fantine
2008-03-17 04:19 pm UTC (link)

This isn't historic fiction per se, but I enjoyed Romanitas by Sophia McDougall. Haven't read the second part yet so I can't comment on that. I'm not sure if Maja Lundgren's book on Pompeii (called Pompéi, Pompeii, Pompeij or similar) is available in English - if not, it should be. It's hilarious.

Can't really help you with Roman Britain except that I've heard Edward Rutherfurd's "London" is a good read.

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	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 04:57 pm UTC (link)
	I apparently have a choice between German or Spanish for Pompeij, according to Amazon (neither of which is in stock, either). I'll check out the Romanitas books, thanks. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	comixology 2008-03-17 05:12 pm UTC (link)
	Roman Britain I do not have, and I feel like the only rec I can make is a bit, uhm, likely to already be on the bookshelf of anyone into Roman historical fic. That is, Quo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz, is pretty awesome. xD; On the off-chance you haven't read it or don't know of it, it takes place in Rome under Nero, and won the nobel prize for lit in 1905. :D (Reply to this)(Thread)

	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 05:16 pm UTC (link)
	I've not got it, but it's on Project Gutenberg. Mmm, legally free books. Thanks for the rec. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	comixology 2008-03-17 05:16 pm UTC (link)
	I feel that I should also say that it's kind of heavily pro-Christianity, but I'm an atheist and I still enjoyed it for the nifty tensions-in-context stuff and I found it was pretty good on historical facts. LOL, I just warned for Jesus-related content. XD; (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

solelyfictional
2008-03-17 05:26 pm UTC (link)

There's a certain about of Roman fiction (and Roman research) that requires a little cross-eyeing with the Christiantiy, but I'm capable of reading past it now. It's like the blind championing of Roman Imperialism while carefully blanking the nasty sides of the culture, or, my favourite, the very determined desistance that despite how often homosexuality turns up in fiction, fact and art, they would never ever engage in such dirty, naughty, un-christian acts. Ah, Romans. All things to all ages, as long as you keep your eyes mostly shut.

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	comixology 2008-03-17 06:51 pm UTC (link)
	It's true, there is a certain level of omission in Roman fiction that is almost unavoidable. Quo Vadis does address some of those un-christian acts, but it's mostly interested in showing, like, how the Romans eventually saw the error of their ways, and what-not. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	altera 2008-03-18 01:32 am UTC (link)
	I'm getting my masters in library science, and in one of my index projects (designing an index of YA fantasy novels) I totally warned the SHIT out of Jesus content. Smack "CONTROVERSIAL" right on thar. I made it like two paragraphs in my paper, LOL. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	eleutheria 2008-03-18 02:07 am UTC (link)
	This library patron thanks you for that! Can't tell you how many times I've picked up what I thought was an interesting mystery or fantasy and got about a third of the way into the book when... STEALTH JESUS CONTENT!!!!!! smacked me across the head. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	atalantapendrag 2008-03-17 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	I'm guessing you've already read I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 05:34 pm UTC (link)
	I, Clavdivs? I've seen some of the television series, but I hadn't thought to seek out the books before. Thanks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

maexle
2008-03-18 11:44 am UTC (link)

I loved the tv series and therefore bought the book. It was one of the rare case where I liked the movie version better. The book is, in my humble opinion, a bit boring.
But what about John Maddox Robert's SPQR series? It's detective stories too, but I always liked them better as Lindsey's work because they're historically more accurate and the language is suiting the time better as Lindsey's.

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	narcissam 2008-03-24 06:55 pm UTC (link)
	Seconding the recommendation for John Maddox Roberts. SPQR is amazing. Detective novels and historical fiction are such uneasy bedmates, but Roberts pulls it off, unlike Davis. And the best thing is there are lots of them to read once you get hooked! (Reply to this)(Parent)

melannen
2008-03-17 06:13 pm UTC (link)

Roman Britain: Anything ever written by Rosemary Sutcliff. She's got a loosely connected series of (really good and really slashy) YA novels that cover more or less the entire period between just-pre-Roman tribes and just-post-Roman early Christians in Britain: I particularly recommend "The Eagle of the Ninth" and "Frontier Wolf" for woobie Roman goodness.

...beyond that, most of what I've got in Arthurian stuff that takes Arthur as the last holdout of Rome in Britian. (Sutcliffe has a set of novels like that, too.) Parke Godwin's Firelord does a pretty good job at that, and there's Keith Taylor's stories aboud Felimid the bard for early Dark Ages Britain with a heavy Roman influence.

