Top 10 Historical fantasy books

Guy Gavriel Kay's tale of a curse that wipes a country's name from memory. Only those born before the curse can remember Tigana as it was. The sorcerers of the two invading armies are integral to the plot and the themes of love and revenge run strong.

Tigana (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Guy Gavriel Kay
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 688
Publication date: 1999-12-31
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc

RRP: £12.99
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The year is 1806 and the country is England. The Napoleonic wars are raging in France and magic, an academic subject only, is no longer practised. A street peddler foretells of a prophesy of the return of magic to England, which has been dead since the disappearance of the Raven King some three hundred years ago.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Susanna Clarke
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 1024
Publication date: 2005-09-05
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

RRP: £9.99
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Any book touted as the 'adult Harry Potter' runs the risk of attracting critical parries from swords of the double-edged variety. If this wasn't enough, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell--the debut novel from Susanna Clarke--also invites comparisons with Jane Austen. Set in the early nineteenth-century, the action moves from genteel drawing rooms-albeit where a mischievous Faerie king sips tea with the wife of a very human government minister, to the bloody battleground of Waterloo, where giant hands of earth drag men to their doom. The juxtaposition of perfectly realised magical worlds and the everyday one with which JK Rowling and Philip Pullman so successfully captured our imaginations and the social comedy of Austen and Thackeray can easily be recognised. But less easy to pastiche is the ability of these writers to induce sheer narrative pleasure, and it is Clarke's great achievement that she succeeds with this hugely enjoyable read. Gilbert Norrell is determined to single-handedly rehabilitate his sanitised and patriotic version of English magic, which has suffered a post-Enlightenment neglect after a richly dark history. He ruthlessly secures his place as England's only magician in two marvellously drawn feats. First, he brings the statutes of York Cathedral to life and then, to facilitate his entry into London society, he brings a young bride-to-be back from the dead--a feat with terrible consequences. However, another more naturally gifted magician-Jonathan Strange-emerges to become his pupil and later his rival. Strange becomes increasingly obsessed with the Raven King-the medieval lord-magician of the North of England and pursues his desire to recruit a fairy servant to the edge of madness. Whilst the differing characters of Norrell and Strange give the book a central human conflict, it is the tension between the dual natures of civilised and wilder magic that lends it a metaphysical texture that shades the narrative with wonderful and troubling descriptions of ships made of rain, paths between mirrors and faerie roads leading out of England to a bleak yet dazzling realm. Fortunately, the precision of her storytelling never reigns in Clarke's prodigious imagination. Clarke's broad canvas of characters-including Wellington, Napoleon and Bryon, locations and tones are masterfully realised. However, sometimes her own enchantment with them leads her to drop her pace, although even at almost 800 pages, this is a book to which you'll muster up little resistance. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the perfect novel to take up residence in as the nights get longer. -- Fiona Buckland -- This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.co.uk

Torak is now alone and scared. His father is dead, slain by a demon in the form of a great bear. Torak must keep going; his only friend is another orphan, a small wolf cub. Evil stalks the forest and Torak must face a foe that stalks him silently and cannot be shaken.

Wolf Brother: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Book 1 (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Michelle Paver
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 256
Publication date: 2005-05-27
Publisher: Orion Childrens

RRP: £6.99
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From extensive research about how the people of Northern Europe may have lived more than six thousand years ago, Michelle Paver has fashioned a remarkable debut novel for children. Wolf Brother, the first instalment of her six-book Chronicles of Ancient Darkness sequence, takes its readers back in time to an atmospheric world of snow, hunter-gatherers, tribes, clans, mountains, forests, bears and unearthly superstitions. For humans then, life was hard and Paver's narrative taps wonderfully into all the sensations they must have experienced living amidst such an unforgiving landscape.

The book begins dramatically with the death of Torak's father, the mage, Fa, from mortal wounds inflicted by a giant, possessed bear. Fa's dying words bind Torak to a quest to find the mythical Mountain of the World Spirit. Only there will Torak find the strength needed to defeat the demonic creature and killer of men.

Having lived apart from other Clans, and burdened by such an impossible task, Torak is bereft by the death of his only companion in life and struggles to survive in the harsh conditions he now finds himself in. Then, instead of killing an orphaned wolf cub for food, Torak spares the tiny animal and together they travel north.

Torak gains a further companion for his arduous journey in the form of Renn, a headstrong and feisty girl of his own age whose Clan Torak inadvertently has an altercation with. Renn believes Torak to be The Listener--a prophesised being who will save the world--and together they escape from danger. into a different sort of peril.

Paver's novel is strong on detail and the authenticity of her settings is breathtaking. She cleverly weaves a fantastical, but believable, layer onto her narrative that enriches her story and makes it all the more readable. (Age 10 and over) --John McLay
Amazon.co.uk Review

TH White's The Once and Future King is a serious work, delightful and witty, yet very sombre overall. The volume published as The Once and Future King is actually four works separately composed over about 20 years. The first, The Sword in the Stone, concerns the lost childhood of Arthur, future king of England, and his education by Merlyn. The second, The Queen of Air and Darkness, tells the story of adolescent sons of Orkney and their mother, Morgause. The third, The Ill-Made Knight, takes up the story of Sir Lancelot and his uneasy relation- ship with Queen Guenever and with Arthur. The fourth, The Candle in the Wind, concerns the end of the Round Table and Arthur's death.

