Tuesday Media Recommendations: Historical Fiction Books

Post your recommendations in the comments; other weeks, there'll be other posts for other genres and other formats.

Comments

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD, by Arthur Conan Doyle.

[GKHoff]

Also by Conan Doyle, two very good historical fiction books taking place during England-France's 100 year war: Sir Nigel, and The White Company.

[AmosArch]

They’re not books but MSM sites like WAPOO, MSNBC, and Wikipedia articles on modern political events have pretty cool scenarios and world building. I especially like touches such as when Wikipedia set up the Jan 6th page in the same template that they use for military battles in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Really draws you in. Also Bob Woodward writes some pretty good fiction.

[santamonica811]

Cool attempt to try and fuck up the one truly apolitical subject that's repeated in the VC. I've received dozens of great book recommendations over the years.

What an asshole you are.

[Frank Drackman]

“I, Claudius” by Robert Graves, and”The Guns of the South” by Harry Turtledove

[GKHoff]

Follow up I Claudius with its sequel, Claudius The God. Also, Count Belisarius by the same author.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling. Great for middle school boys and also great for adults because of the comparisons Kipling makes between fishing captains and captains of industry -- and the interpretation of that has changed several times over the past century or so. The train ride described is pretty accurate for the era, memory is that someone actually tried it and came pretty close.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Any attorney who hasn't read that should be ashamed of himself/herself/itself/themself.

"My name is Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe. It's been out 20 years now but college hasn't changed that much and parents need to read it.

Along a similar line of what parents should read is "Unprotected" by Anonymous. Not exactly fiction -- it is a UCLA Psychiatrist's critique of the Hook Up culture. Hint: She doesn't like it.

And finally, there is "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984" which he wrote in response to it. (In 1948, Britain was considering continuing wartime rationing and the managed economy.) Of the two, I argue that "Brave New World" is more disturbing -- and there IS a common theme in both.

"The House of Seven Gables" by Hawthorne. He understood the Puritan concept of evil.

The "Scarlet Letter", also by Hawthorne -- remember that she didn't get pregnant by herself. And look at what does happen to the child's father. It also shows a very different view of nature (i.e. forested land) than we have today.

There's more but here are a few.

[Kazinski]

Well add Kim by Kipling if you are at it.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I guess I should have predicted that Dr. Ed doesn’t know what historical fiction is, and yet…

[Dr. Ed 2]

EV didn't say ALTERNATIVE historical fiction...

[Noscitur a sociis]

I guess I should have predicted that Dr. Ed wouldn’t bother to check what historical fiction is after my first comment, and yet…

[Mr. Hook]

Janitors live by their own code, impenetrable to outsiders.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I wish I were a janitor -- I'd be retired by now...

[Frank Drackman]

One more "11/22/63" by Stephen King

[Frank Drackman]

One more "11/22/63" by Stephen King

[Frank Drackman]

So good you should read it twice

[Dr. Ed 2]

Stephen King was never the same after he got hit by the van and nearly killed 25 years ago.

I've met him in person several times -- the man is WEIRD. UMaine would expel him today on that basis.

I think Salem's Lot is his best book, but that's probably also because I know where it is set -- in the greater Orono/Bangor area, with the roadhouse being the infamous (and now closed) Oronoka.

IT is set in Bangor, Maine with most of the historical things he mentioned (e.g. Dalton Gang shootout) actually happened. There IS a water tower no longer used that could theoretically fall over (not likely) and "the barrens" are the banks of the Kenduskeag Stream, which are much cleaner now that sewerage isn't dumped into it anymore.

[TCEcon]

Scandalmonger, by William Safire

[Brett Bellmore]

The Gallatin Divergence, by L. Neil Smith. Actually, all his probability broach books.

From Wikipedia:

"The ostensible point of divergence leading to the North American Confederacy (NAC) is the addition of a single word in the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence, wherein it states that governments "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed." Inspired by this wording, Albert Gallatin intercedes in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 to the benefit of the farmers rather than the fledgling United States government as he does in real life. This results in the rebellion becoming a Second American Revolution, which ultimately leads to the overthrow of the government and the execution by firing squad of George Washington for treason. The United States Constitution is declared null and void, and Gallatin is proclaimed the second president. In 1795, a new caretaker government is established, and a revised version of the Articles of Confederation is ratified in 1797, but with a much greater emphasis on individual and economic freedom. "

[Krayt]

The nerve of a government wanting to pay off legitimate war debt.

