantastic (Marie Laveau, the New Orleans voodoo queen); some times it's more about the humor (Flashman by George MacDonald).

Here's a couple of mine:

Patric O'Brien Aubrey/Maturin Novels
Bernard Cornwell Sharpe Series
John Biggins Otto Prohaska Series

I'm sure there's a lot of great stuff out there. Let's hear about yours.

mjc

Thucydides
Julius Caesar
James Harrington
Thomas Moore
Niccolò Machiavelli

Rosemary Sutcliff
Patrick O'Brian
Michael Shaara
Jeff Shaara
Robert Louis Stevenson

Rafael Sabatini

Max Allan Collins for 1930s/40s private eye novels.

Allan Furst for 1930s/WWII spy stories.

Barbara Hambly for her Ben January 1820s New Orleans mysteries.

Lindsey Davis for the Falco series set in Vespasian's Rome.

Ian Morson for his 13th century Oxford mysteries.

Stephen Pressfield
Bernard Cornwell
Jeff Shaara
R.L Stevenson

Rudyard Kipling count?

Arturo Perez Reverte
Allen Furst
Bernard Cornwell
Rafael Sabatini

In no particular order;
Colleen McCullough=First Man in Rome series
George McDonald Fraser=Flashy, and his non-fiction writings
John Maddox Roberts=SPQR series
Bernard Cornwell=Sharpe,Saxon chornicles,ACW series,etc..
Arturo Perez Reverte=Alatriste series

For naval fiction, you can't beat:

C.S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower series and The African Queen

Douglas Reeman/Alexander Kent (WW1 and WW2 naval fiction and AWR/Napoleonic naval fiction)

Dudley Pope (Ramage series)

Jim

Caleb Carr

Larry Niven
L. Sprague De Camp
George R. Stewart
H. P. Lovecraft (there are many SF elements in his works)

Can't think of a fifth author …

Larry Niven
L. Sprague De Camp
George R. Stewart
H. P. Lovecraft (there are many SF elements in his works)

Historical fiction???

In no particular order:

Thomas Costain
C.S. Forester
Ellis Peters
Alexander Kent
Bernard Cornwell

No one said Alexander Dumas?

I don't think I read the same kind of historical fiction you guys do ….

I'm an idiot. I thought the topic was "science fiction" authors. Duh!

They sort of cross over as you can study the history of science.

Just trying to salvage something there Jerzei. It's tough enough being thought of as Russian all the time as it is.

Alfred Duggan---- Wonderful stories:Alexander's successors,Rome from Romulus through Caesar to Constantine III,several on Anglo-saxons and Normans,to the Frankish kingdom in Greece.
Bernard Cornwell
John James------ "Votan" and "Not for all the Gold in Ireland" for giving an historical background to the Germanic and Irish gods and heroes."Men went to Cattraeth" for doing the same for the Welsh heroic poem and Arthur.
George Shipway--- Bronze Age to Norman England.
Frans G Bengtsson-"The Longships" (not to be confused with the abyssmal film of the same name).

Still no one mentioned Manfredi.
I also like
Patrick O'Brian
Bernard Cornwell
and Jack Whythe.
Some books by Diana Gabaldon are also worth reading.

Don't forget SLA Marshall, who made up much of his "findings" in Men Under Fire.

Maurice Walsh ("Blackcock's Feather", "Sons of the Swordmaker", & "And No Quarter" [a.k.a "The Dark Rose"])

Samuel Shellabarger (especially "Prince of Foxes", Captain from Castile", and "The King's Cavalier").

P.C. Wren (various French foreign Legion stories and novels)

Mary Stewart (the Merlin trilogy)

Lindsey Davis, Bernard Cornwell, Arturo Perez Reverte, Colleen McCullough, and George MacDonald Fraser can duke it out for the last slot.

Good topic Quid!

From my childhood:
Alfred Duggan
Rosemary Sutcliff
George Shipway

and more recently:
Stephen Pressfield
Bernard Cornwell

Not named yet, Ambrose Bierce

Patrick O'Brien
Kenneth Roberts
Dorothy Dunnett

Oops pressed return too soon
George Garrett (wonderful novels set in Elizabethan England)
Henrik Sienkiewicz (not unlike Kenneth Roberts)

Costain
Forester
Fraser
Kenneth Roberts
and, for his Roman books, David Drake

Many of my favourites already mentioned. I will add:

Donald Jack for the Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy novels

Boris Akunin for the Erast Fandorin novels

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for the Brigadier Gerard stories

George MacDonald Fraser, for Flashman.
CS Forrester for Hornblower.
Kenneth Roberts for his FIOW and AWI.
Howard Fast for his many "fight for freedom" novels.
JRRRRRR Tolkien for making something out of that Halfling propaganda, the Red Book.

