Any good novels of historic fiction?

Robert Conroy has some pretty good novels, 1901, 1945 and 1862 are all war related historical fiction.

Also just about anything by Tom Clancy would work if you wanted a little more recent.

Fiction:
Killer Angels (good call here @Winters)
All’s Quiet on the Western Front
Red Badge of Courage
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
April Morning (about the Revolutionary War)

If you want non-fiction:
Shattered Sword: Battle of Midway

The Guns Of The South (alternate history)

I haven’t read this myself, but my husband raves about it. You should really give it a try.

@weeveeship I like your choices but two things about it, if you’re speaking of the novel by Michael Shaara, it’s Killer Angels, not Gettysburg. And both volumes of Romance of Three Kingdoms may be a bit too long for this assignment.

Also Gods and Generals is a good one as well.

@Winters I think there are abridged versions on the Romance of Three Kingdoms. You could also focus on a specific part of the saga, like the Battle of Red Cliffs.

i just finished maybe the best book i’ve ever read. it’s by ferrol sams called “down town”.
also i like, “east of eden” and “grapes of wrath” by john steinbeck. for sci fi there is stephen king and “the stand”

1984 may be history now, but it certainly wasn’t when it was written. I wouldn’t include that on your list.

When I was in high school I ate up Thomas B. Costain books, everything I could find. He wrote well, the stories were always entertaining, and I learned a lot about local color and history in everything I read.

Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast is a great account of the life of a common sailor in the 19th century—not pretty, but a great nonfiction account of real life.

If you like stories about war, the Shaara novels are good (father & son, Michael & Jeff) are good for that. I think between the two of them they’ve written about nearly every major American war, from the Revolution, several books on the Civil War, the Mexican – American War that preceded that (and which introduces several of the officers we’ll see later in the Civil War, on opposite sides), and WW 2.

But I think my favorite historical novel of all time is Samuel Shellebarger’s Captain From Castile, about the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Cortez.

I like James Michner’s work.

A book that is about contemporary life in the author’s own time isn’t historical fiction, even if it was written a long time ago. Historical fiction is written about a past time from the point of view of the author. I think that would rule out Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and probably Hemingway too; as far as I know, they were all writing about the times they lived in, more or less. And 1984 was futuristic: it came out in 1949 and was about a future time.

By this definition, The Other Boleyn Girl and A Tale of Two Cities are historical fiction.

Better make sure you are clear about what your teacher is expecting here; that counts for more than our opinions.

@Jeruba touche’!

The Patrick O’Brian novels about the British navy during the Napoleonic wars are gripping tales, yet highly accurate in the details.

I really like Michael Dobbs’ books. There are two authors named Michael Dobbs, one British and one American. I’m referring to the American writer. I especially enjoyed One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet is a great book. It was made into a TV miniseries. He also wroye a sequel called World Without End oe something like that. If you are a young girl, you might like Gone With the Wind.

Hornet Flight by Ken Follet is also a good one, @faye thanks for reminding me about Ken Follet

@Winters sure. I also remembered a book I couldn’t put down of his called Jackdaws. It was about the women who went undercover in France in WW2.

Historical? yes, i some ways:
Slaughterhouse Five

Pillars of the Earth is a fantastic book. One of the best that I’ve read.

I also loved, River God by Wilbur Smith. It’s set in Ancient Egypt.

I have also recently read, The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon. It was a surprisingly good book about Aristotle.

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth is a memorable one, all right. I must have read it nearly 20 years ago, and parts of it are still vivid. I could certainly see reading it again.

It’s not a short one, though. For a school book report you might want something you can get through more quickly. Save Pillars for summer vacation, when you can really relax and enjoy it.

Gore Vidal has written a lot of excellent historical fiction, but he may be a little too nuanced for most high school students. I can say that because I enjoyed his books immensely at that age and got most of the inside jokes, and then reading them again years later I saw all that I had missed, even so.

You should look up Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. I’m reading it right now. It’s quite good.

I second the opinion about James Michener. I have read several of his books and they are all very thoroughly researched. I would also recommend Edward Rutherfurd (Sarum, London, Russka) and Margaret George (Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles, Cleopatra). The latter are more biographical, but still historical “fiction.” And most books in this genre are inherently long, so you will have your work cut out for you whichever one(s) you choose!