Historical Fiction with Fantasy or Sci-Fi Elements

I guess this would be almost the opposite of accurate historical fiction, but I've always enjoyed the historical fiction where elements of science fiction and/or fantasy come in. For example, some of my favorite historical fiction novels have involved time travel of some sort - either through an actual time machine or through someone casting a magical spell that went wrong or something like that. What does everyone else think?

I agree, Nora Roberts circle trilogy has some of the fantasy, magical elements to it. It also has a bit of a historical element to it but most of it takes place in modern day but different planet. I really enjoyed all the aspects of the series. Nice change sometimes.

I really liked Connie Willis's To Say Nothing About the Dog. It's time travel and Victorian era England.

Other possibilities (although they're on the magic end of fantasy instead of the time-travel end) are Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.

You might like Cecelia Holland ~ she writes both straight historical fiction and historical fiction with elements of fantasy in them, like The Soul Thief and Witches' Kitchen, and she's an excellent storyteller and writer.

Quite a bit of steampunk falls into this category, and also some stuff by Tim Powers-- I am thinking of The Anubis gates or The Drawing of the Dark.

It's interesting that you mentioned The Anubis Gates. I just started reading that book today. I'll have to check out some of his other stuff too.

I was just thinking of how much I enjoyed The Stars Dispose by Michaela Roessner which is set in the Italian Renaissance with fantastic elements.

My sister got me into the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. The first one's a bit of a bodice-ripper (not necessarily a bad thing ;). It's an enthralling series, if you can get past the time-traveling conceit.

The heroine falls through a time warp in a circle of standing stones near Edinburgh, and becomes swept up with a Scottish highlander and his army during the Jacobite insurgency.

It's always seemed to me that sci-fi and fantasy fiction owes a great deal to historical fiction, so the concept of blending the two genres really isn't as odd as it may seem at first thought. Many sci-fi and fantasy settings borrow from specific historical periods, and sometimes from several blended together. Also, in many if not most historical periods people's belief systems included things we would consider fantasy today. Luther, for example, truly believed in witches and was terrified by them.

I second the recommendation of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It gets off to a slow start, and the first time I picked it up I didn't stick with it quite long enough for it to grab me. But the second time, I read only a little farther in before it completely captivated me. It's an amazing book, which quite accurately portrays the spirit of its historical settiing. The magical elements are integrated in a way that does not at all violate either the historical spirit or the literary quality of the novel. And the footnotes are delicious fun, especially if you read a lot of footnoted history books.

I'd actually recommend Connie Willis's Doomsday Book over my own favorite TSNotD - Doomsday Book is intended to be more historical (rather than comedic), and appears on the surface to me as a non-medievalist reasonably well studied. As a time-travel book, it also gets into the importance of history as a profession, and the effect of the past upon the present.

I second the Doomsday Book recommendation!

Messing around with the tagmash gives some nice lists that may have good suggestions for you (I particularly can't believe that I forgot about Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. It's not time travel, but it is an excellent mix of historical fiction and fantasy.)

historical fiction and fantasy

historical fiction and sci-fi

historical fiction and time travel

Oh goodness, His Majesty's Dragon is well seconded by me as well! It's been described as Pern meets Patrick O'Brian (and the writing is much better than any of the Pern books in my opinion).

The First North Americans series by husband and wife team W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear is a great blend of Native American historical fiction and light supernatural fantasy, bolstered by archaeological research.

I was thinking that Mary Stewart's Merlin books, starting with the The Crystal Cave might qualify though they are have limited magic and I see they are listed in the first mash-up.

I absolutely love Naomi Novik's Temeraire series! I've read the first three and can't wait for the fourth.

I'm also keeping a list of recommendations people have been making. This will give me things to read for quite some time - which is a good thing!

I'm thinking Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut would fall into that category, with the time-travel element within WW2...

Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe

God's Fires by Patricia Anthony was very interesting ... it's about the Spanish Inquisition investigating a case of supposed "angels who fell out of heaven" ... in reality an alien spaceship.

