Get Inspired! Essential Reading For Your Games – Historical Fiction
January 21, 2016 by dracs
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oh so true read everything bernard cornwell has ever written, plus some of steven pressfield’s stuff and the civil war trilogy by the Shaara’s
I also read a lot of naval historical fiction for example
patrick o’brian – Aubrey/Mathurin stories (Master and Commander)
Alexander Kent/ Douglas Reeman (same guy) Kent stories about Bolitho and Reeman is 20th centrury mainly
James L Nelson – american author has written some cracking books based around North America
Julien Stockwin – the Kydd series set in the Age of Sail era
Robert L Stevenson – treasure island always a cracking read
RL Stevenson’s Kidnapped is also pretty cool
Romans: Anything by Simon Scarrow and Antony Riches.
English Civil War: Michael Arnold’s expanding series is outstanding imho.
Napoleonic: Adrian Goldsworthy, even better than Sharpe!
I just ordered the first In the Michael Arnold series based on your recommendation 🙂 I’m starting Pike and Shotte this year and this should hopefully get me in the right frame of mind.
No mention of Sven Hassle? OK, not very historically accurate but a classic, pulp read for WW2 players.
I’d like to see Sven’s gang in 28mm.
“especially the Persian invasions in the 480s-490s BCE”
The dates count down if it’s BCE 😉
Of course you are correct, @redben . In my defense, though, I think I misunderstood what Sam meant when he put the call out for suggestions on historical reading. I wrote in suggestions, I didn’t realize it would be used in the actual draft of the article. I said some pretty harsh stuff about 300, Alexander, and Red Storm Rising. I hope none of that came off as “snobbish,” especially right next to a mistake like that.
Still, I should have been more careful. Thanks for the catch! 😀
Haha, it’s fine, you didn’t sound snobbish to me. Always be careful what you show to your editor! 😛 and I think we all realised that when you wrote terrible 300 movie is was just a mis-spelling of amazing!
Well, 300 is terribly historically inaccurate, which is probably what @oriskany meant by “terrible”.
Blame it on the calendar changes or something
Bernard Cornwall is good. I absolutely love his warlord series for the semi-historical take on the Arthurian legend. He does have a bit of a formula though, which becomes pretty apparent after a few series: Young boy grows up, often brought up by the natural enemy of his birth culture (ref both Derfel and Uthred, and I think there was something similar in the Americal civil war series), becomes a soldier, gets close the the ruler and distinguishes himself in battles, gets promoted, meets a few girls etc. It doesn’t make them any less good individually of course! Now that… Read more »
Apologies for all the spelling mistakes in the above :/
Yup agree I prefer the Winter King series probably because I read it first but they both have the same type characters even the minor supporting ones.
I did enjoy The Fort,and did enjoy Stonehenge but only when I listened to the audio book
The problem with Warlord Trilogy is that because it’s based on the Arthurian legend, it was always finite; he was bound by the story of Arthur. I think he has more freedom with the Saxon Stories and I suspect he will keep writing them because they seem to be very popular!
The thing I like about Cornwell’s books though is the Author’s Notes at the end. He always explains what parts of history he rewrote and gives credit for deeds (and misdeeds) where it is due and where it has sometimes been stolen by his own characters.
A good call on all of them, although you missed out George MacDonald Frazer’s Flashman novels
Throwing in something a little left field. The only book I have read twice. The only book of which have three copies. The best war novel have ever read. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s August 1914. A study of theRussianarmy’s march to catastrophe at the battle of Tannenberg at the start of the First World War. The narative views events from number of levels, Army Commander,regimental officer and the peasant other ranks.
Hmm . . . all these great additional suggestions. One question, though.
Why were none of these sent in to Sam when he asked for them? 😀
Just kidding . . . except not really. 🙂
Nice suggestions boys 🙂
The Hary Sidebottom Roman books are good as well set in 3rd century AD
Oh my word, I’ve been published on Beasts of War. And quite by accident too!
‘…we weren’t any worse than anyone else.’
Only a true villain would say something like that, and in a British accent no less.
sharpe sounds good had a waterloo game always got scudded by my brother ever time we played
I’ll have to suggest Giles Kristian and the Raven series, and for once the prequel is the better, and Tim Severin Viking series, he also did a pirate series.
Röde Orm-The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson is a favourite of mine, but is will make you laugh as well
The Kristian stuff isn’t too bad at all
I suppose should mention Simon Scarrow for good ‘boys own’ type of fun
I do enjoy historical crime novels. Like Bernard Knight Paul Doherty etc.The historical research in them us usually pretty good
the siege of krishnapur by Farrell 🙂
I’ve enjoyed Nigel Tranters books covering various periods of Scottish history from the Dark Ages to the Jacobites.
Cool article!
As a historian I always steered away from historical fiction until just a couple of years back and must say that I’ve learned to enjoy it.
There’s some good suggestions here that I’ve added to my to read mountain 😀
A writer I think deserves more attention is Christian Cameron. I’m reading his series set in the Hundred Years’ War at the moment (starts with “The ill-made knight”), but he has also written a lot about ancient Greece. Absolutely the best thing about his books is the extremely strong historical feel that comes off every page. There is loads of detail about arms and armour and fighting and all of it feels incredibly authentic, probably because the writer is a historical re-enacter so knows what it’s really like to use the gear. The books aren’t so much page turners as,… Read more »
Very interesting list, I definitely have to make an amazon order or two. As for historical novels that inspired me (although I do not game that much in historical settings..): Victor Hugo: Les Miserables; The book gives a wonderful and almost miniscule overview of the battle of Waterloo as well as of the Paris revolution of 1832. Stendhal: The charterhouse of Parma; An absolutely wonderful account of the 100 day rule and the Napoleonic wars. Emile Zola: The Debacle; The failure of the French army in the Franco-Prussian war. Erich Remarque: All quiet on the Western front; The harrowings of… Read more »
I’m currently reading Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, it’s a modern English translation of the book which was written 6 centuries ago. The trilogy is set in the turbulent 3 kingdoms period.
As mentioned earlier, whi,e I agree with everyone mentioned I say Christian Cameron, Christian Cameron, Christian Cameron .., everything he had written brings history alive …
Interesting, all the suggestions are Land or sea based, could I humbly submit CS Forester was a shocking omission, and his hero Hornblower! Plus he wrote some WW2 Novels as well.
Also not much about fighter pilots, somewhat teen in pitch but I fondly remember Robert Jackson and his hero George Yeoman.
For military as well John Harris, even Alaister McLean, all ripping boys own stuff, even if centered around WW2 arena.