Historical Fantasy Novels Offer a Magical Escape Into the Past
People have been telling fantastical tales about the past since, well … most likely long before our ancestors began painting caves with wild beasts that danced in the firelight. A ragtag collection of Bronze Age skirmishes is transformed into the Trojan War, where gods meddle and great heroes are dispatched on quests we're still retelling. Alexander the Great, already pretty remarkable, ends up a larger-than-life character in romance tales across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia that have him battling centaurs and searching for the fountain of life (inspired by even older tales of Gilgamesh). If the past were a foreign country, clearly a great number of us would be eager to plan a trip.
While I appreciate and admire the wild creative freedom of a secondary world setting, I have a special place in my heart for fantasy novels set in our historical past — particularly those that are well-researched and interrogate their settings in novel ways (authors, please keep including notes at the end!).
Below, in vague chronological order, are a few of my favorites.
Lavinia
The final novel by one of speculative fiction's giants takes us to the sacred woods and hardscrabble towns of Italy long before the rise of Rome. Le Guin breathes life and agency into Lavinia, a nonspeaking character in Virgil's 'Aeneid,' turning the Latin princess with whom Aeneas will forge the dynasty that one day founds Rome into a heroine in her own right. Now, as Le Guin herself acknowledged, 'The Aeneid' is not real history: It's a Roman's politicized retelling of an ancient Greek mythical imagining of a Bronze Age war. And yet it's this chain of storytelling — evolving across centuries — that I find riveting.
She Who Became the Sun
If we live in a glory age of fantasy, one of its richest (and most overdue) trends is interrogating the gender politics of stories we've been retelling for centuries. Parker-Chan's debut novel does this beautifully, reimagining the founding of the Ming Empire through a wonderfully queer lens (full disclosure: I loved it so much, I blurbed it). Come for the clashing politics and richly realized scenes of 14th century life among Mongol warriors and Chinese monks, stay for the rise to power of a former village girl who assumes her brother's name and changes the fate of an entire people.
The Bird King
Set in the final days of the last Muslim emirate in Spain, 'The Bird King' quietly showcases the dazzling diversity and complicated mix of religion, culture and language that was the norm in far more places throughout history than we modern humans tend to believe. I fell hard for Fatima and Hassan, the Circassian concubine and magically talented mapmaker at the heart of this impeccably researched, meditative and adventurous book. Their friendship is as profound and heart-wrenching as any romance.
The Pasha of Cuisine
If a reader is very fortunate, she may come across a book once or twice in her life that makes her think: Was this written just for me? Ersin's Ottoman epic is one of my own personal literary treasures (I blurbed this one too). The book follows the whirlwind adventures of a young chef from the imperial palace as he travels the world, learns cooking magic and wields his enchanted delicacies to save the woman he loves. If you're a history nerd who divides your evenings between episodes of 'The Great British Bake-Off' and fantasy novels, you must read this book.
A Master of Djinn
It's 1912 in Cairo, but not the Cairo we know: This is the alternate fantasy Egypt of Clark's Dead Djinn Universe, first introduced in his short fiction. I adore the steampunk setting of this sharp, witty book — the first full-length novel in the series (and another recent favorite I blurbed) — and the nefarious, bureaucratic tangle of mysteries that surround its main character, Fatma el-Sha'arawi. The youngest female agent at the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, Fatma is tasked with investigating a murder whose perpetrator claims to be the acclaimed polymath al-Jahiz, a real historical figure who has been missing for decades.
Moonshine
I've been obsessed with this book (now sadly out of print, but still available at your library or a favorite used bookstore) since 2010. Granted, there was a certain kind of magic to reading about a twentysomething, scrappy, idealistic social activist in Jazz Age New York when I was painfully close to the same, nearly a century later. But I was utterly enchanted by Zephyr Hollis and her adventures in a version of my city where the mob is run by vampires and fairies go to night school. Many years later, I still think fondly about this book and think it deserves another chance to shine.
Gods of Jade and Shadow
We're still in the Jazz Age but far from New York, though I suspect the protagonist of Moreno-Garcia's tale wouldn't mind the trip. Instead, Casiopea Tun is stuck working in the house of her wealthy relatives in a rural part of southern Mexico, where she can only dream of a more exciting life — until she accidentally unleashes the Mayan god of death. Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite writers working today, and this novel, with its perfectly bittersweet ending, is a gem.
Siren Queen
The glamour of Old Hollywood is not usually my cup of tea, but this enchanting novel about a Chinese American girl looking to become a star in the 1930s was unexpectedly haunting and beautiful. 'Siren Queen' makes literal the risks and costs of fame: Its Hollywood is one run on blood magic, devil's deals and fireside cabals. And Luli Wei is determined to pay any price to hit it big, even if it means playing monsters on the white-dominated screen — or becoming a monster herself.
Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws
It may seem odd to include a nonfiction book on this list, but Mayor's mesmerizing dive into a rich treasury of myths and ancient folklore — and the possible scientific and historical truths behind them — is sure to engross any reader (or aspiring writer) of historical fantasy. From the archaeological explanation behind the Golden Fleece to tales of poisonous pet birds and the plague-ridden origins of ghost ships, this is a volume that proves the old maxim: Real life is often stranger than fiction.
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Agamemnon's son, Orestes, then murders both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus with the help of his sister, Electra. Ultimately, Orestes is spared punishment (through the intervention of Athena), and the play dramatizes the transition to a legal system of justice from a cruder arrangement typified by vengeance and blood feuds. Frontispiece of "The Oresteia of Aeschylus," 1900. Internet Archive. Public Domain What O'Neill was attempting in 'Mourning Becomes Electra' was the development of an American mythology, based on classical sources. Although 'Electra' is his most thorough treatment of such a mythology, he consistently used classical and biblical imagery to forward this theme. His plays are akin to a fashion designer's collection: the individual pieces may look different, but they are related by a common theme. 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He does not overcome these obstacles, but his ambition as an artist and the uniqueness of his vision—new to America at the time—compensates for this in part. 'Mourning Becomes Electra,' despite its excessive length, is still good drama. Related Stories 7/16/2023 4/27/2021 A Roman Empire sarcophagus, circa A.D. 100–125, depicting scenes from Aeschylus's "Oresteia." The tragic figure Orestes appears three times on the front of this sarcophagus: In the center he stands over the body of his mother Clytemnestra and center left, he stands over the body of her lover Aegisthus. Cleveland Museum of Art. Public Domain Can We Return to an American Mythology? The question, then, is, can we go one better than O'Neill to create a distinctly American mythology and present it onstage, as the Greeks did, or must we be content with applying American situations and characters to already established myths of an earlier time? Can an American mythology be as timeless and universal as those of the classical era? I believe it can. First, we must understand what 'mythology' is. Generally speaking, mythology is a collection of traditional stories that explain both natural phenomena and the supernatural. More importantly, for O'Neill's purposes, myths also form a cultural identity through the use of gods or heroic figures, meant to maintain these beliefs for future generations. Do we have any such mythology at work in America? To some extent, we do. Our American mythology is replete with tales of heroic historical figures like George Washington, Paul Revere, and Abraham Lincoln, and fictional characters like Paul Bunyan, Huckleberry Finn, and Superman. The tales of the frontier and westward expansion also provide a mythological framework for our nation. And, as is typical of America, our tradition is overly positive and visionary. "Commemoration of Washington," circa 1800-1816, by John James Barralet. Drawing on classical symbolism, Barralet depicted Washington rising from his tomb, assisted by Father Time and Immortality. The helmet, sword, and armor represent Washington's military achievements. The figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity grieve in the background along with an allegorical figure of America with her liberty cap. National Portrait Gallery, Washington. Public Domain In the modern world, though, our upbeat mythology has given way to a disturbing and dark narrative that seeks to dismantle the American myth and replace it with something less heroic and more condemning. As a result, we have a diminished cultural identity, the destruction of our American ideals and institutions, and an explanation of our origin that renders us as irretrievably racist, misogynistic, and devoid of moral clarity. This sad state of affairs is seen in our contemporary art with its emphasis on misery, hopelessness, and redemption by accident, not divine grace. The great irony of this is we have at our disposal a forward-thinking, timeless American mythology—based in history—that serves the cultural purposes mythology is meant to address: our founding. The events of this nation's origin and its philosophical underpinning (as exemplified by the Declaration of Independence) not only explain who we are and why we exist, but define our national identity, unique and unprecedented in the world. What's more, we pass on this story to future generations—or at least we used to. Today's generation seems painfully ignorant of our history, the meaning of our founding, or the characteristics that make America exceptional: individual agency, a belief in a divine set of immutable rights, equal opportunity without regard for conditions of birth (although we certainly have strayed from this in our past), and a hopefulness for life's betterment through freedom. But this is rarely presented in art. It must be again, and playwrights can certainly depict protagonists that embody American ideals. We don't need to write new plays about George Washington; we just need to present everyday people with the values of a George Washington. O'Neill, ever the pessimist, saw the human condition in Greek mythology and generally scoffed at a more positive American response (although he longed to believe in it, as his comedy 'Ah, Wilderness' demonstrates). But he did recognize a timelessness in ancient beliefs that he applied to America. What we need is a competing mythology that is equally timeless and universal. The American experiment provides that. And while we can't expect modern American audiences to know classical sources (or even biblical sources to some extent), we should expect them to know something about our history. It behooves our schools to teach it, and it behooves the keepers of our culture to promote it. We can't allow a new American mythology that is simply the destruction of the old one. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
