Ancient World Fiction (1)
I seem to be getting the Ancient World bug presently. It does happen sometimes – I get an urge, bubbling under from somewhere, to read a particular type of fiction which (eventually at least) needs to be satisfied. As there’s comparatively little of this type of thing in my ‘read next’ pile I thought I’d hopefully tamp down the urging by listing some of the Ancient World fiction I’ve read so far.Steven Pressfield
Gates of Fire
Tides of War
Last of the Amazons
The Afghan Campaign
Robert Harris
Imperium
Jo Graham
Black Ships
John Stack
Ship of Rome
Captain of Rome
Master of Rome
Ben Kane
The Forgotten Legion
The Silver Eagle
The Road to Rome
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Alexander – Child of a Dream
Odysseus – The Oath
Harry Sidebottom
The Last Hour
Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles
So, not exactly a great number of books in total nor a particularly impressive number of authors. Likewise, the focus is predominantly on the Greco-Roman world with a slight look eastwards along with a hint of Egyptian in the air. What I’m going to try next year is to add a few new authors, a handful of new books and an expansion at least to the *edges* of the Roman Empire and, with luck, beyond into Terra Incognita. We shall see!
Jo Graham
Black Ships
John Stack
Ship of Rome
Captain of Rome
Master of Rome
Ben Kane
The Forgotten Legion
The Silver Eagle
The Road to Rome
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Alexander – Child of a Dream
Odysseus – The Oath
Harry Sidebottom
The Last Hour
Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles
So, not exactly a great number of books in total nor a particularly impressive number of authors. Likewise, the focus is predominantly on the Greco-Roman world with a slight look eastwards along with a hint of Egyptian in the air. What I’m going to try next year is to add a few new authors, a handful of new books and an expansion at least to the *edges* of the Roman Empire and, with luck, beyond into Terra Incognita. We shall see!
8 comments:
i wonder if there's any on China...
That had crossed my mind. I'd be interested in any fiction based anywhere before the fall of the Western Roman empire.
Early in the 15th C. China built the largest fleet ever seen. they sailed and traded with Africa and i read a book purporting to provide evidence that they had established a colony in Nova Scotia... the photos looked more like logging residues of one sort or another to me... the effort required to build the ships about wrecked the economy for a long time...
I found the historical accuracy in Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell to be impressive, so did the Vatican. They wrote her a letter and asked her when she had done her research in their library because she had information in her book found no place else but there, supposedly. Also, Mudpuddle is referring to the voyages of Zheng He. The Chinese could have easily conquered the world with those ships. They could stay at sea for a year supposedly.
@ Mudpuddle: I'd heard that the Chinese traded far and wide until they pulled back within their own borders. What a different world that would have been if Columbus landed and met Native Americans speaking Mandarin!
@ V V: I heard something about Chinese explorers landing on the west coast of America. Apparently evidence for this is pretty scant and historians are rather sceptical. But I do have a book about it so..... Research!! [grin]
I've debated Song of Achilles. I like the idea of a Trojan War novel, but I'm told it has a strong romantic element..
@ Stephen: 'Song..' does have romance but its generally pretty muted if always in the background. But there are other Troy related novels around. David Gemmel did a series but died part way in. But it does seem to come up a bit with other authors too. I'm still working on the 'points East' ancient world. There's *some* around but its pretty rare I'm finding. I'll see what I can come up with... For the time being I'll see about working through what I already own (at least fiction-wise) before splashing out on anything new.
CK, yeah, I used to have information on that. I think a Chinese dynasty fell around the 3rd century, and the higher ups in that dynasty took a ship and fled across the waters to a trading partner. Centuries later on the west coast of South America, there was found a stone ramp and dock very similar to what the Chinese had in the 3rd century. Also, ancient American Jade carvings were incredibly close to ancient Chinese, jade carvings including designs that looked like ancient Chinese characters.
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