Following on God's Fires by Patricia Anthony (I think it might actually have been Portuguese Inquisition...?) I would also recommend

* Molly Gloss' Wild Life (turn-of-the-century American northwest)

* Vonda McIntyre's The Moon and the Sun (the Sun-King)

* Karen Joy Fowler's Sarah Canary (1870s pacific northwest)

The world war & colonisation series by Harry Turtledove are set during WWII whilst aliens invade & colonise the planet.

I also enjoy Mercedes Lackey's historical fantasy series (3 so far, and the fourth coming out in April 08) about Elizabeth I. First two (starting with This Scepter'd Isle were really good; third not as but still readable. Seems that Elizabeth is being watched over by the Bright Court elves, because their seers have predicted a golden age for them and the world if she becomes queen, and the Unseleighe Sidhe (Dark Court elves), who thrive on torment and fear, don't want that.

I'm kind of surprised no one has mentioned The Historian yet. While it focuses on vampires, etc., it is set in an interesting time period (technically it goes back and forth between 1930, 1950 and 1972) and I actually learned quite a lot about the history of that area by reading the book.

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn might fit the profile.
It involes two stories one modern where a man who reserches population grow and movemnt discovers a section in Germany that was abandoned the the middle ages and never resettled. This shouldn't be as that all the reasons for settleling it are still there. Also his girl friend a mathematician working on some break though theroies.
The second story is of the town of Eifelheim durng the 100 years war, where an alein space craft has crash landed in the woods a few mles from the town.
Also Timeline by Michael Crichton which involes the research of the siege of a French castle and the peaple who travel back in time to see what really happen

I haven't read many of these books myself, but you may like Lion of Macedon by David Gemmel, a fantastical version of Greece just before Alexander the Great. Aristotle is a wizard, a trip is made to Hades. Good fun.

Followed up by Dark Prince which follows a young Alexander through parallel ancient Greeces. Don't ask me. I haven't read that one yet.

judith tarr has written a great many alt-history type books (that's what i've always believed historical fiction with fantasy elements to fall under). i especially have enjoyed her books about the crusades.

Andre Norton did what seems to have been a short lived alternate history series (with Rosemary Edghill that mixed in some magic in The Shadow of Albion and I believe two sequels. It's set in the Napoleonic era but with the Stuarts still on the throne of Great Britain. It had some interesting elements to it but frankly left me slightly disappointed - I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who read all of them.

Robert A. Mosher

I read Emperor by Stephen Baxter recently. It takes place at various times during the Roman occupation of Britain. Lots of good historical stuff as well as a fantasy thread that ties the episodes together. I also liked Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

The Greatwinter Trilogy by Sean McMullen fits the bill perfectly, and is extremely well-written, well-told, creative, exciting, endlessly inventive. The books are: Souls in the Great Machine, The Miocene Arrow, and The Eyes of the Calculor.

onetruluff, yes! The Historian was a very interesting mix of real history and fantasy. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I don't know if any of you like YA fiction, but Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard is a great mix of history and fantasy, and very well-written.

Ash: A secret history by Mary Gentle is quite hefty, but you can tell the author did her research! It was published in four volumes in the United States: A Secret History, Carthage Ascendant, The Wild Machines, and Lost Burgundy.

I have a tag specifically for this type of thing- I have (creatively) called it "historical fantasy" if that is any help. I think you might also look up steampunk, which is a fantasy set in a type of Victorian period.

Personally, I pretty strongly disliked The Historian, but I think that is one of those books which really polarized its readers.

Scott Lynch's novel The Lies of Locke Lamora is set in a sort of pseudo-17th/18th century Venice. J. Gregory Keyes writes books set in historical France (I have Newton's Cannon). Libba Bray, Teresa Edgerton, Dave Duncan, Morgan Llewelyn, Guy Gavriel Kay- a favorite!

Many of my touchstones aren't working :-(

#33 When you mentioned steampunk I wonder it came from The Difference Engine by William Gibson? One of the innovators in the cyberpunk genre, he really did a great job with a Victorian computer age. I loved that book.

I'm surprised Neal Stepehenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World hasn't made an appearance on this forum. I found them to be highly entertaining, informative, and with just enough sci-fi to make them interesting!

Another YA series that does the time-traveling historical thing is The Guardians of Time by Marianne Curley. I really enjoyed the series as a whole. She also has one other book called Old Magic that is kind of along the same lines.

