Epic
Tristan & Isolde: Book One Love Is Stone
As a stranger to the author’s writing, I was a little surprised, not to say disappointed, to reach the end…
Ithaca
Updating the second oldest extant work of Western literature, Homer’s Odyssey, seems a daunting task, but the author entertainingly succeeds.…
The Voyage of Odysseus
Mr Iliffe has written a series of books featuring the Greek hero Odysseus, and in this, the fifth instalment, Troy…
By Helen’s Hand
Greece, the Bronze Age: Helen, daughter of the god Zeus and the most beautiful woman in the world, has for…
Penelope’s Web
This is a new retelling of the Trojan War, centred on the character of Odysseus, and narrated in three different…
Hard Red Spring
Editors' choice
An epic historical novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer and Ken Follett. Chronicling nearly a century of American involvement…
For the Most Beautiful
Think of the tale of Troy. What names can you remember? Active men – Achilles, Paris. Passive women – Helen,…
Arcadian Nights: The Greek Myths Reimagined
With Arcadian Nights: The Greek Myths Reimagined, John Spurling, winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, makes an…
Master of Shadows
This sweeping epic set in the mid-15th century has many of the ingredients of the traditional historical novel à la…
The Way Things Were
Skanda, a Sanskrit scholar, travels from Manhattan to Switzerland to be at the deathbed of his father, Toby, a former…
About our Reviews
Over the last 15 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 12,000 historical fiction books. We plan to upload them all and make them searchable here.
