(Part 2) Best military historical fiction books according to redditors
We found 472 Reddit comments discussing the best military historical fiction books. We ranked the 214 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Let's start with the high-end. Almost every Zulu adult male served in a regiment based on his age: You joined a regiment in your late teens with all the other teenagers, and that was your regiment until the day you died; you literally did not have access to adulthood in the Zulu Kingdom without joining a regiment, serving the king for a number of years, and then being permitted to sew on the headring, marry, and become head of a household excused active service outside times of war. The only exceptions to the age regiment (amabutho) system were the abaQulusi who guarded the northwestern border, and the Cube clan who were not required to serve militarily if they worked as smiths. From a total population of several hundred thousand, that gives us more than 50,000 armed and trained warriors.
That number is far too high for a number of reasons. First, regiments were never disbanded, so some of the oldest ones --men who served under King Shaka and Dingane-- were made up of grandfathers and great-grandfathers too elderly to contribute to the war effort. Quite a number of those men did answer Cetshwayo's command to muster at oNdini, but he called them his reserve --one can only imagine to spare their feelings-- and they played little to no role in the actual fighting. A much larger number of warriors from all age ranges did little or no fighting because they were more loyal to their local chieftains --especially northern barons like Hamu and Zibhebhu-- and they stayed home.
A realistic ballpark puts the Great Impi that fought at Isandhlwana at 20-25,000 (4,000 of whom did no fighting but went on to Rorke's Drift afterwards). Another 5-8,000 opposed the eastern column at Nyezane, resulting in the siege of Eshowe, and the final battle at Gingindhlovu. The abaQulusi's strength in the west is much fuzzier --between 1-3,000-- depending on how many of them ever actually followed Mbilini waMswati at any one time. That puts the range between 26,000 and 36,000 fighting men at the start of the war.
In answer to your question about rivals, the Zulu were excellent at absorbing their rivals among their Bantu neighbours. They never successfully conquered the Swazi, but King Mpande did go to war with them for the purposes of blooding regiments too young to have participated in the wars of Shaka and Dingane. The Boers were a constant source of anxiety before the British put the whole matter to rest. Probably the single greatest threat to the Zulu in the years leading up to the Anglo-Zulu War was civil war: Mpande refused to choose an heir, and princes Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi fought a major engagement at eNdodakusuka that saw as many as ten thousand fatalities. Cetshwayo came out the victor, but by the time of his ascension to the throne --the only peaceful succession in Zulu history-- he had divested so much power to the Great Men of the Nation that he had to invite the British to his coronation to use them as a threat against the sprawling nobility.
/ZuluHistoryNerdMoment
EDIT: Thanks, everyone! I'm pretty sure this is my most popular submission in this subreddit, so I hope you don't mind my adding a shameless plug: I actually wrote a work of historical fiction about the Zulu in the later half of the 19th Century. It's my second novel. My first was about the decline and fall of the Inca Empire.
Brian's book is just one of the novels in the Orbit Cyber Monday sale. All are $2.99 and a list of the fantasy titles is provided here:
Title|Author|Book #|Series|Rating | # Ratings
:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:
The Fifth Season | N.K. Jemisin | 1 | Broken Earth | 4.31 | 34,271
The Black Prism | Brent Weeks | 1 | Lightbringer | 4.24 | 68,494
The Last Wish | Andrzej Sapkowski | 1 | Introducing the Witcher | 4.20 | 58,433
Blood of Elves | Andrzej Sapkowski | 1 | The Witcher | 4.23 | 32,039
The Shadow of What Was Lost | James Islington | 1 | Licanius Trilogy | 4.16 | 9,656
Sins of Empire | Brian McClellan | 1 | Gods of Blood and Powder | 4.47 | 3,727
Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan | 1 | Powder Mage| 4.16| 26,245
The Blade Itself | Joe Abercrombie | 1 | First Law | 4.14| 111,811
Theft of Swords^1 | Michael J. Sullivan | 1 | Riyria Revelations | 4.21 | 38,525
The City Stained Red | Sam Sykes | 1 | Bring Down Heaven | 3.68 | 1,088
The Red Knight | Miles Cameron | 1 | Traitor Son Cycle | 4.12 | 10,607
Skyborn | David Dalglish | 1 | Seraphim | 3.92 | 1,010
--------
^1 In full disclosure - this is a book that I wrote.
If you want the real version, read Rattenkreig AKA War of the Rats:
https://www.amazon.ca/War-Rats-David-L-Robbins/dp/055358135X
It's almost 90% the exact same story, about the same sniper Vasily Zaitsev, but it was written using actual sources, reports, and interviews, and is much more historically accurate (despite still technically a fiction novel). And it's also a fucking awesome book.
