Try the Falco series. It's about a Roman informer (Falco), during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. There's a decent mix of relatively day-to-day investigations (serial killers, kidnaps, the usual thing, albeit in Ancient Rome), and books where he gets involved in political matters either at the behest of the Emperor or his spy-master. They're really good; well researched, at least as far as I can see, well written, good plots, funny, and some great characters.

 

Thx Falco was more or less what I was looking for... maybe a bit less of following the actual history but you can´t have everything.


I would also like to use this post to recommend another book.

The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling

In the mid-1870s, civilization froze in time when comets hit the earth. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together. In the 21st century, boats still run on steam, messages are delivered by telegraph, and the British Empire controls much of the world from its capital in Delhi. The other major world power is the Czar of Russia—who is preparing for global conquest.

The actual story isn´t the best or most surprising but the setting and its explanation is phenomenal.

4/5

 

Alternate history, I think, is a cool genre and has the potential to produce some pretty great stories. But I can't name any off the top of my head that I would consider really high quality. For my alternate history fix, I generally read AARs (After Action Reports) of Paradox Interactive games. But the only PI game set in the ancient world is fairly lacklustre, and unfortunately that's what I'd most like to read these days.

I've been thinking about writing some original fiction in this vein. An alternate history in which Alexander the Great survives his illness/poisoning and then turns his empire against the powers of the western Mediterranean (as was his plan in actuality). It's a concept that's always intrigued me. A great war of the mare nostrum, bitterly contended by Macedon, Epirus, Syracuse, Carthage, Rome, and Samnium. The Mauryan Empire would almost certainly attack Alexander's eastern holdings during such a conflict, which would mean a second significant front in Bactria and India. A story like this would involve a grand cast including Alexander the Great, Antipater, Cassander, Seleucus Nicator, Ptolemy Soter, Antigonus the One-Eyed, Lucius Papirius Cursor, Aeacides of Epirus, Agathocles of Syracuse, Hamilcar of Carthage, and India's first emperor, Chandragupta Maurya. And those are just the rulers and key players of the time. I have so many books about this era, it would be an easy matter for me to make it all historically accurate and plausible.

Does anyone here know of alternate history novels concerning Alexander's empire or the time of his Successors? I wouldn't want to start writing something that has already been done.

 

Most historical fiction is (late) middle ages, Victorian or Roman and even there nearly no book is alternate history.
I spend quite some time the last weeks searching for such alternates and I am pretty sure I haven´t seen anything like you describe.

 

I was in the mood to read some sword and sorcery and gave Karl Wagner a try. They reminded me a lot of Moorcock's Elric series, only with better prose. So if you enjoyed Elric, I think you will like these too. Darkness Weaves is the first book according to the source I downloaded them from.

Three of the books in the set are collections of stories about the main character Kane while the other three are novels. I've only read through four of the books so far and Bloodstone is my favorite at this point.

 

And now for something completely different!

I am reading out-of-print classic Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants by John Clark. Very interesting for everybody interested in technology, with "I want to know how it works". And it is extremely entertaining.

found via http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time.php (BTW, reagent described in this post is quite similar to Fiendfyre).

download link: http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf ("Now out of print, copies of this rare book sell for over $400.")

 

A few good series that I've read based around Rome are:

The Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_(novel_series)

The Forgotten Legion Trilogy by Ben Kane
http://www.benkane.net/his-books/

The Rome Series by Manda C Scott
http://www.mandascott.co.uk/#url=#books
Also check out the Boudica series by the same author.

All very good reads.

The best series of books I have read is the conqueror series by Conn Iggulden based around the life of Genghis Khan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conn_Iggulden

 

For anyone interested, the sequel to House of Blades (which was being discussed a page or two ago) is out: The Crimson Vault. Just bought it today, pretty excited to read it. I'll probably post back in a day or two once I've devoured it

 

Picked it up late last night, powered through it instead of sleeping.

This is still my new favorite indie series. I loved House of Blades, and I think the Crimson Vault improved on it dramatically. Fair warning though: if you didn't like House of Blades, Crimson Vault will probably not change your mind.

