I strongly suggest Asterix.
I strongly suggest Asterix.
I guess he wants historical fiction. In that case I'll recommend Steven saylors works from the late Roman republic about Gordianus the finder. They are crime novels from ancient Rome and are wery well researched. Christian Camerons tyrant books about a greek hippeis commander in the time of Megas Alexandros are good but I find them weak in the story telling in some parts. Also Simon Scarrows books about two legionaires in the conquest of Britain is fine reading.
If you want historical accuracy I advise you to stay far away from Conn Igulden and the emperor series though.
I reccomend to read this super awesome historically inaccurate reading :
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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I never included my favourite historical fiction in the Bibliography thread 'cos it's so subjective: I think that the Stephen Saylor books are far inferior, for example, to the Falco series. But that is just my opinion.
οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.
Even as are the generations of leaves, such are the lives of men.
Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, Illiad, 6.146
Could you tell a little bit about the Falco series? When, where, by whom, ...
The queen commands and we'll obey
Over the Hills and far away.
(perhaps from an English Traditional, about 1700 AD)
Drum, Kinder, seid lustig und allesamt bereit:
Auf, Ansbach-Dragoner! Auf, Ansbach-Bayreuth!
(later chorus -containing a wrong regimental name for the Bayreuth-Dragoner (DR Nr. 5) - of the "Hohenfriedberger Marsch", reminiscense of a battle in 1745 AD, to the music perhaps of an earlier cuirassier march)
The Falco Series of Lindsey Davis.
The historical novels and non-fiction of Mary Renault:
The Last of the Wine (1956) — set in Athens during the Peloponnesian War; the narrator is a student of Socrates
The King Must Die (1958) — the mythical Theseus up to his father's death
The Bull from the Sea (1962) — the remainder of Theseus' life
The Mask of Apollo (1966) — an actor at the time of Plato and Dionysius the Younger (brief appearance by Alexander near the end of the book)
Fire from Heaven (1969) — Alexander the Great from the age of four up to his father's death
The Persian Boy (1972) — from Bagoas's perspective; Alexander the Great after the conquest of Persia
The Praise Singer (1978) — the poet Simonides of Ceos
Funeral Games (1981) — Alexander's successors
The Nature of Alexander (1975) — a biography of Alexander the Great
Lion in the Gateway: The Heroic Battles of the Greeks and Persians at Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylae (1964)
Robert Graves' historical fiction:
I Claudius, Claudius the God, Count Belisarius, King Jesus, Hercules, My Shipmate
I'm sure that everyone knows of Stephen Pressfield, but, honestly, aside from Gates of Fire and Tides of War, not really that good.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi has written umpteen million books, which IMHO are pretty crap.
On the other hand, something which I may get laughed at for doing is to recommend Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. She's not quite the academic heavyweight that she sometimes seems to think she is, but the series is really very good, although the earlier books are much better than the last two.
Finally, I also liked Robert Harris' Pompeii, Imperium and Lustrum.
οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.
Even as are the generations of leaves, such are the lives of men.
Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, Illiad, 6.146
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