I think the most glaring inaccuracy of Enemy at the Gates was the child, the one that was [SPOILER] used as bait and killed and hung from a post in the train yard. There was no child.
>Elite private education in America is on the cusp of this new era. The controversies over free speech, safe spaces, trigger warnings, microaggressions and the like are symptoms of this shift. . . Once the transition is complete, the “correct” side of the controversies will become central to a school’s identity. . .
This post from Instapundit earlier today just seems apropos: Prosperity breeds idiots
" At the start of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel In the First Circle, a Soviet diplomat on home leave in Moscow tries to make an anonymous call to the U.S. embassy. His purpose: warning the Americans of a Soviet theft of atomic secrets. But he gets a dull-witted, indifferent embassy staffer on the line, and the call goes nowhere. Or almost nowhere. The call is monitored by Soviet security. Arrested and imprisoned at the end of the novel, the diplomat’s final thought about Americans is that “prosperity breeds idiots.”
Solzhenitsyn’s diplomat channels views that were clearly held by the author himself. Comfort and safety, enjoyed too long in the West, invite complacency—and complacency leads to stupidity. As a gulag survivor, Solzhenitsyn had a barely disguised disgust for Western elites with little experience of political murder and repression. Nor could he abide the legion of fools who seemed fascinated, from a secure and prosperous distance, with socialist thought. "
I'm a big fan of historical fiction. In my mind it serves the same focus as movies based on history--it's an introduction to a time period and may spur someone to learn more about that time period. Even historical fiction that's mostly wrong can do this.
As a kid Johnny Tremain helped to get me started on the American Revolution.
A little later Red Badge of Courage got me intensely interested in the Civil War.
To Kill A Mockingbird is both a novel of the Depression and of the historical Deep South. Not normally regarded as historical fiction, but in a way it is. Steinbeck is probably best known for The Grapes of Wrath (another bit of historical fiction about the Depression), but I think that his book In Dubious Battle tells a more interesting story of how Communism was an important part of labor movements during this time period.
Harry Mazer's The Last Bomber does a pretty good job of telling what it was like for bomber crews and is told from the perspective of a 15 year old boy who runs away to join the Air Force.
Likewise Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is regarded as a "classic" but most people seem to forget that it's historical fiction about the Spanish Civil War.
I'm sure that Aubrey Martin will get brought up. Love the series, but I actually got into those long after my interest in the Age of Sail. I read Bernard Cornwall's Azincourt recently and found it a fantastic bit of historical fiction that does a pretty good job laying out the basics of Henry V's campaign. I can't speak to the accuracy of his other historical fiction because I haven't read it, but I know that his [Richard Sharpe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(novel_series) series (featuring a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars) is incredibly popular and was turned into a tv series featuring Sean Bean as Sharpe.
Eric Flint's 1632 is a bit of counter-factual fun (what if a mining town from West Virginia was dropped into the middle of the Thirty Years' War), but it helped me get interested in that time period. Of course the later books in the series don't work so well for history since it diverges so much from real events, but I find that a good counter-factual history requires a thorough understanding of the time period you're diverging from. Plus there's a great section in there on Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, a fascinating character in his own right.
There's more, but yeah I absolutely think historical fiction is an important part of teaching about history. History is more than facts and figures, it's the story of our past. What better way to tell that story than actually writing a story?
You might be interested in a book call The Cross of Iron by Willi Heinrich then. Here's an amazon link:Link
There's a great fictional account called Daughters of the Night Sky. They were amazing women.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XTQ4YD1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4mVYDb23YSDWA
I read a historical fiction book about this last year and it was great! Here's the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTQ4YD1/ref=oh_aui_d_asin_title_o05_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Reminds me of Arrow from the Cellist of Sarajevo. It's historical fiction - a good, short read that I highly recommend.
I love this book SO SO MUCH! Madeline Miller is a word-alchemist who makes magic on the page. I've read 30 or so books so far this year and this was my favorite fiction. I also liked Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, which I also recommend if you're into the ancient Greek mythology theme.
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko - nice blend of modern setting & traditional folklore
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SEFBJ8?btkr=1#
Also, anything by Sherman Alexie
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara as well as the books by his son Jeff are written from character perspectives. It's not fantasy, but great reading.
There's a novel called 'In the First Circle' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which is set in a Soviet labour camp.
From one of the Amazon.com reviews:
>[...] In the sharashkas, the zeks (prisoners) are charged into developing a device that identifies voices recorded from tapped phone conversations...