Nowadays you could cancel the entire DoD, and half the years it won’t even balance the budget.

[Brett Bellmore]

It was the only historical fiction I could recall reading. I'm not saying that it was terribly plausible historical fiction, most alternate histories aren't all that plausible.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Far more plausible would be that Daniel Shays actually took the Springfield Arsenal and then in possession of the Federal Government's weaponry, overthrew the Massachusetts government.

Back then (1786) the Governor only served a 2 year term and Bowdoin got replaced by Hancock (who had been Governor before Bowdoin) and Hancock stopped Bowdoin's most egregious practices. But if Shays had gotten the cannons and such, wow...

[Archibald Tuttle]

River God by Wilbur Smith

[Pooneil]

The Master and Commander, Aubrey–Maturin series. By Patrick O'Brian. A fictional retelling of the life of Thomas Cochrane. (1775–1860) Much of the dialogue and descriptions come from early 19th century documents found in naval archives.

Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. (1958) The novel depicts the events of pre-colonial life in Igboland, a cultural area in modern-day southeastern Nigeria, and the subsequent appearance of European missionaries and colonial forces in the late 19th century.

It is full of the contradictions of life that come with viewing the past through modern eyes.

[MN2828]

All of the naval engagements were also taken from archived reports albeit somewhat out of order and with names/locations changed.

The series actually follows Cochrane's career rather closely. Pretty much everything that Aubrey did in fiction, Cochrane did for real.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is one of the great novels of all time. Highly recommended for its political, but more so, psychological depth. At heart, setting aside the political, it is about a man who is being left behind as the world and culture he inhabits changes.

James by Percival Everett. I can’t recommend it, but I am excited that next in my queue. it’s a retelling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective by a highly regarded and accomplished author. It’s been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize (link here with short description).

Kindred by Octavia Butler. A Black writer from then-contemporary 1976 is repeatedly pulled back in time to the early 1800s Maryland to save one of her ancestors each time he almost dies. Compelling storytelling and thought experiment.

[Stepped Reckoner]

I second O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin “Master And Commander” series. It’s the no-brainer answer to the OP. Every time I read them they get better, deeper, wiser, and funnier. They really are the best historical fiction I know of, and it’s not even close. And anyone can read them, because the author is not trying to push any agenda: rather, he creates two characters who are incredibly different in their jobs, beliefs, mental approaches, faiths, and senses of humor, and lets the interactions between them lay out all the questions of the early nineteenth century before the reader so the reader can come to his or her own judgments.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Dreams From My Father" Barack Obama

"Noting the book's considerable number of alterations from reality, invented composite characters, and restructured timelines, scholar David Garrow described Dreams as "a work of historical fiction" in his 2017 biography of Obama, Rising Star."

[hobie]

You've never gotten over that negro being president, have you?

[Mr. Bumble]

1/2 negro.

[Sarcastr0]

I haven't gotten to it yet, but I hear good things about "The Warlord Chronicles" by Bernard Cornwell.

King Arthur but the setting is post-Rome Britain as we historically understand it.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Yes, Cornwell's Warlord or Sharpe series' are both excellent.

[Ghost of Patrick Henry]

All the Bernard Cornwell books. The King Arthur trilogy is thrilling. All the Richard Sharpe books.
The Poldark series of novels.

[Rossami]

I second anything by Bernard Cornwell. I'd add the Uhtred of Bebbenberg series and the Archer series.

[MN2828]

Me too.

[SRG2]

"I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God" by Robert Graves. Not as well-known but IMO better, his "Count Belisarius".

"A place of greater safety" - Hilary Mantel takes on the French Revolution

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Edmund Burke.

[SRG2]

Historical fiction? LOL Though perhaps - chain of thought - the reason so many conservatives are voting for Trump is that it's the nearest they can get to a monarch.

[Longtobefree]

Anything put out by the Harris campaign - - - - - -

[Bob from Ohio]

Hornblower series by C. S. Forester.

Fast paced, excellent hero. Racy for its era, HH had several adulterous affairs/one night stands.

Also based [loosely] on Thomas Cochrane.

[Dr. Ed 2]

No. The Hornblower series were based on Horatio Nelson.