Try the Casca series by Barry Sadler, the tale of an immortal havign to fight on through history.

Try Mercedes Lackey's elemental series which takes place in turn of the century England (mostly), I think the first title of the series is The Fire Rose

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is set in England during WWII but the boy disappears into another world that is somewhat medieval. Neat story.

Casca great series but most of it was written by other authors,Barry Sadler wrotte the first five if memory serves me correctly.Game of thrones is also a great series fantasy during the 100 yr war

David Gemmell's Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince are great books bringing fantasy into the times of Philip of Macedonia and Alexander the Great

Barry Sadler was contracted to write nine novels in the Casca series which would appear to be 1-8 and 11, and then went to Guatemala and got involved in all sorts of things down there. He did write Casca 22 because they found that on his word processor after his death. The rest between 9-21 were ghost written. Now new writers have come forward to carry the series on. The latest books have been favourably compared to Sadler at his best (see the reviews on Amazon.com) or see the Casca fans website http://www.casca.net .

I loved Eifelheim - really felt (as a non-historian, at least) that it gave a good picture of medieval life. Timeline - not so much.

No one has mentioned Mercedes Lackey's The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic co-authored by Dave Freer and Eric Flint. Good books about Venice in the Middle Ages.

Also Eric Flint's 1634 and the rest of the Ring of Fire series.

I almost picked up This Rough Magic the other day. I'll get it next time on your recommendation, xenchu.

No one has mentioned The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, perhaps because it's really a sort-of non-magical fantasy based on the history of the Christians, Muslims, and Jews in medieval Spain.

I just picked up (in lieu of Lackey's novel) Sailing to Sarantium by the same author which, the cover says, is a fantasy based on the Byzantine Empire. I'm hoping it's as good as The Lions of al-Rassan.

#43 In regards to Timeline while it didn't give a good picture of medieval life (not that it set out to give a picture of medieval life) it did give a picture of how someone from the modern time wouldn't want to live there.

#45 - Storeetllr - I recommend you get a copy of The Shadow of the Lion before getting This Rough Magic. They are a series and I think will be more enjoyable if read in order. I don't know why they have not written more together.

Any book by Guy Gavriel Kay is likely to be good. I have never found a bad one by him. I enjoyed Sailing to Sarantium as well as The Lions of al-Rassan.

Thanks, xenchu, I'll do that!

>45 Storeetllr: Storeetllr - Sailing to Sarantium is, in my opinion, not as good as Lions of Al-Rassan, mainly because it's the first half of a duology, so on its own it feels unfinished (I'm only partway through the second book, Lord of Emperors, at the moment, so I can't really comment on it yet, except that I've heard that a lot of people love it.)

It's set in the same world as Lions of Al-Rassan, although much earlier... the maps are the same, the country names, Jaddites and Kindath, etc.

#49 The Lions of al-Rassan really is brilliant, isn't it!?! I'm looking forward to Sailing to Sarantium and hope for the best. I don't mind books that are continued in second and third parts, having cut my fantasy eyeteeth on LotR. I didn't know it was set in the same world as Lions, though. Does it have any magic in it? No! Never mind, don't tell me. I want to find out by reading it. :)

Thanks for the info!

BTW, fyrefly, I've been meaning to ask you if your LT name came from the short-lived but wonderful sci-fi TV series Firefly.

I don't mind multiple-part fantasy either, just make sure you've got easy access to Lord of Emperors once you finish Sailing to Sarantium, and don't expect much (if anything) to be wrapped up by the end of the first book.

And no, my name came from long before Firefly the show, back when I was a teenager and needed an online handle and liked fireflies the bugs but thought I'd be all quirky and rebellious and spell it incorrectly. I do love the show, though. :)

I see that xenchu has recommended 1634 by Eric Flint -- but I'd recommend reading 1632 by Eric Flint first. The Ring of Fire series is good -- about how a small city in WV is transported back to 17th century middle Europe. It's particularly good for fans of medieval warfare.