More details on the book's Wikipedia entry:
>[...] The sharashka prisoners work on technical projects to assist state security agencies and generally pander to Stalin's increasing paranoia. While most are aware of how much better off they are than "regular" gulag prisoners (some of them having come from gulags themselves), some are also conscious of the overwhelming moral dilemma of working to aid a system that is the cause of so much suffering. As Lev Rubin is given the task of identifying the voice in the recorded phone call, he examines printed spectrographs of the voice and compares them with recordings of Volodin and five other suspects...
There have been at least three adaptations into film, including 'Den første kreds' in 1973, and the English language TV movie 'The First Circle'. The latter was originally broadcast in 1992.
EDIT:
Some clips from the TV movie here and here.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cross-Iron-Willi-Heinrich/dp/0553147870
http://www.amazon.com/Legion-Damned-Cassell-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304366315/ref=pd_sim_b_3
Can't vouch for Cassel, but have read two of Willi Heinrich's books, one of which was an excellent Peckinpah film.
I just finished Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor, and it was interesting. When I told my father I wanted to sail around the world, he recommended Once Is Enough. I'm half way through We The Drowned and Two Years Before the Mast at the moment and enjoying both. Master and Commander is next on my list. Chapman Piloting and Seamanship is always good for leafing through and studying up on technical skills.
Great list!
I'd like to add in The Fall of Troy by Quintus of Smyrna, aka The Posthomerica.
It's a 4th century retelling of the Aethiopis, Iliupersis, and Little Iliad - all parts of the Epic Cycle that are now lost, but which detailed events like the death of Achilles, Trojan Horse, and Sack of Troy - and is considered to be the closest thing we have to the originals.
I'm also rather fond of The Rage of Achilles by Terence Hawkins, for how it explores the bicameral mind theory in pursuit of a realistic take on the involvement of the Greek Gods in the story.
Hmmm... fiction? Non-fiction? First-person meaning told through a first-person narrative style, or just generally following a single person fighting for survival?
Fiction-wise, I'm a fan of To The White Sea by James Dickey. I've also always heard universally good things about the young adult novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, but have yet to read it myself.
In the realm of non-fiction, Touching The Void is a pretty incredible story, and was made into a stellar documentary film. Also, anything about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica is worth checking out, so there you've got Endurance by Alfred Lansing, as well as Shackleton's own account, South: The Endurance Expedition.
there are .. a few book sequels
"Berlin noir" by Philip Kerr! https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B006LFO1DA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I got hooked on City of Thieves from the first few pages, and pretty much didn't move until I finished it. Beat the Reaper also starts off very quickly, and moves along at a pretty breathtaking pace. John Dies at the End is a comedy/science fiction/horror, and is a lot of fun. I'd also second Christopher Moore- I'd start with either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel.
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
give the first book away for free
Inca
Zulu
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^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot
Some comparative texts (fiction):
Also a starting point for Navajo/Dine language materials here.
sounds like you've read this book.
> PICK ONE! Because those two statements are mutually exclusive. You can't be an authoritarian that wants to force bright people into slave labor while also claiming you're trying to avert a collapse of society.
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006IDG3Y0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1
> Unfortunately, it has proven to have worked in the past.
In the First Circle is Solzhenitsyn's fiction masterpiece
It's fiction dude. Fiction. Fantasy. Not real. Made up. Like Santa Clause.
>But they are finite and will see the end sometime in this century.
But it DOESN'T GO AWAY. We can recycle it.
>Rail treatments were replaceable by some other material. Phosphates are difficult to replace.
Do you have any idea what Phosphates are actually used for? And rail tie treatments were INVENTED, not replaced.
WTF is HBD?
You're blaming the dark ages on...
>if America fails there are no real alternatives
Europe? Japan? Hell, China's a little authoritarian, but they're a hell of a lot better than they were.
> relatively little money is spent on future techs.
Are you fucking with me?
Dude, while futurology might be overly optimistic, but you are a just a doomsayer with nearly ZERO supporting argument. You just FEEL like it's falling apart. And you've told us you feel things are shitty. Ok. We now know your feelings. But that doesn't mean much.
