More like Genpei
anchored on:east asiamedieval
but
- The Radiant Emperor
series2 books2021
similar byhistorical fantasywareast asiamedievalpolitical intrigue
The Radiant Emperor reimagines the rise of the founder of a Chinese dynasty as a peasant girl who takes on her dead brother's identity and destiny to survive famine and war, rising through ambition and deception toward the throne. Shelley Parker-Chan's duology, beginning with She Who Became the Sun, follows her against a rival commander on the opposing side of a civil war, concluding in He Who Drowned the World.
- Under Heaven
series2 books2010
similar byhistorical fantasywareast asiapolitical intrigue+1 more
Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven follows Shen Tai, a general's son who provokes a political crisis simply by accepting an extraordinary gift of 250 rare horses in gratitude for burying the dead of an old battlefield, while his sister Li-Mei's forced marriage into a northern people opens a second thread on the empire's edges. Set in Kitai, a fantasy analogue of Tang-dynasty China centered on the capital Xinan, it is a story of court intrigue and personal survival rather than epic-fantasy world-war. Its companion novel, River of Stars, returns to the same world some four centuries later with an independent story rather than a direct sequel.
- The Warlord Chronicles
series3 books1995
similar bywarmedievalpolitical intrigue+1 more
The Warlord Chronicles or The Warlord Trilogy is a series of three novels about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell. The story is written as a mixture of historical fiction and Arthurian legend. The books were originally published between 1995 and 1997 by Penguin and Michael Joseph in the United Kingdom and by St. Martin's Press in the United States. It has been adapted for television as The Winter King.
- A Song for Arbonne
Guy Gavriel Kaystandalone novel1992
similar byhistorical fantasywarpolitical intrigue+1 more
A Song for Arbonne is a novel by Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay published in 1992. It is set in a fantasy world with two moons and is loosely based on 12th-century Provence and the Albigensian Crusade.
- Bridei Chronicles
series3 books2004
similar byhistorical fantasymedieval+2 more
Juliet Marillier's Bridei Chronicles trace the sixth-century rise of King Bridei I of the Picts, from his childhood tutelage under the druid Broichan through his ascent to power and his reign, blending Pictish history with fantasy. The trilogy — The Dark Mirror, Blade of Fortriu, and The Well of Shades (2004–2006) — is Marillier's third historical fantasy series.
- Sarantine Universe
series8 books1995
similar byhistorical fantasypolitical intrigue+1 more
Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine-world novels are loosely connected historical fantasies sharing one invented history rather than a fixed cast: The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995, an analogue of medieval Spain), The Last Light of the Sun (2004, drawing on the Viking-age raids of Alfred the Great's Britain), Children of Earth and Sky (2016, a world modeled on Venice, Istanbul, and the Balkans in the 15th century), its prequel A Brightness Long Ago (2019), and its sequel All the Seas of the World (2022, set amid wars between Christendom and the Ottoman Empire). Each novel stands alone, but together they trace centuries of the same fictional world, distinct from Kay's separate Sarantine Mosaic duology.
- The Camulod Chronicles
series9 books1992
completed
similar bywar+3 more
Published in North America as the Camulod Chronicles (and elsewhere as A Dream of Eagles), Jack Whyte's series retells the Arthurian legend as grounded historical fiction, stripping away magic in favor of a plausible post-Roman Britain. Uther, the volume tracked here, centers on Uther Pendragon himself, one of the saga's recurring figures on the road to Arthur's own generation.
- Chronicles of the Deryni
series4 books1970
part of Deryni
similar byhistorical fantasymedievalpolitical intrigue+1 more
Katherine Kurtz's Chronicles of the Deryni trilogy (Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, High Deryni, 1970-1973) follows the young King Kelson Haldane defending his throne in Gwynedd, a kingdom modeled on 10th-to-12th-century Britain, against ecclesiastical opposition and foreign invasion. Central to the conflict is the Deryni, a persecuted human-like people with inherited psychic and magical powers, whose presence in and around the crown makes Kelson's reign a lightning rod for religious and political tension.
- Temeraire
series48 books2006
similar byhistorical fantasywar
Temeraire is a series of nine alternate history fantasy novels written by American author Naomi Novik. The novels follow the adventures of Captain William Laurence and his dragon, the eponymous Temeraire, and reimagine events of the Napoleonic Wars with "an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators". His Majesty's Dragon, the first entry in the series, won the Compton Crook Award in 2007 and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel the same year. Temeraire: In the Service of the King, an omnibus volume collecting the first three novels, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2007. Temeraire was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2017.
- Red Eve
H. Rider Haggardstandalone novel1911
similar byhistorical fantasywarmedieval
Red Eve is a historical novel with fantasy elements, by British writer H. Rider Haggard, set in the reign of Edward III. Red Eve depicts the Battle of Crécy and the Black Death, and also features a supernatural personification of Death called Murgh.
- Arcanum
Simon Mordenstandalone novel2014
similar byhistorical fantasywarmedieval+1 more
Rome was the center of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen, but that didn't stop it falling to Alaric the Goth, his horde of barbarian tribesmen and their wild spell-casting shamans. Having split the walls with their sorcery and slaughtered the inhabitants with their axes, the victors carved up the empire into a series of bickering states which were never more than an insult away from war. A thousand years later, and Europe has become an almost civilized place. The rulers of the old Roman palatinates confine their warfare to the short summer months, trade flourishes along the rivers and roads, and farming has become less back-breaking, all due to the magic, bestowed by gods, that infuses daily life. Even the barbarians' gods have been tamed: where once human sacrifices poured their blood onto the ground, there are parties and picnics, drinking and singing, fit for decent people and their children. But it looks like the gods are going to have the last laugh before they slip quietly into ill-remembered obscurity.
- Albion (Patrick McCormack)
series3 books1997
similar bywarmedieval+1 more
Albion is a trilogy of historical novels set in Arthurian Britain by British author Patrick McCormack.
- King Raven
series3 books2006
similar bymedieval+3 more
The King Raven Trilogy is a series of historical novels by American writer Stephen R. Lawhead, based on the Robin Hood legend. Lawhead relocates Robin Hood from Sherwood Forest in Nottingham to Wales, and sets the story in the late eleventh century, after the Battle of Hastings and to coincide with the Norman invasion of Wales and the struggles the Cymry (Welsh) people against the Normans, and the political intrigue of medieval Britain. The trilogy consists of three books named Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck. The King Raven series continued his themes of reimagining popular mythology into more authentic and gritty settings, which began with his Pendragon Cycle.
- Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
series26 books1991
similar byhistorical fantasy+1 more
Outlander is a series of historical fantasy novels by American author Diana Gabaldon. Gabaldon began the first volume of the series, Outlander, in the late 1980s; it was published in 1991. She has published nine out of a planned ten volumes. The ninth novel in the series, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, was released on November 23, 2021.
- Videssos
series14 books1986
similar by+3 more
Videssos is Harry Turtledove's long-running fantasy setting, a Byzantine-inspired empire drawing on Turtledove's own historical and military-history background; Bridge of the Separator is one entry within that wider Videssos-universe body of work.
