Valerio Massimo Manfredi

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I started reading him with his work on Alexander, then I moved to "Tyrant", where he explains the life and the deeds of the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I.

I really like his work and especially how he manages to marry history and fiction.

What do you think about him? Do you have any other author to suggest?
 
I started reading him with his work on Alexander, then I moved to "Tyrant", where he explains the life and the deeds of the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I.

I really like his work and especially how he manages to marry history and fiction.

What do you think about him? Do you have any other author to suggest?

I like his work very much. If you are interested in good historical fiction, but not necessarily set in the classical world, there is always Umberto Eco, whose work I also like, although it can be very dense.

Then there are the books of Dorothy Dunnett. Her first series, the Lymond Chronicles, is set in sixteenth century Europe. One of the books takes place on Malta and involves the Knights of St. John and their struggles against the Turks. (The Ringed Castle) Much of the series also deals with Mary, Queen of Scots and with the French royal house, the DeGuises and the religious wars of the era. It's very erudite, but very approachable. The main character is a swashbuckling mercenary, poet, singer and lover. You might find his adventures interesting. Her second series is called the Nicolo series and has to to with the creation of one of the first great capitalist trading empires. It's much more exciting than it sounds.:LOL:
 
Thanks for the info. I love well written historical fiction. However, I find that some authors are too light on the historical accuracy, while others are too scholarly for a good read. If these authors strike the right balance, I will enjoy reading them. One author of historical fiction I like is Mary Renault, who wrote some stuff about ancient Greece.
 
Thanks for the info. I love well written historical fiction. However, I find that some authors are too light on the historical accuracy, while others are too scholarly for a good read. If these authors strike the right balance, I will enjoy reading them. One author of historical fiction I like is Mary Renault, who wrote some stuff about ancient Greece.

You must have E.S.P. I was just going to add her since all her books are set in ancient Greece. I think I've read them all. I was thinking of them when we were discussing "Old Europe", particularly The King Must Die.

The books of Robert Graves are very good as well, I think, for those that like historical fiction set in the Roman era. I think that I, Claudius is one of the best books I've ever read, although I'm not sure that it's historically accurate. Being based on the smears of authors alive during the days of the Empire doesn't necessarily make it true.:) The sequel, Claudius the God, is also excellent, and then there's the BBC series based on it, which was fabulous.

Ed. I think you'll like all the Dorothy Dunnet books. I would just say to make sure you start from Volume 1 of each series and read them in order. As for Eco, he can be difficult to read even if you're unaware of the levels where he's really referencing semiotics, which is his field. The most accessible of his books is In The Name of The Rose, which was made into a movie with Sean Connery. Of the others, I'm particularly fond of Baudolino, because the main character is a young man of Alessandria involved with one of the historical characters I most love to hate, Frederick Barbarossa.:) It's also about the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople.
 
I loved "I, Claudius", but not so much some of the other stuff Graves has written. And some folks have suggested that some of his "non-fiction" stuff actually belongs in the fiction category.

And I forgot to mention my all time favorite author of historical fiction.

www.paulinegedge.com/
 
I love the historical novel, but my favorites are:

Mary Renault "The Persian Boy"
Collen McCullough "The first man in Rome"
Mika Waltari "Sinuhe"
Santiago Posteguillo "Scipio Arfricanus trilogy"
Steven Pressfield "Gates of fire"
Arturo P?rez-Reverte "El capit?n Alatriste"
Gore Vidal "Julian"
Gisbert Haefs "Troy"
Stephen J. Rivelle "The crusader

[h=2]and of course Robert Graves: "I Claudio", "Count Belisarius"...[/h]
 
I love the historical novel, but my favorites are:

Mary Renault "The Persian Boy"
Collen McCullough "The first man in Rome"
Mika Waltari "Sinuhe"
Santiago Posteguillo "Scipio Arfricanus trilogy"
Steven Pressfield "Gates of fire"
Arturo P�rez-Reverte "El capit�n Alatriste"
Gore Vidal "Julian"
Gisbert Haefs "Troy"
Stephen J. Rivelle "The crusader

and of course Robert Graves: "I Claudio", "Count Belisarius"...

The Renault, Waltari, McCullough and Gore Vidal books I've read and enjoyed. The rest will go on my "to read" list. Thanks.

Some more:

Imperium, by Robert Harris, about Cicero
Tiberius-by Allen Massie (it's a good antidote to Robert Graves' depiction)

A book that I think anyone interested in genetic genealogy would enjoy is The Source by James Michener. Although it's pretty old and the parallel "modern" story in it is pretty dated, the portions set in the ancient past hold up very well. It's still assigned in some American high schools for summer reading.

"Wiki"
"Archaeologists digging at the tell at Makor uncover artifacts from each layer, which then serve as the basis for a chapter exploring the lives of the people involved with that artifact. The book follows the story of the Family of Ur from a Stone Age family whose wife begins to believe that there is a supernatural force, which slowly leads us to the beginnings of monotheism. The descendants are not aware of the ancient antecedents revealed to the reader by the all-knowing writer as the story progresses through the Davidic kingdom, Hellenistic times, Roman times, etc. The site is continually inhabited until the end of the Crusades when it is destroyed by the victorious Mameluks (as happened to many actual cities after 1291) and is not rebuilt by the Ottomans.
 
Thank you so much for your suggestions people!
 

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