People have been telling fantastical tales about the past since, well … most likely long before our ancestors began painting caves with wild beasts that danced in the firelight. A ragtag collection of Bronze Age skirmishes is transformed into the Trojan War, where gods meddle and great heroes are dispatched on quests we’re still retelling. Alexander the Great, already pretty remarkable, ends up a larger-than-life character in romance tales across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia that have him battling centaurs and searching for the fountain of life (inspired by even older tales of Gilgamesh). If the past were a foreign country, clearly a great number of us would be eager to plan a trip.
While I appreciate and admire the wild creative freedom of a secondary world setting, I have a special place in my heart for fantasy novels set in our historical past — particularly those that are well-researched and interrogate their settings in novel ways (authors, please keep including notes at the end!).
Below, in vague chronological order, are a few of my favorites.
Lavinia
by Ursula K. Le Guin
The final novel by one of speculative fiction’s giants takes us to the sacred woods and hardscrabble towns of Italy long before the rise of Rome. Le Guin breathes life and agency into Lavinia, a nonspeaking character in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” turning the Latin princess with whom Aeneas will forge the dynasty that one day founds Rome into a heroine in her own right. Now, as Le Guin herself acknowledged, “The Aeneid” is not real history: It’s a Roman’s politicized retelling of an ancient Greek mythical imagining of a Bronze Age war. And yet it’s this chain of storytelling — evolving across centuries — that I find riveting.
She Who Became the Sun
by Shelley Parker-Chan
If we live in a glory age of fantasy, one of its richest (and most overdue) trends is interrogating the gender politics of stories we’ve been retelling for centuries. Parker-Chan’s debut novel does this beautifully, reimagining the founding of the Ming Empire through a wonderfully queer lens (full disclosure: I loved it so much, I blurbed it). Come for the clashing politics and richly realized scenes of 14th century life among Mongol warriors and Chinese monks, stay for the rise to power of a former village girl who assumes her brother’s name and changes the fate of an entire people.
The Bird King
by G. Willow Wilson
Set in the final days of the last Muslim emirate in Spain, “The Bird King” quietly showcases the dazzling diversity and complicated mix of religion, culture and language that was the norm in far more places throughout history than we modern humans tend to believe. I fell hard for Fatima and Hassan, the Circassian concubine and magically talented mapmaker at the heart of this impeccably researched, meditative and adventurous book. Their friendship is as profound and heart-wrenching as any romance.
The Pasha of Cuisine
by Saygin Ersin
If a reader is very fortunate, she may come across a book once or twice in her life that makes her think: Was this written just for me? Ersin’s Ottoman epic is one of my own personal literary treasures (I blurbed this one too). The book follows the whirlwind adventures of a young chef from the imperial palace as he travels the world, learns cooking magic and wields his enchanted delicacies to save the woman he loves. If you’re a history nerd who divides your evenings between episodes of “The Great British Bake-Off” and fantasy novels, you must read this book.
A Master of Djinn
by P. Djèlí Clark
It’s 1912 in Cairo, but not the Cairo we know: This is the alternate fantasy Egypt of Clark’s Dead Djinn Universe, first introduced in his short fiction. I adore the steampunk setting of this sharp, witty book — the first full-length novel in the series (and another recent favorite I blurbed) — and the nefarious, bureaucratic tangle of mysteries that surround its main character, Fatma el-Sha’arawi. The youngest female agent at the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, Fatma is tasked with investigating a murder whose perpetrator claims to be the acclaimed polymath al-Jahiz, a real historical figure who has been missing for decades.
Moonshine
by Alaya Johnson
I’ve been obsessed with this book (now sadly out of print, but still available at your library or a favorite used bookstore) since 2010. Granted, there was a certain kind of magic to reading about a twentysomething, scrappy, idealistic social activist in Jazz Age New York when I was painfully close to the same, nearly a century later. But I was utterly enchanted by Zephyr Hollis and her adventures in a version of my city where the mob is run by vampires and fairies go to night school. Many years later, I still think fondly about this book and think it deserves another chance to shine.
Gods of Jade and Shadow
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
We’re still in the Jazz Age but far from New York, though I suspect the protagonist of Moreno-Garcia’s tale wouldn’t mind the trip. Instead, Casiopea Tun is stuck working in the house of her wealthy relatives in a rural part of southern Mexico, where she can only dream of a more exciting life — until she accidentally unleashes the Mayan god of death. Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite writers working today, and this novel, with its perfectly bittersweet ending, is a gem.
Siren Queen
by Nghi Vo
The glamour of Old Hollywood is not usually my cup of tea, but this enchanting novel about a Chinese American girl looking to become a star in the 1930s was unexpectedly haunting and beautiful. “Siren Queen” makes literal the risks and costs of fame: Its Hollywood is one run on blood magic, devil’s deals and fireside cabals. And Luli Wei is determined to pay any price to hit it big, even if it means playing monsters on the white-dominated screen — or becoming a monster herself.
Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws
by Adrienne Mayor
It may seem odd to include a nonfiction book on this list, but Mayor’s mesmerizing dive into a rich treasury of myths and ancient folklore — and the possible scientific and historical truths behind them — is sure to engross any reader (or aspiring writer) of historical fantasy. From the archaeological explanation behind the Golden Fleece to tales of poisonous pet birds and the plague-ridden origins of ghost ships, this is a volume that proves the old maxim: Real life is often stranger than fiction.
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