7th Century
Oswiu: King of Kings
Oswiu has replaced his much-loved brother, Oswald, as the Anglo-Saxon king ruling Bernicia (Northumbria) from his stronghold at Bamburgh. Oswald has been killed by Penda, the ruthless…
Cloak of Ashes: The Women of Beowulf
Seventh-century Scandinavia: Freawaru, the daughter of a king and the lover of the renowned warrior Beowulf, is a seer in…
The Second Death
It is 671 AD, and the beginning of the summer season in the Irish kingdom of Muman, where Fidelma’s brother…
The Cross and the Curse
This story is set in the North of England, at a time when Kings were vying with each other for…
The Sparrow and the Hall: Love and Betrayal in Anglo-Saxon England
In 7th-century England, the churl Edgar marries his love, Gwenda, and his thane, Keelwolf, pays a brief visit to the…
The Breaking of Dawn (The Kingdom of Mercia, Book 1)
Jayne Castel maps a classic troubled love story onto a much broader canvas of war and political intrigue in the…
The Empress of Bright Moon
Editors' choice
The Empress of Bright Moon, Weina Dai Randel’s second novel of Mei, the woman who became Empress Consort Wu, the…
The Crimson Emperor: A Tale of Imperial Byzantium
“In this wildly romantic tale of Imperial Byzantium, a weapon-maker’s son becomes a deadly warrior and military commander, rising to…
The Abbess of Whitby
Like all Oxford history students of my generation, I had to start my course by studying Bede’s History of the…
The Moon in the Palace
Editors' choice
When Mei is twelve years old, her father dies suddenly, leaving his family unprotected. Their only hope is that Mei,…
About our Reviews
Over the last 20 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 15,000 historical fiction books.
