Speculative Fiction with History

Top Ten Tuesday

Hello again! It’s Tuesday again, and I hope you’re doing okay. It’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), which means it’s time to talk about books! Today is a genre freebie. Last time we did one, I talked about fantasy books, so today we’re going to talk about something slightly different: speculative fiction with history in them. There are a lot of books with a historical feel to them, but a lot less that you can pinpoint to a specific location and time (or era).

Shadow of the Fox cover

Yesterday I did a review of the final book in the Shadow of the Fox series, Night of the Dragon. This book, although set in a mythical world, has a lot of Japanese history integrated into it. I’m reading a 1970 edition of Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times right now, and there’s a lot in that book that I recognized in this series. Plus, these books are a lot more fun.

11/22/1963 cover

I recently finished 11/22/63 on audiobook, and I loved it. One of the things I loved about the book was how the main character goes back in time and describes how things were back then. Now, I probably wouldn’t want to go back and live there, but it would be fun to visit for a while.

A Treason of Thorns cover

Feel like taking a trip back to merry old England around Victorian times instead? A Treason of Thorns also takes place in a fictional world, but it has the feel of going back a hundred years or so and stepping into a place that feels like England.

Chain of Gold cover

Maybe Edwardian England is more your speed. Chain of Gold takes place in London during this time. You can visit real places in this book, but you’ll also get to hang out with warlocks and other magical creatures.

Sensational cover

Perhaps you prefer Paris during the world’s fair, strolling the streets and visiting the newly constructed Eiffel tower. You can visit there in Sensational, where there’s a murder mystery afoot and the main character uses her magical powers to help solve it. Be sure to read the first book in this duology, Spectacle, first. That takes place in Paris a couple years prior.

The Kingdom of Back cover

Austria is such a nice place to visit in the mid-1800s. I don’t think I’d want to live there, but you can safely visit by reading Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back. Bonus: you get to spend time with Nannerl and Wolfgang Mozart, peek into their lives as musical prodigies, and visit their magical kingdom.

The Guinevere Deception cover

Most Arthurian tales have a little bit of magic in them, and The Guinevere Deception is no exception. With this book, you can travel back in time to Medieval England and experience a little magic at the same time.

The Beautiful Cover

Did vampires inhabit New Orleans in the late 1800s? I don’t know, but if you’d like to take a trip there to find out, Renée Ahdieh’s The Beautiful can take you there. There aren’t too many vampires in this particular book, but it will give you the feeling of stepping off the boat in this unfamiliar land. Because face it, even if you live in New Orleans today, the past is like a foreign country.

The Bear and the Nightingale cover

We haven’t been to Medieval Russia yet. The Bear and the Nightingale takes you back to a time before the tsars. This story is full of creatures from Russian folklore. Brrrr! Russia is a cold place now, and during the Little Ice Age, it was a lot colder! You can take the journey here with this book.

Fawkes cover

Remember, remember, the 5th of November! If you’d like to read more about Guy Fawkes and his revolution (with magic!) you can check out Fawkes. In this alternate version of English history, people wear masks that help them conduct various kinds of magic.

So that’s 10! If you like virtually time-traveling (as I do) I hope you like these. Can’t wait to see what everybody else came up with this week. Next week, we’re going to talk about Ten Signs You’re a Book Lover. See you then!

22 comments

    1. The Bear and the Nightingale would be good to read when you want a cozy book that reminds you of the cold. Hope you like any that you end up reading!

    1. A lot of fantasy seems to be inspired by history to some degree, but I think it’s cool when you can identify what era of history rather than “some amorphous time period”. Although I write in a fantasy world slightly inspired by an amorphous time period, so I like those too.

  1. Wow I have really been sleeping on some of these! I really enjoy historical, and I loved the Spectacle series, but I haven;t read any of the others! Have you read Romanov by Nadine Brandes? That is my fave! BUt I know I need to read Fawkes, I am actually going to go see how much that one is on Kindle haha. Great picks, I now must read ALL of these!
    Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Books Hitting Close to HomeMy Profile

    1. I haven’t yet… I was rejected for the ARC, and although I did buy it on sale at one point, I haven’t had the chance to read it yet.

    1. You’re welcome. I thought I had read more books like these, but I went all the way back to 2018 to make this list (I did omit The Infernal Devices because I had already listed Chain of Gold here).

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