I have one criticism of Eric Flint. He's a determined optimist, which can be very refreshing, as so much s/f/ and fantasy can be more than slightly negative. However, Flint's 17th century characters adapt, far too readily in my opinion, to late 20th century mores. I'm not just talking about adopting modern technological and mechanical marvels, mind you, but about the more problematic embrace of social customs -- the wearing of short skirts and pants for women, (that got Jeanne d'Arc in a wee bit of trouble, if your remember), the equality of men and women, etc. One of the main problems with historical fiction is not the recreation of the physical world those folks lived in, but the mental attitudes which we moderns often just cannot grasp.

Most people back then centered their entire lives around a religious belief/faith. There were practically no conflicting world views. Political correctness meant hearing Mass in Latin or in the vernacular, believing that the communion wafer was merely symbolic or the actual flesh of Christ. Anyone born in Western Europe or North America in the 1950s or later will find it extremely difficult to understand how rigidly different people's world view was back then.

And my problem with Flint and many other authors is that they just don't take those very major differences into consideration. Their characters are often emotionally and socially anachronistic -- kind of like one of the Jean Auel mammoth hunter books where a cave man spent hours in foreplay, in an effort to find his female mate's G-spot. Like that would have happened! ("No, hon, don't worry about the sabretooth trying to get into the cave, your achieving orgasm is much more important to me.")

I know that this kind of criticism is specialist-oriented -- but I am a social historian, so anachronisms in this area affect me the way having medieval knights wearing the wrong kind of armor or using the wrong type of weapons affect military historians. That's not to say I didn't enjoy 1632, but that after a while I found the anachronistic responses grating.

I would like to recommend Island in the Stream of Time by S.M. Stirling as well, though. IMHO Stirling deals with the problems of temporal misplacement much more realistically.

I'd like to recommend Robert A. Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold to you folks. Although the time travel is forward rather than backward displacement, the social situation created in the book is marvelous -- written in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, in a white-dominated USA, Heinlein's time travelers find themselves in the far future -- where whites are now a servile minority. I won't say more, but as a social treatise I found it fascinating (and a darned good story).

By the way, I am thrilled that storeetllr and fyrefly98 loved one of my family's favorite s/f shows, Firefly! My adult children are hard-core fanatics -- I simply enjoyed it immensely.

How could I have forgotten to recommend Jack Finney's books? Many of his short stories deal with modern (1960s) characters retreating into the past deliberately, but one of his best books is Time and Again. I can't say any more --except that Finney deals very well with the social problems of temporal displacement.

If you are interested in more books by Diana Gabaldon, her series about Lord John now has a new title out Lord John and the Hand of the Devils out this month.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

I absolutely loved The Lions of al-Rassan, in fact anything by that author! I also enjoyed The Historian.

I would love to recommend a series of books called Tales of the Otori, set in medieval Japan with a fantasy twist, there are 5 books in the series starting with Across the Nightingale Floor followed by Grass for His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon, Harsh Cry of the Heron and a prequel Heaven's Net Is Wide. Excellent books!

For those who like historical fiction with a twist of science fiction, check out Kat Jaske and her book Righting Time. Wonderful, memorable characters. Orson Scott Card has said that it is very difficult for most authors to write good stories with MANY characters and all their interactions. Jaske does exceptional story-telling with multiple characters and many different scenes. After a few pages you feel that you know the people. Time travel, modern writing with a theme of musketeers and a lady musketeer from seventeenth-century France.

Another author to check out would be George R.R. Martin. I just finished the first of his A Song of Ice And Fire series, A Game of Thrones, which is considered fantasy. But I am not a big fantasy reader, and I found that it read very much like historical fiction, with a few fantasy elements, but not a lot. I've read that it is sort of loosely based on the Lancasters and Yorks in England (which I'm ashamed to admit I know virtually nothing about), but in any event, it was a fabulous book. It's really about the (human) characters, not much to do with elves or trolls or whatnot (not that there's anything wrong with that). Highly recommended!

The latest in the Casca series, Casca 30: Napoleon's Soldier is now out, this is the long-running series about an immortal cursed to live until the Second Coming, who has to fight down the ages and never die. The original author Barry Sadler, wrote the first 22 and since 2005 the series has seen a revival under a couple of authors.

The next one, by Tony Roberts is due out in June and covers the Norman invasion of England in 1066.

Another newish author worth checking is Jo Graham - Hand of Isis is really well done (had not read Black ships yet). It's history/fantasy mix.

