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Best historical fiction for HUGE ASOIAF fan...


Mwm

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39 minutes ago, Marko Antonivic said:

Oops I kinda just answered the title of the post and not the last sentence. Just threw out some of my favorites, don’t think Martin was influenced by any of them.

Actually, Martin says Cornwell writes the best battle scenes he’s ever seen.

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48 minutes ago, Infidel said:

He didn't ask for good books (though my impression is you're waaay out on a limb re: Dunnett? I've only read the first Lymond...).

He asked for  books "Martin himself explicitly said he was inspired by", for which, if I recall, Dunnett fits quite perfectly.

I assumed good would’ve been interpreted linking to both Martin and ASOIAF...

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5 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Sure, but regards the Saxon books, pretty sure the first Saxon book was published uh, way way after ASOIAF.

First Arthur book of his was published a year before AGOT...

In any case that series slipped in there when I mentioned inspirations, like I said I really meant books that Martin would recommend or that are good for a really big fan of ASOIAF.

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On 6/22/2018 at 8:04 PM, Mwm said:

These are the only ones I can find that Martin himself explicitly said he was inspired by.

Aside from those, Nigel Tranter is another historical fiction author that GRRM has mentioned repeatedly as one of his favorites in the genre.

The mentions I'm talking about are here and here (there are also several other authors you've not listed).

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  • 2 months later...

Will ditto the Dunnett books. The first book in the Lymond series, The Game of Kings, is rather baroque and very complicated in its narrative, but the later novels read a little more easily while still being exciting, full of historical detail, etc. The Niccolo series should be read afterwards (they tie in together), and is also very good. As far as I know, the only Dunnett George has read is her novel King Hereafter, a historical novel about Macbeth, which I believe he liked.

GRRM is also a fan of George Macdonald Fraser's Flashman series.

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Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles are emo emo emo, to appeal to GRRM -- or me.

Niccolo wins too much and too easy, and is rather wet and dull.

King Hereafter I really liked though.  But that's an era that deeply appeals to me.  I also loved Nicola Griffith's Hild, and now Linnea Hartsukyer's 9th century Norway series, of which so far two titles have been published: The Half-Drowned King and just now, The Sea Queen.

 

 

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On 6/24/2018 at 11:32 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Sure, but regards the Saxon books, pretty sure the first Saxon book was published uh, way way after ASOIAF.

I mean the first one maybe but since then Cornwell has knocked out 10 books while GRRM has produced... fewer. 

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1 hour ago, Gaston de Foix said:

All historical fiction can be divided into two camps.  That written by Hilary Mantel, and that written by someone else.  Read Wolf Hall, and feel free to name your first born after me...

A little hyperbole never hurt anyone, I suppose.

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7 hours ago, Jo498 said:

I cannot avoid recommending a non-fiction book because it is fascinating and also reflects roughly the period a lot of SoIaF is modelled on: Barbara Tuchman: A distant mirror.

The problem  is that A Distant Mirror got quite a bit wrong in terms of history, particularly the cultural and material side of it.  Tuchman wasn't a medievalist.  She got a lot of flak from medievalists when the book came out.  But its sheer readability, much more like a novel, appealed to a general audience that also wasn't schooled in medieval history.   One of the biggest errors was her declaration that the frequent deaths of children didn't grieve medieval parents because death was so generally occurring and thus expected. What she says about art is also quite messed up -- among many other elements.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Edward Rutherfurd has recently become my favorite historical fiction author. I grew up on Michener and Ken Follet, but Rutherford does a better job than either of them of telling a gripping story, that is laced with real history, without having it become a soap opera. Anything of his is good, but his most recent novel Paris might be my favorite so far.

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I'd recommend Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O'Brian as the best.  Even if you don't like the age of sail, O'Brian is just very good at prose, characterization, recreating the era, etc.

Other mentions: Shogun (feudal Japan) and King Rat (WW2 POW) by James Clavell , Horatio Hornblower series (more age of sail), Kemp series (100 years war), Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (Thermopylae), The Killer Angels (US Civil war), Iggulden's Genghis Khan series, Gemmell's Troy series, Hilary Mantel's Tudor duology, The Sisters Brothers.

Ones I did not much enjoy: Dorothy Dunnett's works, I Claudius, Killigrew series, Simon Scarrow's Eagle series, Wilbur Smith (unless you like soapy thrillers posing as historical fiction), Jean Auel, Iggulden's Rome series, Little Big Man.

I also read a few series about vikings and early Irish history, which were ok but not good enough to recommend.

 

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With certain qualifications as I am only halfway through and it is not that exciting for us used to more modern pacing, although there is plenty of slaughter, battle and fateful passion, but it is interesting and the fantasy-like colorful exotism, decadence and wanton cruelty could have served as an inspiration for quite a bit of Essos (although I doubt that GRRM has read it), Gustave Flaubert: Salammbô. (Sometimes spelled with one m only and no circumflex.)

The real historical background is a war between Carthage and her own former mercenaries (who were not paid properly and thus turned against their former employer) after their defeat in the first war against Rome. The title character is not historical, though (a daughter or the historical Hamilkar Barka and thus would have been an older sister of Hannibal).

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