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway.
https://www.amazon.com/Cellist-Sarajevo-Steven-Galloway/dp/1594483655
House of Names by Colm Tóibín
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
The first book is a bit difficult to get into, but is essential in the development of the relationship between Maturin and Aubrey. My brother bought me this for my birthday before college. The range of things discussed and themes portrayed are immense. I don't think anyone can come anywhere near O'Brian's brilliance when it comes to naval warfare in the time period of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A Sea of Words is also helpful in understanding some of the finer points that the book goes into.
hmm well I guess my suggestions are pretty obscure but I actually read this book after someone in /r scifi recommended it and it was really really good. It's one of my favorite books ever and it was quite disturbing. I believe Science Fiction has always been about pushing the extremes of human imagination and this book definitely does that. There's a lot of hardcore violence/sex scenes and some insane stuff that seems like it might be from a David Cronenberg movie.
The other book is called "The Rage of Achilles" it's a retelling of "The Illiad" although the dialogue is written in modern English. It's extremely violent and sexually graphic - very hardcore, it's quite well written though. It really took me by surprise how good it was, I think the author made a lot of interesting choices and had a lot of new interesting ideas about the "The Illiad".
Sounds like [this series I read years ago.] (http://www.amazon.ca/Richard-Rohmer-Omnibus-Exxoneration-ebook/dp/B004LB4C2Q)
Ooo sorry to hear it wasn't to your liking! But glad to hear you found something more suitable!
So I used to read a lot more than I do now. Not sure why it's tapered off, really. I think I just don't have the time I used to to be able to head to the library or even the bookstore I've been looking to get into eBooks for a long time now, in hopes that I can start reading disgustingly high amounts of books again. And a Kindle Fire is just the ticket to be able to do so!
As for an eBook, I read City of Thieves a bit ago, and would love to check it out again!
Thanks for the contest!
The Berlin Noir Trilogy is about a hard boiled Raymond Chandler type private eye in Berlin just before, during, and just after WW2. The author ended up coming back to the character for an ongoing series, most of which are pretty damn good, but the first three are the best.
The Flashman Papers are a hilarious series featuring a completely amoral coward who manages to fail and lie his way upward in Victorian England's army, and throughout the series gets involved in pretty much every notable military entanglement and international incident in the 19th century.
Excellent question! Try War of the Rats by David Robbins — Soviet vs Nazi sniper war in Stalingrad, with a fast pace and witty dialogue. https://www.amazon.com/War-Rats-David-L-Robbins/dp/055358135X
This would be great: http://amzn.com/B007WKEM0A it's a Lord John story from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. And it's only US$1.99
THANK YOU!
Whoops. WWII. Never the less, I think you would enjoy The Cross of Iron, by Willi Heinrich. It's fiction, but highly realistic.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cross-Iron-Willi-Heinrich/dp/0553147870
Hi guys! I've got a new Powder Mage novel coming out in a week. It's called Sins of Empire and is the beginning of a new trilogy set in the Powder Mage Universe. It's meant to be a launching point for new readers, and also a comfortable continuation of the last series for old fans. Here's the cover copy:
A world on the cusp of a new age...
The young nation of Fatrasta is a turbulent place -- a frontier destination for criminals, fortune-hunters, brave settlers, and sorcerers seeking relics of the past. Only the iron will of the lady chancellor and her secret police holds the capital city of Landfall together against the unrest of an oppressed population and the machinations of powerful empires.
Sedition is a dangerous word...
The insurrection that threatens Landfall must be purged with guile and force, a task which falls on the shoulders of a spy named Michel Bravis, convicted war hero Mad Ben Styke, and Lady Vlora Flint, a mercenary general with a past as turbulent as Landfall's present.
The past haunts us all...
As loyalties are tested, revealed, and destroyed, a grim specter as old as time has been unearthed in this wild land, and the people of Landfall will soon discover that rebellion is the least of their worries.
amazing. reminds me of this book I listened to as a kid https://www.amazon.com/White-Sea-Delta-World-Library/dp/0385313098
'To The White Sea' by James Dickey (author of 'Deliverance') is the first that comes to mind. I read it solely based that the Coen brothers optioned it. Parts of the 'The Nick Adams Stories' by Ernest Hemmingway. Same for a lot of Jack London short story works.
If you're a reader...here's the full 21-book series that M&C was based on
https://www.amazon.ca/War-Rats-David-L-Robbins/dp/055358135X
Read that instead. Exact same story, but much more historically accurate.
>PICK ONE! Because those two statements are mutually exclusive. You can't be an authoritarian that wants to force bright people into slave labor while also claiming you're trying to avert a collapse of society.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006IDG3Y0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1
Unfortunately, it has proven to have worked in the past.
>Like what? Rare Earth? It's not that rare. And the US hold 38% of the world's deposits. We have mines we could open up if it weren't so cheap coming out of China.
But they are finite and will see the end sometime in this century.