[Absaroka]

I dunno, the Venn diagram of fictional Hornblower's and real Cochrane's and Nelson's exploits has a lot more Cochrane/Hornblower overlap than Hornblower/Nelson. AFAICT you are a minority of one there. The Beeb, for example:

"(Cochrane) was the inspiration for both C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels."

Having Hornblower be a fictional Nelson would make for some weird plot discontinuities, as Hornblower interacts with Nelson in the books (for example, he arranges Nelson's funeral procession).

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Maria: A Novel of Maria Von Trapp by Michelle Moran.

(she has other historical fiction, but this is the one I read)

For those who like that sort of thing, Danielle Steel's "The Good Fight" had a legal theme, including a grandfather who became a Supreme Court justice.

[Martinned2]

I'm currently reading Sienkiewicz's The Trilogy, which is... quite something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trilogy

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

Any book by Sharon Kay Penman (1945-2021). She deeply researched British & Welsh history, and then fleshed out engaging real and fictional characters to spin her tales.
You can find sites that organize each of her several "series" in order, but each book can also stand alone.
I read "Here Be Dragons," and I was hooked.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24655.Sharon_Kay_Penman

[Commenter_XY]

The Third World War - Gen John Hackett

[LawTalkingGuy]

Never a genre I really got into. But I enjoyed Ivanhoe.

To the extent they fit in this genre, Shakespeare’s history plays are some of my favorite reads and it’s fun to watch film adaptations. Haven’t had a chance to see one performed live yet.

[bernard11]

They are great reads, especially Richard II, which seems to be not so well known as the others. Henry VI is not the strongest of the set.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Richard II is awesome and if you haven’t, check out the Hollow Crown adaptation by the BBC.

I agree that the Henry VI plays aren’t Shakespeare’s strongest, with I think pt 2, considered the best. But I’ll say this for pt. 3, it’s fun as hell. It’s campy and over the top and the appropriate person to adapt it is Tarantino.

[bernard11]

Part III, IIRC, is where Richard III first appears. Some of his nastier talk is there. That helps.

[XEleison]

I am lucky enough to live within driving distance of Staunton, Virginia, where there's an awesome theater that puts on Shakespeare plays in a 1600-era setting. Tons of fun.

[Whitey51]

"The Long Ships" by Frans G. Bengtsson, in Michael Meyer's translation.
Great Viking novel, full of humor and irony.

[WGuyll]

Any or all of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

That's what I came to say. They are fantastic!

[Noscitur a sociis]

I think there’s a notable drop off in quality in the last couple, with the last one being by far the worst. It’s not bad, by any means, but definitely skippable if you’re not a big fan. I think the big problem is that Fraser let himself give into the temptation to make Flashman less horrible, and the story suffered.

Speaking of which, Fraser’s McAuslan stories are and worth checking out (they’re set in World War II and just after and written a generation later, so I think they just barely count as historical fiction). Very good, and very different from Flashman.

[Absaroka]

"Fraser’s McAuslan stories are and worth checking out"

+1

[CJColucci]

Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy
Any of C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake books
Any of the Michael Jecks mysteries set in England in the 1300's
Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries

One thing about historical fiction is that it gives a sense of how wet, cold, and smelly things were that contemporaneous literature didn't, probably because the wet, cold, and smelliness were just normal to the authors and their readers and not worth mentioning.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Absolutely to Hilary Mantel. I need to finish the trilogy, but Wolf Hall is a masterpiece. Bring Up the Bodies was, in my opinion, not nearly as good. I haven't gotten to the third.

[Kazinski]

The Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser, a fictional British officer fighting, or doing his best to avoid any actual fighting, in Britains real wars from 1840-1890's from Afghanistan to Africa.

He doesn't sanitize period morals, in that his character does not embrace feminism, universal sufferage, or self determination which would probably land them in an insane asylum in the 19th century British empire.

[Rich Rostrom]

As other have written, the Flashman Papers, as "edited" by George Macdonald Fraser.

But also several of Rudyard Kipling's short stories:

The Knife and the Naked Chalk
Brother Square-Toes
The Eye of Allah
"The Church that was at Antioch"

[Noscitur a sociis]

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Brigadier Gerard stories are in my opinion some his best work, and deserve to be better known. Definitely worth a look if you’re into Napoleonic stuff.

For more recent stuff, I thought The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Tipton was truly excellent. It’s a murder mystery set on a Dutch East India Company ship that really makes the period feel both authentic and alien.

