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The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra

Colleen McCullough · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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Shōgun

James Clavell · 979 pages

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen--Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and free

Sprawling EpicPolitical IntrigueRoyal CourtSoldiers and Warfare
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The Blood of Gods

Conn Iggulden · 432 pages

Ancient RomePolitical IntrigueSprawling EpicSoldiers and Warfare
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The Splendor Before the Dark

Margaret George · 528 pages

Ancient RomePolitical IntrigueRoyal CourtSprawling Epic
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When Christ and His Saints Slept

Sharon Kay Penman · 759 pages

In the 12th Century, a king's daughter and her cousin fight for the crown of England. She is Maude, the only legitimate daughter of 23 children sired by Henry I. He is Stephen of Blois, who in a daring move seizes the crown. The people accept him, but Maude will obtain revenge through her son, the future Henry II.

Sprawling EpicPolitical IntrigueDense ProseSoldiers and Warfare
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Praetorian

Simon Scarrow · 353 pages

The thrilling Roman adventure from the author of THE LEGION and THE GLADIATOR. The city of Rome in AD 50 is a dangerous place. Treachery lurks on every corner, and a shadowy Republican movement, 'the Liberators', has spread its tentacles wide. It is feared that the heart of the latest plot lies in the ranks of the Praetorian Guard. Uncertain of whom he can trust, the Imperial Secretary Narcissus s

Ancient RomePolitical IntrigueSoldiers and WarfareRoyal Court
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Julian

Gore Vidal · 480 pages

Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshiping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder a

Ancient RomePolitical IntrigueRoyal CourtSoldiers and Warfare
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Dune

Frank Herbert · 541 pages

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for... When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's famil

Political IntrigueSprawling EpicDense ProseRoyal Court
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The Path of Daggers

Robert Jordan · 608 pages

From Publishers Weekly The eighth book of Jordan's bestselling The Wheel of Time saga (A Crown of Swords, etc.) opens with a renewed invasion by the Seanchans, a conquering race whose arsenal includes man-carrying flying reptiles and enslaved female magic-workers as well as powerful soldiers, many of whom have joined the Seanchans out of fear of the Dragon Reborn. The Dragon himself, Rand al'Thor

Sprawling EpicPolitical IntrigueRoyal CourtDense Prose
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I, Claudius/Claudius the God

Robert Graves · 848 pages

Ancient RomeRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueSprawling Epic
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By Heresies Distressed

David Weber · 574 pages

The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom. Yet there are things Sharleyan still does not know. Secrets Cayleb has not been permitted to share, even with he

Sprawling EpicRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueSoldiers and Warfare
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Priestess of Avalon

Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson · 394 pages

Ancient RomeRoyal CourtSprawling EpicDense Prose
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A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold

George R.R. Martin · 656 pages

Fear cuts deeper than swords The Starks are scattered. Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa Stark remains their captive, trapped in marriage with Joffrey's deformed

Sprawling EpicPolitical IntrigueRoyal CourtSoldiers and Warfare
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Menewood

Nicola Griffith · 720 pages

Sprawling EpicRoyal CourtDense ProsePolitical Intrigue
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Speaking Bones

Ken Liu · 1,047 pages

Sprawling EpicRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueDense Prose
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Towers of Midnight

Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson · 880 pages

As the seals on the Dark One's prison crumble and the armies of the Shadow boil out of the Blight, Perrin Aybara, hunted by specters from his past, must seek answers in "Tel'aran'rhiod" and find a way to master the wolf within him--or lose himself to it forever. Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life ... as The Tower of Ghenjei awaits.

Sprawling EpicSoldiers and WarfareDense ProseRoyal Court
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Empire: the Novel of Imperial Rome

Steven Saylor · 595 pages

Continuing the epic story begun in his "New York Times"-bestselling novel "Roma," Saylor charts the destinies of five more generations of the aristocratic Pinarius family, from the reign of Augustus to the height of Rome's empire.

Ancient RomeSprawling EpicPolitical IntrigueHistorical Fiction
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War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy · 716 pages

War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. The novel begins in the year 1805 during the reign of Tsar Alexander I and leads up to the 1812 French invasion of Russia by Napoleon. The era of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), when t

Sprawling EpicDense ProseRoyal CourtSoldiers and Warfare
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Furies of Calderon

Jim Butcher · 512 pages

Royal CourtPolitical IntrigueSoldiers and WarfareSprawling Epic
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Pride of Carthage

David Anthony Durham · 592 pages

An epic work of literary fiction about the superb military leader of Carthage, Hannibal Barca, and his struggle against the mighty Roman Republic.With a vast cast of characters and nationalities, twists of fate, and tales of inspired leadership, David Anthony Durham perfectly captures the legendary Hannibal's world in Pride of Carthage. Beginning in ancient Spain, where Hannibal's father had carv

Ancient RomeSprawling EpicSoldiers and WarfareDense Prose
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The Man in the Iron Mask

Alexandre Dumas · 479 pages

Alexandre Dumas was already a best-selling novelist when he wrote this historical romance, combining (as he claimed) the two essentials of life--"l'action et l'amour." The Man in the Iron Mask climactically concludes the epic adventures of the three Musk3ateers: here, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and their friend D'Artagnan, once invincible, meet their destinies.

Political IntrigueRoyal CourtSprawling EpicHistorical Fiction
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The Ringed Castle

Dorothy Dunnett · 521 pages

Crawford is rescued from Volos by the clever, beautiful and power-hungry Kiaya Khatun and they travel to Moscow, where he is to train the Tsar's army. Determined never to return to Scotland, he summons some of the mercenaries from the force he trained in Scotland and has to negotiate with a volatile and brutal Tsar, in an insular society held back from greatness by the extremes of its climate and

Dense ProsePolitical IntrigueSprawling EpicSoldiers and Warfare
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Words of Radiance

Brandon Sanderson · 1,088 pages

The war with the Parshendi moves into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains. Meanwhile Shallan searches for the legendary city of Urithuru, and Kaladin, leader of the restored Knights Radiant, masters the powers of a Windrunner.

Sprawling EpicSoldiers and WarfarePolitical IntrigueRoyal Court
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Sons of Darkness

Gourav Mohanty · 636 pages

Sprawling EpicRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueSoldiers and Warfare
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The Broken Crown

Michelle West · 768 pages

Sprawling EpicDense ProsePolitical IntrigueRoyal Court
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