>Plastic? We can synthesize it. We no longer need crude oil. But honestly, whatever is cheapest.
That point is taken, but whether it can be done in a large scale remains to be seen.
>OIL would be the big one. We literally burn it as opposed to all the others we can mine out of trash dumps. (Landfills have more gold in them then gold ore these days). But alternative energy really seems to be picking up speed. Good times.
That is the big debate, although I personally think demand will be reduced instead in a way most people do not want to mention.
> phosphates
I really don't think it's a problem. Hell, you sound like people in the 1800's fear-mongering about how how the rail network was going to deforest the nation. But then of course someone made a better treatment for the railroad ties and life moved on.
Rail treatments were replaceable by some other material. Phosphates are difficult to replace.
>> We already have an example of ignorant masses ending civilization in the Western World. In one word, Hypatia.
>Is the name of one greek lady murdered in AD415. Get over it dude. Civilization did not end. This is the best example you have of the ignorant masses committing atrocities?
It did for at least 900 years.
It took the Black Death, which got rid of a lot of brain-dead priests who had to perform the last rites (the smarter ones who somehow got out of that duty lived), to reopen the vaults of progress.
>Shit, I'm more pissed about Alan Turing's nuts. Seriously, why not mention Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot?
By that time there were alternatives in other country. However, this time, if America fails there are no real alternatives, due to the difference of traditions.
>> It will have to be more brutal to keep things going till a breakthrough occurs.
>This is exactly the opposite of the truth. One of the bigger existential threats we face is letting jack-booted thugs take over the reigns of the nation and commit atrocities.
Which will happen. The only difference would be would it be Stalin, who at least understood the importance of science and tech, or Pol Pot, who did not.
>> get fed up by the 'new arrivals'
>Ah, yes. You're bitching about the immigrants. Listen, EVERYONE always bitches about the next wave of immigrants. Especially if they were immigrants in the past generation. Get over it dude. If you're a European, get your racist shit in order and learn to deal with outsiders. Stop being a pussy and trying to call it a war. They are literally coming to work for you. If you really want them to conform to your ways, sure, legislate that or something, but the most effective method would be to STOP HIRING THEM. But of course that would fly in the face of capitalism. Which doesn't work out so well when you're trying to make a buck. Really, invite them in, show them the better way, politely laugh at their religion, and within a couple generations you'll hardly know where they came from. (And they'll be bitching about the damn immigrants from... Mars or whatever).
Unfortunately, there is something called HBD, which shows most of the new arrivals are not too likely to add good things to existing societies.
> And some people are just completely fucking nuts when it comes to future inventions and they think they'll be uploaded to utopia sometime next Thursday. The later is a little more prevalent of Futurology.
We might already be too late for that, but that's another topic.
With all money having spent in social programs and SJW projects, relatively little money is spent on future techs. Elon Musk, etc, tend to focus on tech which would make them big bucks, and to reach the stars we need a new Manhattan Project which does not seem to be in the horizons as for now.
> But yeah, it'd be REALLY nice if you could at least accurately point to the big problems we're facing, like climate change, as opposed to brown people moving in next door or the cost of phosphorus rising a little. Come on
I think the resources will start to run out, one by one, from next decade. Demand destruction will probably have to occur, but the ultimate solution is reaching the stars to obtain new resources.
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell with Michael Mann directing. Could possibly be an amazing film, I know I loved the book.
http://www.totalfilm.com/news/michael-mann-heading-into-battle-with-agincourt
http://www.amazon.com/Agincourt-A-Novel-Bernard-Cornwell/dp/0061578916
quack, I'm a duck.
This ebook would be great.
Here it is at Amazon
Not cheap at $150, but I like the series so much it was worth it for me.
That line of thinking was big in the fuel crisis '70s: https://www.amazon.ca/Richard-Rohmer-Omnibus-Ultimatum-Exxoneration-ebook/dp/B004LB4C2Q
The Silence of the Girls if you've read the Iliad and want to hear it from a different POV
https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Girls-Novel-Pat-Barker/dp/0385544219
Here is a reasonably priced one, and if you care about "definitive" volumes it's the one to get.
I can't stand the wing-nut Republican loons in the US, of which O'Reilly is a perfect example. I am the stuff of their nightmares. Left wing, pro-choice, pro-union, socialist even.
But this is complete pants.
Let me ask you this? Does the same bookshop sell fiction based on the Civil War? Say some famous works like Shiloh by Shelby Foote, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane or The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara?
I bet my bottom dollar it does.
Political bias informing decisions that will come back and bite the liberal left once again.
Fucking hell. What a load of bullshit.