[Harvey Mosley]

While not really historical fiction, David Drake has a book titled "With The Lightnings" that is the start of a series. Two antagonistic spacefaring nations in situations that parallel historical battles/situations. Very entertaining and I learned a bit of history from them.

[MN2828]

And according to Drake based on Aubrey/Maturin series by O'Brian with Daniel as the Aubrey character and Adele as the Maturin character. Fun reads but not nearly the caliber of O'Brian's books.

[Grover84]

Mary Renault, The King Must Die, one of seven novels set in ancient Greece

John William, Augustus, epistolary novel about the first Roman Emperor

Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, the life of Roman Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138)

Rosemary Sutcliffe, Eagle of the Ninth, the first of the Roman Britain trilogy including The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers

Frans G. Bengstsson, The Long Ships, about the Vikings

Ismail Kadare, The Siege, 15th century Ottoman siege of citadel in Albania

Jane Lewis, The Wife of Marin Guerre, a 16th century French peasant returns home, or is he an imposter?

Ivo Andric, Omer Pasha Latas: Marshal to the Sultan, 19th century Sarajevo in the Ottoman Empire

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Catholic priests in 19th Century New Mexico

Malouf, David, Remembering Babylon, 19th century Australia

David Stacton, The Judges of the Secret Court, Lincoln’s assassination from the perspective of the Booth family

Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard, a Sicilian aristocratic family faces sociopolitical changes in 19th century Italy

Younghill Kang, East Goes West, Korean immigrant to 1920s US

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, set in Stalinist Russia

Hans Fallada, two novels set in Weimer Germany, What Now, Little Man? and Wolf Among Wolves, and one set in Nazi Germany, Every Man Dies Alone

Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain and The Garden of Evening Mists, Japanese occupied Malaysia

[LawTalkingGuy]

Darkness at Noon is both very good and very uncomfortable to read.

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

“ 'City of Thieves' by David Benioff. This book has a Jewish protagonist and is set during the World War II siege of Leningrad. Trust me, it is worth reading."
How fun! => I just, within the past hour, picked this one up from my library. I don't recall where the recommendation came from, unfortunately, but I've had it on my library "look for" list for several days now.

[bernard11]

Terrific book.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Every Man Dies Alone is one of the greatest titles ever. The book itself is very mediocre, in my opinion.

Anything by Willa Cather is worth reading.

Thanks for the reminder on Ismail Kadare's The Siege. I've had it on my list for some time, but haven't gotten to it.

[nobody 2]

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. It's about the Battle of Thermopylae.

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

Adding my voice to those endorsing the following series:

Flashman (really fun books loaded with historical detail);

Hornblower (especially the three “Captain Horatio Hornblower” novels);

Aubrey- Maturin (sea-faring adventure during the Napoleonic Wars that is even better than the Hornblower stories and is one of the greatest, long-form, literary explorations of a friendship); and

Sharpe (with the caveats that (a) these books need to be read in the order of publication, (b) the first eight books are the best, and (c) once you have read the first 11 books – which cover ground campaigns against Napoleon’s forces in Spain and France, concluding with the Battle of Waterloo – the drop off in quality is significant enough that you need not read the rest of the series).

And here are some books that I do not think anyone else has mentioned.

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. The best novel I have read about the Vietnam War. Possibly one of the best three books written about that war – with the other two being non-fiction accounts: Halberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest” and “Dispatches” a journalistic collection by Michael Herr.

“City of Thieves” by David Benioff. This book has a Jewish protagonist and is set during the World War II siege of Leningrad. Trust me, it is worth reading.

“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. Another great novel set during WW II. It won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara. They made a good movie out of this novelistic account of the Battle of Gettysburg. The book is even better – even if carries a bit of lost-cuase veneration for Robert E. Lee. I recommend reading it in sequence with “Gettysburg: The Last Invasion,” a non-fiction military history by Allen Guelzo.

“Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead. This novel about life in Harlem during the early 1960s was written in 2021. So, it should qualify as historical fiction – even if the centrality of a heist to the story causes your local bookstore to shelve it under “crime” or “mystery” fiction. Wherever you find it, this is an engaging and wonderfully written book.