Nigel Tranter
Bernard Cornwell
Simon Scarrow
Steven Pressfield
George MacDonald Fraser

Willi Heinrich- wrote Cross of Iron and another title about the eastern front and also a novel about post war Germany with a returning vet from a Russian POW camp.

Herman Wouk- Caine Mutiny

Barry Sadler- His Casca series, mostly the original book follow by the God of Death and The Conquistador. I think these three mesh rather well.

Charles D. Taylor- wrote some fine late cold war naval novels including The Sunset Patriots.

Patrick O'Brian – Cablets and light hawsers to the mastheads! I do love a good blow.

G.M. Fraser – Flashman is the obvious draw but the MacAuslan stories are sheer genius. Black Ajax and The Candlemass Road are also excellent.

Colleen McCullough – Masters of Rome series is, um, masterful.

Lindsey Davis – Mexican Jack recommended the Falco series and I'm oh so glad he did.

Patrick O'Brien – Aubrey/Maturin
Julien Rathbone – A Very English Agent et al
GMDF – Flashman
Alexander Kent – Bolitho
CS Forester – not just Hornblower, but The General and The Gun as well.

I am rather fond of Louis de Bernieres as well, but prefer his magical realist south american stuff to his historical novels.

George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman, Hollywood History of the World etc

Robert Graves – Count Belisarius, I Claudius etc

Patrick O'Brien – Aubrey Maturin

Lindsay Davis – Falco

Nigel Tranter – Bruce trilogy, the Montrose etc etc

Colleen McCullough – First Man in Rome series

Lindsay Davis – Falco books

Bernard Cornwell- Sharpe and Saxon books in particular

Simon Scarrow- The Eagle series

Edward Rutherford- writer of epics such as Sarum, The Forest and London

Oh dear, only 5, this is going to be hard.

Dorothy Dunnett, head & shoulders above everybody else.

George Shipway – some cracking good books from "Imperial Governor" to "Knight in Anarchy", & beyond.

Lindsey Davis – the excellent Falco novels

Patricia Finney (aka P F Chisholm) – "A Shadow of Gulls" a great Celtic tale, an Elizabethan spy trilogy & a quartet of border reiver novels.

John Biggins – superb quartet of novels set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Great War.

Honourable mentions must go to Rosemary Sutcliffe, Henry Treece, H Rider Haggard, Donald Jack, Graham Shelby, George MacDonald Fraser, Gillian Bradshaw, Edith Pargeter, Boris Akunin, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Ray Bryant, Alan Furst, & a host of others that escape me at present.

No love for Edith Pargeter? She wrote some neat historical fiction like the The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet. I think she also wrote some silly medieval detective novels abour a crime solving monk. She may have used a pen name :)

I haven't read anything by her myself, but I've been told that Sharon K. Penman's stuff is pretty good as well.

David S.

Damn, should have read all the way throuh Huscarle's post.

David S.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Mary Renault

Some of my favorites are :
Conn Iggulden
Bernard Cornwell
Simon Scarrow

I don't know what I'd think of his work now, but I liked Arch Whitehouse's fiction 30-35 years ago.

Nute Gingridge

In no particular order

George MacDonald fraser
Mary Sutcliffe
Simon Scarrow
Bernard Cornwell

Almost forgot

The Courtney Family Adventures and the Egyptian Series by Wilbur Smith are first rate stuff.

mjc

Steven Pressfield,
Steven Pressfield,
Steven Pressfi….
ad infinitum.

While I also enjoy Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Simon Scarrow, they are bit too much 'fiction' and not enough 'historical'. One of the big drawbacks with learning history is finding out how much of your favourite books are made up – I new very little about Roman history, and thoroughly enjoyed Conn Iggulden's 'Emperor' series, which inspired me to read Adrian Goldsworthy's 'Caesar'. Now I can't read Iggulden's stuff without getting annoyed….
Regards,
Michael Lovejoy

"Surprised nobody has mentioned Mary Renault"

Me too – fantastic books that I wish there were more of.

Doug

How could I forgot Wallace Breem, he's got to be a contender?

" I new very little about Roman history, and thoroughly enjoyed Conn Iggulden's 'Emperor' series, which inspired me to read Adrian Goldsworthy's 'Caesar'. Now I can't read Iggulden's stuff without getting annoyed….
Regards,
Michael Lovejoy"

Haha glad I wasnt the only one!
That book was what encouraged me to look into Roman history (did a Teaching Company course on Roman Histroy) and realised that other than the names of the characters, 99% of the book was made up! I actually couldnt bring myself to read the 3rd book in the series.

I have however been avidly reading his books on Genghis Khan, which have been great stuff, although I am sincerely hoping arent as fictional as the Caesar books. This time I will wait till I have finished the series before embarking on any self improvement reading of history of that era!

Bernard Cornwell
Simon Scarrow
Sven Hassel
Douglas Reeman