Historical Fiction - Medieval Setting
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Scholarly Pursuits
Forum Name: Literary Pursuits
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URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17855
Printed Date: 17-May-2024 at 18:22
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Topic: Historical Fiction - Medieval Setting
Posted By: Dawn
Subject: Historical Fiction - Medieval Setting
Date Posted: 14-Feb-2007 at 18:18
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On the same note as Ancient settings- place your recomendations for books set in Medieval times here.
Edit: by combining another thread on the subject we have a list started
Historical Fiction - Medievial Setting
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell
The Lords from the North by Bernard Cornwell
The cycle of the Graal, Chretien of Troyes
Rhinegold and Attila's Treasure, Stephan Grundy
The Lance books by Stephen Lawhead
"Timeline" of Michael Crichton
Stephen Lawhead Byzantium (the pilgrimage of Irish monks to bring the Book of Kells to Byzantium ~800AD) Sharon Kay Penman The Sunne in Splendour (Richard the 3rd and 15th century England) Maurice Druon Les Rois Maudits series (13th and 14th century France) the year of the horsetails by R.F. Tapsell (6th century slavs aided by a Saka, defend against steppe invaders) THE GOLDEN WARRIOR by Hope Muntz (William the Conqueror) THE WALKING DRUM by Louis L'Amour (an adventurer's story in the early 13th century: from Islamic Spain, to the castles of the Assasins, passing through medieval Paris and the lands of the Pechenegs in modern-day Romania) Count Belisarius by Robert Graves - early medieval Byzantine history Kristan Lavrandsdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset (14th century Norway around the Black Plague) Katherine by Anya Seton (medieval England) These are not in a European setting, but still inthe right period:
Gary Jennings, The Journeyer. (Marco Polo) Eleanor Cooney and David Altieri - The Court of the Lion; also Deception. Both deal with T'ang China (the An Lu Shan rebellion and Empress Wu Zetian respectively) "Mio Cid
The Name of the Rose,Umberto Eco
Baudolino, Umberto Eco
The Mosaic of Shadows by Tom Harper
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Folett
Bernard Cornwell, Harlequin/Vagabond/Heretic
"Sword and the Scimitar, David Ball's
Les Rois Maudits" ("Accursed kings") books by Maurice Druon
The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon
Julian Rathbone's The Last English King and Kings of Albion
The Cloister and the Hearth
The Sky Stone and it's sequels - Jack Whyte
"The Life and Deat of My Lord Gilles de Rais,Robert Nye's
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Replies:
Posted By: kasper
Date Posted: 22-Feb-2007 at 18:29
| I would reccomend The Cloister and the Hearth, one of the classics for the entire historical fiction genre. |
Posted By: kilroy
Date Posted: 22-Feb-2007 at 21:27
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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is an excellent novel. i highly recommend it.
------------- Kilroy was here. |
Posted By: Aelfgifu
Date Posted: 23-Feb-2007 at 05:36
I don't like that book. The writer manages to get pretty much anything wrong on 12th century society. I reaaly disliked the "look how uncivilised these people were" attitude of the writer in his descriptions.
There is another thread books in Medieval settings in the Medieval Forum:
http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16126 - http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16126 ------------- 
Women hold their councils of war in kitchens: the knives are there, and the cups of coffee, and the towels to dry the tears. |
Posted By: Dawn
Date Posted: 23-Feb-2007 at 19:00
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Although verging on Fantasy ( because they involve king Arthur) and many I've talked to seem to have trouble with him ,I love them
The Sky Stone and it's sequels - Jack Whyte ------------- |
Posted By: Joinville
Date Posted: 24-Feb-2007 at 12:45
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There's Umberto Eco's novels, "The Name of the Rose" in particular. (Don't care too much for "Baudolino", but some do I know.)