The Once and Future King (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: T. H. White
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 832
Publication date: 1996-12-02
Publisher: Voyager

RRP: £9.99
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Torak still misses Wolf. He is now part of the Raven Clan and when disease hits forest clans he sets out to find the Seal Clan and a cure. Torak must learn to spirit walk and become another creature to discover the truth behind the Soul-Eater.

Spirit Walker: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Book 2 (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Michelle Paver
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 288
Publication date: 2006-06-28
Publisher: Orion Childrens

RRP: £6.99
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Soul Eater is set 6,000 years ago in Northern Europe, after the end of the last ice age, the novel takes place along a wooded coastline, inhabited by wandering clans whose cultures revolve around totemic animals or trees: the Raven Clan, the Wolf Clan, the Willow Clan and so on.

Soul Eater: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness book 3 (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Michelle Paver
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 272
Publication date: 2007-06-07
Publisher: Orion Childrens

RRP: £6.99
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Exhilarating, captivating and set in Ancient Greece, Gemmell presents us with another first-class lead. Parmenion is a Spartan of mixed ancestry, scorned as a half-breed by other Spartans. Living a life fuelled by thoughts of vengeance his path crosses that of the Macedonian king Philip as he has to overcome ordeals both in the world he knows and against the hordes of evil in Hades.

Lion of Macedon (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: David Gemmell
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 512
Publication date: 1992-03-05
Publisher: Orbit

RRP: £8.99
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Romulus and Fabiola are twins, born into slavery after their mother is raped by a drunken nobleman on his way home from a good night out. At 13 years old, they and their mother are sold: Romulus to gladiator school, Fabiola into prostitution, where she will catch the eye of one of the most powerful men in Rome, and their mother into obscurity and death in the salt mines. Tarquinius is an Etruscan, a warrior and soothsayer, born enemy of Rome, but doomed to fight for the Republic in the Forgotten Legion. Brennus is a Gaul; the Romans killed his entire family.He rises to become one of the most famous and feared gladiators of his day - and mentor to the boy slave, Romulus, who dreams night and day of escape and of revenge. The lives of these four characters are bound and interwoven in a marvellous story which begins in a Rome riven by corruption, violence and political enmities, but ends far away, where Romulus, Brennus and Tarquinius find themselves fighting against the Parthians and overwhelming odds.

The Forgotten Legion (Forgotten Legion Chronicles) (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Ben Kane
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 672
Publication date: 2009-04-16
Publisher: Preface Publishing

RRP: £7.99
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The Story of Cirrus Flux is an engaging and very well written book from UK author Matthew Skelton. After the success of his first book, Endymion Spring, Skelton’s star looks certain to stay in the ascendancy thanks to this atmospheric, realistic and detailed book that will enchant young-adults.

The Story of Cirrus Flux (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Matthew Skelton
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 336
Publication date: 2009-06-04
Publisher: Puffin

RRP: £6.99
Lowest new price: £2.07
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A timeless secret is unfolding. The mystery has only just begun… Who or what is Endymion Spring? In the dead of night, a cloaked figure drags a heavy box through icy streets. The chest is magically sealed by a carved serpent’s head – and can only be opened when its fangs taste blood. Centuries later, an ordinary boy touches a strange book and feels something sharp pierce his finger. The book is blank, but its paper seems to quiver… as if it is alive.

Endymion Spring (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Matthew Skelton
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 448
Publication date: 2007-02-01
Publisher: Puffin

RRP: £7.99
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Attractively packaged in an all-important shiny cover, and clocking in at just shy of 450 pages, Matthew Skelton's debut novel is a substantial and impressive addition to the oeuvre of modern children's books that many commentators say is undergoing something of a 'Golden Age'.

Endymion Spring, feverishly sought after by many a publisher when it was completed and thrust forth upon the books community for acquisition, has catapulted its shy creator into a very large limelight. And it is attention richly deserved. It's a well-written book that impresses from the beginning.

The author expertly interweaves two narratives with aplomb. The first tells of the adventures of 12-year-old Blake Winters, who is visiting Oxford with his academic mother and his kid sister, Duck. While their mum immerses herself in dusty academia, Blake feels trapped in the rarefied air of the college library until one day, while running his finger along a shelf, something pierces his finger, drawing blood. The biting book responsible is a battered old volume, with a strange clasp like a serpent's head--with real fangs. Printed on its front are two words: Endymion Spring.

The second part of the story takes place in 1452, in medieval Mainz, the German city where Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press to use movable type. It's the tale of Gutenberg's young apprentice, and the sacrifices he makes to keep a precious, dangerous dragon book from falling into the wrong hands.

The publishing industry loves a rags-to-riches story, and it hit the jackpot when Matthew Skelton, a penniless academic from Oxford, wrote a first novel that sold for huge sums of money. But Skelton has justified the investment in him by writing an intriguing, dramatic and suspenseful novel that cannot to fail to entertain all those who dare to pick it up.

(Age 10 and over)--John McLay
Amazon.co.uk Review

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.