Finally, as part of this thread veered off into alternative history, I will recommend “The Peshawar Lancers” by S. M. Stirling. The alt-history premise can be summarized as, “What if a natural disaster in the late 1800’s had caused a new ice age – forcing the royal, political, and military leaders of the British Empire to abandon England and establish a true British Raj in India as the seat of their power.” From this premise, Stirling leaps to a “modern” world of steampunk technology. He spins out a fine adventure story, while consistently riffing off of the ways in which his new ice age would have changed world history.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

All the books you recommended at the end were fantastic. One small correction, The Things They Carried is actually a collection of short stories, but very very good. Also, if you haven't read his In The Lake of the Woods, that is also a must-read.

[NOVA Lawyer]

I've read the last three (Doerr, Shaara, and Whitehead) and all three are excellent. The Shaara is the one that feels the most like what I tend to think of as historical fiction as it involves the big names in big events. The Doerr is more intimate and focuses on individual people rather than telling the story of the war itself, though, of course, that is the major backdrop.

And Colson Whitehead is simply one of the best writers writing, so anything he's written is worth reading. But I'd go with The Underground Railroad (a sci-fi take...what if the underground railroad was an actual railroad and the stops are, basically, alternate histories of the places along the way) as his best.

[kmcarlson1952]

Any (or all) of Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel historical fiction series of books, if you dare. Each is over 850 pages and recounts the last 10 years of Tsarist Russia and will eventually finish (when all of the volumes are finally assembled and published) with the death of Lenin. 5 books so far. He spends 3 volumes on March of 1917. Eugene, you might be particularly interested.

[MonitorsMost]

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. A very different take on Richard III. Well written and engrossing.

[Ghost of Patrick Henry]

What, no Gone With the Wind and Scarlett?

[Mr. Bumble]

Please select a book from above and submit your book report by September 30.

[Lee Moore]

When I was about 14, we got a new English teacher, reputed to be "modern." He was. At the beginning of the first class, he sent us off to the school library saying - go pick a book, any book, that you'd like to read, and read it. Most people thought - wow, what a dummy ! And picked the shortest book they could find.

I, being the suspicious type, concluded that he might be modern, but he couldn't be that modern. There would surely be an essay assignment coming in a couple of weeks. So I picked War and Peace, teeing up the excuse that I couldn't do the essay because I hadn't finished the book yet.

I was right. Two weeks later - write an essay on the book you read. But the joke was on me - it was such a good story I had finished it inside the two weeks.

For some reason - and to my shame - I forgot to lie and claim I still had 500 pages to go.

[Mr. Bumble]

So what was your grade?

[Lee Moore]

I don't recall. When I was 14, War and Peace would have been classified as Contemporary Fiction.

[Paladin_44]

The Caine Mutiny

[Mr. Bumble]

Seven Days In May.

[Zarniwoop]

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World.

Wikipedia synopsis:

The story follows the adventures of a sizable cast of characters living amidst some of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Despite featuring a literary treatment consistent with historical fiction, Stephenson has characterized the work as science fiction, because of the presence of some anomalous occurrences and the work's particular emphasis on themes relating to science and technology.[1] The sciences of cryptology and numismatics feature heavily in the series, as they do in some of Stephenson's other works.

...

A central theme in the series is Europe's transformation away from feudal rule and control toward the rational, scientific, and more merit-based systems of government, finance, and social development that define what is now considered "western" and "modern".

Characters include Sir Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, William of Orange, Louis XIV of France, Oliver Cromwell, Peter the Great, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and many other people of note of that time. The fictional characters of Eliza, Jack and Daniel collectively cause real historic effects.

[SRG2]

Great recommendation! Stephenson is one of the geniuses of SF and brings that genius across. I have observed that Stephenson writes 300 page novels with 500 pages of footnotes he incorporates into the main text...

[NOVA Lawyer]

Neal Stephenson is great. I haven't read his Baroque Cycle yet, though. Thanks for the reminder. I will.

SRG2: Too true. lol

[Noscitur a sociis]

I guess Cryptonomicon is half historical fiction, so let’s count it.

(I thought it was alternate history since everyone class Japan “Nippon” and kept waiting for the reveal of the timeline change was…)

[NOVA Lawyer]

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite novels. Brilliant.

[Lee Moore]

Besides some of those already mentioned :

Shogun
A Tale of Two Cities
War and Peace

[Kazinski]

Even better is King Rat, also by James Clavell, his first novel.

It it is set in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp in Singapore.

James Clavell spent 4 years in a Japanese prisoner of War camp in Singapore.

