Know of any good historic fiction?

[Horrim Carabal]

Please no Harry Turtledove. The guy has good ideas but the problem is he can't write.

[Vraith]

Unfortunately William has since turned into a kind of schlock profiteer writing civil War and other alternate histories with, believe it or not Newt Gingrich! LOL

the first I read of Gear was a SF trilogy [forbidden borders]...and I though it was not record breaking, but definitely top-shelf...interesting basic idea, well worth reading, much above the middling morass.
Everything else is ho hum or worse.
His anthro stuff with his wife reminds me of Neal Stephenson saying only the role-playing game people who cared about what you would eat, so went to the woods to see if they would REALLY eat bugs if the were REALLY hungry mattered...and if you didn't care about the answer to that, well, you were just a worthless fuck.
Except the Gears turn it into millions of words.
But I am slightly biased on this.
when one writes fiction, the important part is the FICTION.
Yes, most people want a touch of verisimilitude...but unless they're pedantic jerks or OCD or something related, they don't care about how real/factual the environment is...they care about what things are in it they can love/hate/connect to.
But the genre's are historical FICTION, not HISTORICAL fiction.
science FICTION, not SCIENCE fiction.
The whole damn point of fiction is the what IF, not the what is/was. Integrity/coherence matters, truth not so much.
[FANTASY is, btw, stupid, whether it's FANTASY fiction or fantasy FICTION...
hey! all you peeps looking/arguing about oxymorons/paradoxes and all that...theres a sample of a real one for you].[/i]

[Holsety]

when one writes fiction, the important part is the FICTION.
Yes, most people want a touch of verisimilitude...but unless they're pedantic jerks or OCD or something related, they don't care about how real/factual the environment is...they care about what things are in it they can love/hate/connect to.
But the genre's are historical FICTION, not HISTORICAL fiction.
science FICTION, not SCIENCE fiction.
The whole damn point of fiction is the what IF, not the what is/was. Integrity/coherence matters, truth not so much.
[FANTASY is, btw, stupid, whether it's FANTASY fiction or fantasy FICTION...
hey! all you peeps looking/arguing about oxymorons/paradoxes and all that...theres a sample of a real one for you].[/i]

My educated perspective is that actually, people don't tend to capitalize words when they speak or write most of the time, which I am thankful for. I am glad that writers are free to emphasize one side of the coin or the other as they wish, and that people who think that only certain focuses of writing are justified have no say in what people write.

Fiction has no single, official point. Many different effects can be achieved by fiction. This is a good thing.

[Vraith]

when one writes fiction, the important part is the FICTION.
Yes, most people want a touch of verisimilitude...but unless they're pedantic jerks or OCD or something related, they don't care about how real/factual the environment is...they care about what things are in it they can love/hate/connect to.
But the genre's are historical FICTION, not HISTORICAL fiction.
science FICTION, not SCIENCE fiction.
The whole damn point of fiction is the what IF, not the what is/was. Integrity/coherence matters, truth not so much.
[FANTASY is, btw, stupid, whether it's FANTASY fiction or fantasy FICTION...
hey! all you peeps looking/arguing about oxymorons/paradoxes and all that...theres a sample of a real one for you].[/i]

My educated perspective is that actually, people don't tend to capitalize words when they speak or write most of the time, which I am thankful for. I am glad that writers are free to emphasize one side of the coin or the other as they wish, and that people who think that only certain focuses of writing are justified have no say in what people write.

Fiction has no single, official point. Many different effects can be achieved by fiction. This is a good thing.

Hee...sometimes I think you take my little rants too seriously.
Yet I stand by my point. I like me some hard as nails SF sometimes...but even then the science is the basis/hook/launching point...the important part is the story. That's the definition of fiction, even if not the "point" of a particular piece.
Heck, even the peeps I know that want everything as exact/factual as possible it isn't really the things that matter, it's how they're presented and what else happens because of them.
As for capitalizing [and italics and bold, etc.] I know the standards, and you'll be happy to hear in any actual writing I do, you won't find the gimmicks. I do it here a lot...and I do it on purpose and for a number of reasons...but this isn't really writing.

[Avatar]

Course it is. Me, I just see it as emphasis.

You know, as if you were changing your inflection as you speak.

--A

[danlo]

I don't care--I was an anthropology major for a long time and know the area very well, I was enthralled by the trilogy. So Vraith can bite me!

[Vraith]

I don't care--I was an anthropology major for a long time and know the area very well, I was enthralled by the trilogy. So Vraith can bite me!

I will if you want and I'm ever in the area...maybe next elo-fest?
I've been off-topicing here too long, but I do wonder why and how you liked it?
I mean, I think the Spinal Tap film is great metal historical film/fiction. the fact that I've been in bands on the road gives it an extra bite. But it's other stuff that makes it worth seeing for peeps who don't know f-all about the rest. cuz it's peeps and a story.

[Iztet]

First Man in Rome series by Colleen McCullough. She really did a great deal of research.

Gates of Fire is great.

[Avatar]

Did I mention Conn Igulden's Rome series?

--A

[Rau Le Creuset]

I really Loved the Matthew shardlake series. It's based in England under the reign of King henry the 8th and it's one of the greatest Historical fictions/ mysteries ive ever read. the books are fairly long but very creative and engaging. i suggest giving those a try if your looking for something. I was impressed with them

[peter]

Not as far back as you stated Orlion but Quincunx by Charles Palliser is a 'Dickensian' epic par exelence. It's a deep and involved tale that takes the reader into the dark and dirty heart of London's underbelly in the early victorian era. And what a cruel place it was - if you had the misfortune to get down on your luck you were in deep deep trouble!