A nasty little novel I really liked was Robert Nye's "The Life and Deat of My Lord Gilles de Rais" the story of the crimes of and process against Gilles de Rais, Marshall of France and comrade in arm of Joan of Arc, the historical "Blue Beard", strung up for mass murder, paedophilia, and devil worship, as told by his ficticious personal canon. As I said, nasty, but somehow hauntingly beautiful all the same. (Nye's a pretty fine poet otherwise.) Getting exotic, and late Middle-Early Modern Age, there are the novels by the Finnish author Mika Waltari "Mikael Ludenfot" and "Mikael Hakim". It's the life of the same protagonist the, young Finn Michael Kariavalka, as he crosses Europe during the reformation, taking part in the Sack of Rome in 1527. The second novel sees him ending up as a slave at the Ottoman court under Suleiman the Magnificent and Ibrahim Pascha. Highly recommended and might be available in English traslation. There is an English translation of a Swedish classic about the Viking age "Rde Orm", in English "The Longships", which is very tounge in cheek but makes the most of pregnant and laconic one liner. Author is Frans G. bengtsson. The chapter "How Christmas Was Drunk at the Court of Harold Bluetooth" is an absolute classic, along with the line "Now he's finished pissing", uttered by a man returning from having taken a brawl outside and throwing his bloody sword on the table. Another good Viking novel is the Icelander Laxness' "Gerpla". Incredibly brutal. Dunno if you can find i in English though. Same with the Swedish Eyvind Johnsson's "I hans ndes tid" / "In The Days of His Grace", about the rise of the Carolingian Empire. The protagonist is a Langobard prince swept up in the Carolingian empire, but the real point of the novel is that it's an analysis of how people compromise in the face of power, and how power corrupts. It's actually a very complex novel, incedibly deep. ------------- One must not insult the future. |
Posted By: Thor
Date Posted: 20-Jan-2008 at 08:40
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Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead was great. It covers so much. A great work. Viking, Celtic, Greek, even Saracen are covered. Incredible novel. His Celtic Crusade trilogy was amazing as well. |
Posted By: Efraz
Date Posted: 28-Apr-2008 at 00:02
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Brethren and Crusade by Robyn Young I am translating Crusade to Turkish now. I have many objections though. It has many problems. Kamelskyer - Thorvald Steen I strongly recommend. And Samarkand by Amin Maalouf. No one mentioned the classics but here are my favorites White Company and Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle Ivanhoe by Walter Scott |
Posted By: Parnell
Date Posted: 28-Apr-2008 at 11:52
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Jean Plaidy's 'The Bastard King'. Tells the story of William the Conquerer... Who was a bastard... Very good book. ------------- |
Posted By: eaglecap
Date Posted: 28-Oct-2008 at 21:30
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Good list!! I have read some of these books such as Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead and the Walking drum. The latter was written more like a western than a medieval story. Westerns were usually Louis L'Amour's genre anyway. He is a great writer and the Californios was also really good but a bit on the supernatural.
------------- Λοιπόν, αδελφοί και οι συμπολίτες και οι στρατιώτες, να θυμάστε αυτό ώστε μνημόσυνο σας, φήμη και ελευθερία σας θα ε |
Posted By: Parnell
Date Posted: 29-Oct-2008 at 12:37
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Robert Harris' Pompeii and Imperium are good. ------------- |
Posted By: Count Belisarius
Date Posted: 29-Oct-2008 at 15:23
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I enjoyed timeline and the walking drum, I read that l'Amour was working on a sequel to the walking drum did it ever get published?
My mom forced me to read Taylor Caldwell's books they're...okay I suppose, too old for me, too thees and thous for me and I doubt a roman officer or a mongol khan would that poetic in their thinking or speaking ------------- 
Defenders of Ulthuan, Cult of Asuryan (57 Kills and counting) 
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Posted By: gcle2003
Date Posted: 29-Oct-2008 at 18:59
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Don't know about Mongol khans, but I think you're probably being unfair to Roman officers. Above the rank of centurion at least. ------------- |
Posted By: Count Belisarius
Date Posted: 29-Oct-2008 at 20:19
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No I'm talking about a hardened veteran while he was well educated I've so much of Eric Flint, David Drake, and David Weber that I found the man to be a little bit hard to swallow, and I don't mean to be unfair to roman officers don't get me wrong I admire the romans but that character was really hard to believe and what made it worse was Caldwell said that was rough and talked like a soldier but she just glazed right over that and kept right on with the the thees and thous I mean the guy sounded like Sir Lancelot, come on -------------
Defenders of Ulthuan, Cult of Asuryan (57 Kills and counting)
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Posted By: Don Quixote
Date Posted: 26-Aug-2011 at 01:32
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I cannot read novels, they don't keep my attention; but as a exception I read Eco's "The Name of the Rome" and "Baudolino", only because Eco wrote them, and I respect him as a linguist very much. The Rose was OK, bot nothing special, T thought; I enjoyed "Baudolino" a lot though.
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Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Date Posted: 15-Oct-2011 at 13:08
Well as recommendations go for a book, yours is pretty good. So much so I've bought a copy of "Baudolino" and hope to get around to reading it soon. If a book can grab the attention of someone who finds it difficult to keep their attention reading such books then in my opinion there's a good chance there's something special going on between the covers.  ------------- What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture. |