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Old 01-05-2010, 09:06 PM   #72
flip
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coys1882 View Post
If you're into historical fiction there are a couple of authors and series I'd like to recommend.

Conn Iggulden
He has two epic series:
One about Caesar and his rise to power.
The other is about Ghengis Khan
I'm always weary to call a book or set of works historical fiction. As I feared Iggulden has a tendency to completely re-write history for the purposes of more interesting story and such.

One thing I love about Imperium is that Harris tries to VERY closely resemble the true history, while making it interesting. Although Harris does use a lot of guesswork, he doesnt' intentionally (as far as I can tell) rewrite history to make it more interesting.

Iggulden on the other hand, completely ignores and changes history for the purposes of storytelling.

I've always thought there should be limits on what is considered "based on a true story" or "historical fiction". As far as I'm concerned if you are going to do nothing but use real names and a few real events and make up everything in between it shouldn't be allowed to carry such a label.

That is not to say they aren't interesting books you suggested. Only that much like movies like Frost/Nixon, Gladiator and dozens of others, the use of "based on a true story" or "historical fiction" are complete bulls***. They are totally made up. Only a few details are correct, and yet people read them or see them and believe the stories are true.
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