[MN2828]

Alan Lewrie Series by Dewey Lambdin

Similar to Hornblower but racier and takes place a few decades earlier -- start of the American revolution.

[Internet sloth]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; I’m currently illustrating it as a visual novel, with AI image generation. Not really a historical fiction, but says something interesting about the regency era.

[BrotherMovesOn]

The Covenant James Michener

The Devil in the White City Erik Larson

Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese

[NOVA Lawyer]

I'll second The Devil in the White City. Great call.

[Noscitur a sociis]

You guys do know that it’s not fiction, right?

[NOVA Lawyer]

Just because it is a retelling of actual historical events, doesn’t mean it isn’t fiction. It gets in the minds of characters, it isn’t limited to retelling what is actually known. At the least, the parts about the serial killer, are definitely fictionalized accounts of a real person. Too little is known for his novelistic take to be considered nonfiction. I consider it much like Wolf Hall, based on true events, but imagining the characters is a fuller way than is possible given what we know.

[BrotherMovesOn]

My thinking as well Nova.

[Kazinski]

Is it like the Friends of Eddie Coyle, which fictionalizes the story of Whitey Bulger, but was written before Whitey really got rolling?

Scary thing is it was written by a US Attorney in Boston, how did he know something like that could happen?

[Noscitur a sociis]

No, it’s the true story of stuff that happened in connection with the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, including architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H.H. Holmes, written more than a hundred years after the fact. It’s very good (if a bit pleased with itself), but not fiction. At least, not in my judgment—apparently others disagree.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Hawaii" by James Michener.

[GKHoff]

The best historical fiction author in my opinion (and I've read most of them) is Alfred Duggan. Out of print, but your public library may have some of his books, First novel, Knight in Armour, starring Roger a second son of minor nobility sent on the First Crusade. Duggan lifts the reader up and plops him down right in the time of the book, and does not impose today's morality on his characters.

[Rossami]

If the Cold War era counts as historical,I strongly recommend Team Yankee by Howard Coyle. It is an incredibly accurate description of the plans to defend the Fulda Gap in the event of a Soviet invasion.

In fairness though, the plot was near-future when it was written. So maybe it doesn't count as "historical fiction"?

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Lincoln In the Bardo, George Saunders

Gould's Book of Fish, Richard Flanagan [colonial Australia]

True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey [also Australia]

A Star Called Henry, Roddy Doyle [20th Century Irish Rebellion]
two sequels, Oh Play That Thing and The Dead Republic

If you are into Graphic Novels and/or comics, The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman has a LOT of history and is amazing.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

I haven’t read them, but my dad loved Thomas Mann’s 4 book series on the life of Joseph (biblical son of Jacob).

[Drew C]

Some excellent suggestions here. I second both the Aubrey-Maturin series (for reasons stated and its exploration of the nuances of male friendship between two very different persons); and The Trilogy by Sienkiewicz (first Nobel for Literature). May have missed it, but my favorites are in Alan Furst's Night Soldiers series that explores themes of love in stories that intertwine Paris and Eastern Europe before and during WWII. Also the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr which follows an iconoclastic Berlin detective from the 1920s to his post-war nomadic existence.

[pkboucher801]

Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson, is jam-packed with nerdy Easter eggs.

[Flight-ER-Doc]

Most anything by Andrew Wareham - a very prolific writer of English history - from before Cromwell to WWII and beyond. Both military (Royal Navy, English Army, Indian Army) and cultural (I particularly like his various series that have families starting as serfs, and generationally they become members of Court, of Parliament, etc.)

I especially enjoy reading Wareham on the PC so I can tab over to Wiki for a little more context.

[Absaroka]

With all the love for Hornblower, I'll mention the very similar Richard Bolitho Series by Alexander Kent. To help searching, one title is 'Sloop of War'.

[XEleison]

Yes! My teacher in Bible School got me into the Bolitho series when I'd finished all the Hornblower books, and I like them even better.

[Whitey51]

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Nunnally translation). A long social novel about life in 1300s Norway, culminating in the Black Death. The main characters are strong, especially the heroine. This is the book that won Undset the Nobel Prize in 1928, back when the Nobel Prize for Literature meant more than it does now.