 

Started reading books from Vince Flynn after I ran out Jack Reacher novels. Flynn's main character Mitch Rapp is a badass and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about him.

Check out American Assassin, the first in the series based on chronological order.

 

I feel like they get better, but that's just me. Did you read Killing Floor? That's on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of his books that I've enjoyed. The action is good, the plots get more grisly and they aren't as predictable.

I just enjoy the hell out of reading about Jack Reacher, they definitely aren't for everyone.

Pick up another one and see what you think. The Persuader is top notch, 61 hours is intense and Tripwire is pretty crazy.

 

I love, love, love rapp books. Favourite of the genre. I'm a sucker for clever, badass characters.

Unfortunately, Flynn just passed away recently from pancreatic cancer. I was gutted when i found out. Too young and I'll miss the series.

 

Just finished House of Blades and The Crimson Vault last night in one go. What can I say, I really liked it, it had some original ideas , but mostly reused tropes in different ways. I like that good and evil are blurred , and I like Simon and Alin. But the rest of the characters are 2-D. Also, the author could have explained the relationship between Simon and Alin better in the first book, `cause I was under the impression they were somewhat friends , but weren't really close, and then in book two you get things like Alin saying he knew Simon was straightforward and couldnt keep a secret bla bla bla.

I hope the third book improves on character development, and brings something fresh to it. Also the ending of the book is pretty predictable. Book 1 was way more awesome.

 

I read House of Blades and it was..nice, yeah that would be the best term for it. Its true that the author is somehow playing around with familiar tropes but at the same time he's using it as a smoke screen to hide the fact that he is infact using the same old plot devices.

Simon is your usual protagonist and Alin more or less his kind of sidekick(I honestly didn't like that he was potrayed as some kind of buffoon) but with the whole mirage of Smon isn't the chosen one Alin is. Yet he doesn't explore the concept at all because it didn't seem like Alin was doing anything chosen one worthy.

Ah well, I'll give crimson vault a go, does it get better?

Also, the magic system is kind of gamey don't you think? It doesn't seem Original(actaully kind of reminds of warrens form MBotF)

 

Shantaram is the best book I've read in a very long time. I'm only on page 150 (out of around 900) but if it maintains its current quality I can see it being in my top 10 books ever.

It's an autobiography but it's written like a novel. When I started it I actually believed it to be fiction, lol. Here's a brief synopsis:

It's written superbly - the character voice is somewhat similar to Kvothe from Kingkiller, of all things. But it's all real. Bombay has been depicted with such vivid colour that you can almost taste it. And on top of it all, the book really makes a deep impression on you - what you want from life, what attitude you should have towards new experiences, what's truly important to you... it makes you look around at the cushioned little bubble you live in and wonder what else is out there. Even within the first 150 pages, it's the kind of book that can be life changing.

Highly recommended.

 

There are lots of fictionalized elements in Shataram which the author has admitted to. But still, it's an awesome book which I really need to reread.

I read 11/22/63 by Stephen King a few days. It was a good book and I liked it. One of his better books in recent time. He is also releasing Doctor Sleep, sequel to The Shining.next month which I really want to be good.

 

Finally got around to reading The Way of Kings by Sanderson.

Much like his other works, it was morally presumptuous and relatively lacking in realistic relationships, but Holy Jesus... it was a great book. Could not put it down and I can't freaking wait for the next installment of Stormlight Archive.

Kaladin is the most intriguing high-fantasy character I've come across in a long long time. Surgeon turned warrior turned slave is just a great melting-pot of circumstances.

Shallan and Dalinar were less awesome, but I still devoured their POV sections.

A solid 9 out of 10.

 

Just bought this today; I'm only about two chapters in and I can already tell I'm gonna enjoy it. It's like Tuare says--it's a novel-style autobiography, but it has the advantage of being full of real people who genuinely make me smile (so far--haven't gotten to what I'm guessing will be quite a gritty experience). The author is really on the nose about describing subtle thoughts and feelings that you recognize as a fellow human, but they're the kinds of things that you forget about thinking... if that makes any sense. Bleh. I'll probably write more once I finish it.