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	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 06:29 pm UTC (link)
	I stumbled across Eagle of the Ninth earier (I was looking for eboracum stuff), but I hadn't realised it was part of a series. The Roman eras I know most about are Augustan and post-Pompeii, so I don't often go looking for the later stuff. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	melannen 2008-03-17 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	It's a very loosely connected series - basically the main characters are all descended from each other, so beyond the token heirloom dolphin ring and occasional very oblique reference to old family history, there's no real continuity. She does have some that are set earlier than Eagle of the Ninth, but a lot of her books have been hard to find for awhile. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jaythenerdkid 2008-03-17 11:50 pm UTC (link)
	most of what I've got in Arthurian stuff that takes Arthur as the last holdout of Rome in Britian. Only slightly related, but didn't Marion Zimmer Bradley write a sort of prequel or something to Mists of Avalon that focused on the Romans in Britain? Would that count as Roman fiction at all? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	altera 2008-03-18 01:34 am UTC (link)
	That might be "Priestess of Avalon"... focuses on Helena, mother of Constantine. Couldn't tell you much about the plot, I couldn't finish it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jaythenerdkid 2008-03-18 02:58 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, might have been that one...but I keep thinking that wasn't it. I think it may have been The Forest House, but it's been ages since I read it, so I'm not too sure. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	altera 2008-03-18 01:15 pm UTC (link)
	Also could've been, and yeah... I haven't read that one in 10 years so I vaguely remember it as well. (Reply to this)(Parent)

msmanna
2008-03-17 06:38 pm UTC (link)

A while back someone lent me a nice anthology of Roman detective stories, which ran throughout the whole Roman period. I am completely blanking on the title, though. I think it might have been this one, because the same person lent me all the Saylor and Davies books as well and they each have a story in there. If nothing else, I think several of the writers in the anthology have also written Roman-era novels, so maybe you'll find someone else you like.

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	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 06:51 pm UTC (link)
	I have a real soft spot for compilations as a way of getting introduced to authors. Thanks for the rec. (Reply to this)(Parent)

sithwitch13
2008-03-17 10:09 pm UTC (link)

Alternate history: "Roma Eterna" by Robert Silverburg. It's a bunch of short stories set in the same alternate history so there's not much of a continuous plot, but it's really interesting (to me, at least.)

Roman Britain: The first few of Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles are from the point of view of a Roman legionary who remains in Britain with his commander. It's a pretty interesting Arthur retelling, though each book can take a long while to plod through because it talks a lot about politics and the methods of fortification of villages and suchlike. The first one is called "The Skystone."

"Night of the Wolf" by Alice Borchardt is pretty much a romance/werewolf plot to kill Julius Caesar book, but I liked it. She's a bit prone to purple prose, but I like her a hell of a lot more than her sister, Anne Rice. Most of her other books deal with later time periods, but they're still good and I admit that a lot of the reason I was thrilled to visit Ravenna on a trip once was because part of the third book, "The Wolf King" took place there.

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	solelyfictional 2008-03-17 10:20 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, I've read 'Night of the Wolf'. It's one of those books I got from a library once, and the only thing I actually remember from it (other than werewolves in collapsing Rome) was that the author was Anne Rice's sister. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	evilsqueakers 2008-03-18 07:41 am UTC (link)
	I need to finish that series up, I think. I have read the first one. Found it fairly interesting. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mistressrenet 2008-03-18 01:14 am UTC (link)
	I suppose Asterix in Britain doesn't count? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	solelyfictional 2008-03-18 07:22 am UTC (link)
	I <3 Asterix ^_^ I have the whole collection, but, alas (or is that eheu?) not with me. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mistressrenet 2008-03-19 12:39 am UTC (link)
	It's a little scary how much Roman/Gaulish history I learned as a result of those comics. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eleutheria 2008-03-18 02:10 am UTC (link)
	Can't recall the author, and it's probably only sorta historically accurate, but "Medicus" was an awfully fun book. It's about a Roman legionary medic in Britain and a mystery about native peoples and slave trading. It's snarky, full of bureaucratic snarls and odd period details, and it's a joy to read. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	solelyfictional 2008-03-18 07:51 am UTC (link)
	Sounds like fun; I'll see if I can track it down. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	melandry 2008-03-18 04:01 am UTC (link)
	Not Roman Britain, but The First Man in Rome series by Colleen McCullough are my personal favorites. (Reply to this)

	msilverstar 2008-03-18 07:20 am UTC (link)
	Hie ye to a good bookstore or library and see if they have any Gillian Bradshaw. She's academically trained and writes fascinating books about both Classical and Late Roman times. Her one about the Roman auxilia in Britain is fabulous. I also liked the Archimedes one. And she did an Arthur trilogy that makes me cry every time, also my teenboy cries, he says! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	solelyfictional 2008-03-18 07:50 am UTC (link)
	That sounds brilliant, thanks. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	narcissam 2008-03-24 06:57 pm UTC (link)
	The Roman auxilia in Britain one: Gillian Bradshaw's "Island of the Ghosts". On my list of the top ten historical novels I've read. She's written another one about Roman Britain, just this last year, but I haven't read it yet. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mydruthers 2008-03-19 03:48 pm UTC (link)
	There's a long post about ancient Greek and Roman books in (I hope this link works...) Amazon.com historical fiction community. (Reply to this)