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

Dorothy Dunnett wrote The Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th century Europe: Scotland, France, the Ottoman Empire....
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8361.Dorothy_Dunnett

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

Vilhelm Moberg wrote four novels tracing a Swedish emigrant family and their settling in Minnesota in the mid-1850s.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165035.The_Emigrants

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

And let's not overlook John Jakes, with The Kent Family Chronicles, about the American Revolution and after.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/54197-kent-family-chronicles

[RobinGoodfellow]

I enjoyed “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett

[Daddyhill]

"The House Of Niccolo" series (7 books) by Dorothy Dunnett: 15th century commerce, warfare, skullduggery, and a twisted love story.

"The Lymond Chronicles" by Dorothy Dunnett.

"Shogun" by James Clavell.

"Unto This Hour" by Tom Wicker. Second Manassas

Any of Terry Johnston's Native American Wars novels.

Any of Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe's Rifles" novels.

[Knocka]

Ken Follet’s
Pillars of the Earth
and
A Dangerous Fortune

[Kazinski]

I liked Pillers of the Earth quite a lot, but its fiction set in a historical period, not historical fiction.

[santamonica811]

Kaz,
What is the difference between those two? (Genuine question...I wasn't aware of a formal distinction.)

[NOVA Lawyer]

Pillars of the Earth was not my favorite. At all. Probably helps to be more interested in the building cathedrals than I am.

[Redjinn]

I second the nomination of Alfred Duggan. He didn’t write his first novel till he was in his 50s. He wrote close to 20 and the settings are from roughly the Roman Legion era to the 1400s maybe. I also echo the recommendations regarding Hans Fallada and Robert Graves.

Some that haven’t been mentioned in no particular order are:

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (Vietnam war)

S Fowler-Wright, The Siege of Malta.. He wrote mostly B novels, sci fi, and mysteries, but some of them are excellent, e.g., The World Below

Stuart Edward White, The Rifle. If you’re old enough to have seen Andy Burnett on Walt Disney, this is the novel on which that program was based. It’s a portrayal of a rookie mountain man heading out the trap beaver. There are a couple of sequels as well about settling California.

Alan Mallinson wrote almost a dozen novels about a light dragoon in the British army from the battle of Waterloo up to the Crimean war. Mallinson served in the Queen’s Cavalry and knows whereof he speaks.

Once an Eagle, by Anton Meyerer, which follows the career of a US soldier ending in the Vietnam era.

I could add more, but it’s late and readers of the conspiracy have plenty to choose from already

[Redjinn]

I will add one more. Published last year, The Oceans and the Stars: a sea story, a war story, and a love story, by Mark Helprin is superb. It’s set in the present day. Have you ever read a story that says on page 60: “If you want to know what makes the Athena such a deadly ship, read on. If you are only interested in the story, go to page 70.” I don’t often re-read books, having about 12,000 at home, but this I read twice within four months.

[O Tempora]

There are many great suggestions here. I would second Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, although the third volume wasn’t up to the level of the first two. I would add Italo Calvino’s “The Name of the Rose.”

[Noscitur a sociis]

Italo Calvino’s “The Name of the Rose.”

Now that I’d like to read!

[Ghost of Patrick Henry]

Another kudo for Once an Eagle, by Anton Meyerer. Could not put it down. The Night Clerk!!!

[Absaroka]

That was a page turner.

It brings to mind 'Jubilee' by John Brick, another great book set in the Civil War.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Herman Wouk, two doorstop historical fictions: The Winds of War; with its continuation, War and Remembrance.

Unusual in that historical nuance gets more attention than in many historical novels. To do it, Wouk invents a fictional family with a preposterously detailed omnipresence, world-wide, and across time—and makes it all seem a product of natural happenstance. Follow the adventures of the Henry family during the WW II era, and you end up knowing more about what actually happened than anyone in the world could have known at the time. But it all unfolds with barely an implausible-seeming moment in the narrative. Quite a literary feat.

[Madison1782]

Here are 2 series set in Elizabethan times (@ 1575-1603). It has only been recently that I recognized that they are 2 different series.
In The Den of The English Lion by Neal Roberts details the experiences of 'The Queen's Jew', a solicitor 'Sergeant'. This series of 5 or 6 books is set just a few years later than the other series by Anna Castle's Francis Bacon.
The reason for my confusion is the overlapping of the real people of the era - Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth, Lord Essex, among many others. Initially, I was reading the individual books out of sequence and over a period of a few years. Once I reread the 'In The Den ...', it became clear.
The 2 series do complement each other.