I've seen quite a few books/authors that I enjoy on the list, but I've got a couple more to add:

Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz. It's an alternate of World War II, and loosely connected to her Adept series.

Temple and the Stone and the Temple and the Crown along with the Templar anthologies she's edited.

Most Arthurian fiction fits this as well.

There are some slight elements of fantasy in The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys.

I'm sure I have other books that fit this category, I just can't remember them at the moment.

And you are interested in American story, Charles Coleman Finlay's The Patriot Witch is quite good.

You can download a free pdf copy of His Majesty's Dragon, I just did from this web site: www.suvudu.com/freelibrary. I found out about it on another LT thread.

rachealfromsarasota, I agree completely with you about the vast number of writers of historical fiction (with or without fantasy elements) who fail totally to understand the enormous differences in social, emotional, psychological sensibilites, and plunk down characters with modern outlooks in other centuries. The entire book fails for me when that happens.

Writers of historical fiction who never do this include Sigrid Undset in Kristin Lavransdattar, and anything by Cecilia Holland and Bryer. Also very fine are Wallace Breem's two novels and Arthur Meeker's book The Ivory Mischief, which seems to have been a one-off.

Though Holland usually sticks to non fantasy elements, there are four, all with connecting characters, that have elements of fantasy--The Soul Thief, Varanger, Witches Kitchen and The Serpent Dreamer.

I join those recommending The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (my favorite of hers, although I did also like Say Nothing of the Dog), Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Time and Again by Jack Finney.

I actually liked Timeline by Michael Crichton. I hadn't thought about the inadequate portrayal of medieval life, but it does well on the exciting read meter.

One of my favorites is Lest Darkness Fall where a man in pre WWII Italy is transported back to Rome right before the Eastern Empire is set to take things back with Belisarius. Using his modern knowledge of the period our hero invents the semaphore and brandy (and I won't say more so as not to spoil it) while getting mixed up in politics to save what little is left of Rome.

Juliet Marillier writes fantastic historical fantasy. Her Bridei trilogy (The Dark Mirror, The Blade of Fortriu, and the Well of Shades) focus on the historical figure of a dark age Scottish king Bridei, but have strong magical/fantasy elements, as well. She also wrote the Sevenwaters books, set in dark age Ireland--also fabulous reads, all of them.

I just remembered another book that I've read and enjoyed several times. The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llywelyn.

The characters in the story are those that become the gods and goddesses of the celts that we know. Its' a book I like although I haven't read much else by the author.

No time travel but definite elements of the fantastic to be found here (if I may toot my own tinny horn):

Augustus Green in the Lair of the Pye-a-Saw
http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=id&id=90602

Obadiah Gray and the Mystery of the Centurion’s Testament
http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=id&id=90901

Stephen Lawhead's historicals are excellent: Patrick, Byzantium, The Iron Lance, The Black Rood, etc. His Pendragon series combines Atlantis, Merlin and Arthur myths. He also has a fairly new series (King Raven series) that my son loved: Hood, Tuck, and Scarlet. If you like time travel and alternate worlds (I know not historical) try his Song of Albion series.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon was amazing! I read the entire series in two weeks, many sleepless nights spent reading until dawn.

Soulless by Gail Carriger was also great. It's a Victorian era Werewolf and Vampire story with a dash of Steampunk thrown in.

-Kat.

Cherie Priest's Boneshaker is set in late 19th-century America, with steampunk-ish elements. This is her first historical, but it's been well reviewed (I think starred in PW?--I'm pretty sure, but the review isn't up on amazon yet). I've only read her Four and Twenty Blackbirds, but reviews of her more recent work have been positive enough that I'm inclined to pick up something newer of hers.

David Gemmel is one of my favorite authors! I loved his Trojan war series.

As Lian Hearn's books have already received a mention I would also add Cloud of Sparrows and Autumn Bridge by Takashi Matsuoka as they fall along similar lines.

Mary Gentle has been mentioned above, but I would add her novel, 1610: A Sundial in a Grave.

I also thought Edith Pattou's Young Adult novel East which is a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, had a strong historical feel to it, moreso than most fairy tale retellings that I've read.