Historical Fiction (mini-reviews)

So, book reviews:

An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears. Travel journal of 1660s Oxford that develops into a murder mystery. Multiple unreliable narrators and a surprising number of historical personages. Highly recommended.

The Dream of Scipio, Iain Pears. Reviewed previously. Possibly even more highly recommended.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. You’ve read this, haven’t you? You should. It’s about magicians in England during the Napoleonic era. But that makes it sound trite. It isn’t. It’s really good. I’m not much of a fantasy nerd (anymore), but this is weird, creepy, old-time faery tale/ghost story magic.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke. Same world, but stories from other points of history. All good, some excellent.

Freedom and Necessity, Steven Brust and Emma Bull. Mid-1800s. Epistolatory novel - I have a weakness for them. Also, protagonist with amnesia. I’m a sucker for that, too. I also like that it really isn’t clear at the beginning of the novel whether this is a world of magic or just superstition. Chunky, but it goes fast.

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier. Way better than the movie - it’s the details and atmosphere that make it, all the stuff they don’t have time for in a movie. Essentially a rambling odyssey through the South in the midst of the Civil War. It’s not about the war itself so much as the impact it had on daily life.

A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss. A murder mystery in 17-teens London, revolving around financial shenanigans. Gives a good sense of the early stock market, and how bizarre and revolutionary a concept it was (and really still is, when you think about it). Also, just a plain good yarn. And how can you say no to a Jewish prize-fighter turned private investigator?

On Stranger Tides, Tim Powers. Caribbean pirates and Tim Power’s own brand of weird voodoo. I love his idea of magic, because you catch yourself thinking, “That’s so weird it just might work. Who’d ever think to try it? Now, where am I going to get a two-headed dog this time of night?”

A Morbid Taste for Bones, and about 20 more, Ellis Peters. The Brother Cadfael stories. Twelfth century monk tends herb garden, solves murders. As with all good mystery stories, it’s really about people and culture.

The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Alternative history. Pretty much originated the Steampunk genre. Neat ideas, but there’s something unsatisfying about the story.

The Alienist, Caleb Carr. Hunting a serial killer through New York City at the end of the 19th century. Good, engaging. Been a while since I read it, so nothing else is really coming to mind.

Fingersmith, Sarah Waters. Sinister scheming in Victorian London. Crime caper with a plot that twists and turns like a twisty-turny thing. Engaging, though all of the characters are so loathsome you have trouble rooting for any of them.

There’s also fiction that is historical by virtue of having been written a long time ago:

Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. These are interesting because they were written at about the earliest point when the world was recognizably the one we live in. The physical infrastructure - cities, suburbs, and trains - is much the same. Telegrams had already shrunk the world, or broadened the awareness of it. And people think the way they do now. The stories themselves are well-written, fast-paced, and brief. They’re good books to keep handy for when you have just a few minutes to kill.

Dracula, Bram Stoker. Written at about the same time, but it’s a story with one foot in each world. From one angle, it really is a throw-down between the old world and the new. Feudalism and brute force against teamwork and science.

Captain Blood, Rafael Sabatini. Actually, this is both - a story written a century ago, set in the late 17th. Pretty much the definitive pirate story.