I’ve been a history nerd since I first learned to read. My father served in the United States Air Force, and we had an elderly neighbor who served in Korea. Their stories and a lot of time on my hands (I grew up on a small farm) led to an early love of reading. Most of the books on this list helped that love grow into ultimately writing fiction and getting a Ph.D. in U.S. History. I hope going back through them is also an enjoyable experience for everyone else.
First off, I’m recommending this because it’s an amazing technothriller. Harold Coyle is much better known for his first novel, Team Yankee. However, this book is the first time we get to see Coyle in the full “world-building” phase (as Team Yankee was set in Sir John Hackett’s World War III universe).
Coyle does a very good job of getting you vested in his characters…then swiftly proceeds to show you he’s not playing around with mortal peril. Moreover, it’s written at the very end of the Cold War when folks believed in a powerful Red Army versus the "traveling circus with ATGMs" caricature they’re often portrayed as by the late 1990s.
Personally, Team Yankee made me want to become an armor officer. Sword Point reinforced that I wanted to be a military fiction writer. It’s oft-forgotten almost thirty-five years on, but with Desert Shield rapidly hurtling towards Desert Storm, it seemed to be a forecast of what would come.
The Soviet invasion of Iran triggers the deployment of American troops and the fury of modern war, but the stakes are raised immeasurably when it is rumored that Iran is building a nuclear device
I’m recommending this book because it is another “formative text” for my writing style, and I have kept a paperback copy of it for almost 40 years.
Unlike Coyle, Barrett Tillman is known primarily for his nonfiction books. This is a crying shame because this book displays some of the most deft aviation fighting I’ve ever seen. Almost as important, Tillman actually develops characters and their relationships (think if Maverick and Charlie had continued past Top Gun, but if Maveric was a mercenary)
Lastly, you can tell that Tillman really did his research as a historian in his fiction. The F-20 Tigershark (central to the plot) doesn’t have a lot of information available on it. Tillman clearly not only loved the airframe, but found everything he could. This makes it work both as a technothriller and (now) alternate history.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This book holds a special place on this list because it’s one of the first books that made me realize the wholesale carnage people expected out of modern warfare. Sure, we’ve got to get in the Wayback machine to the early 1980s, but Taylor’s depiction of a “modern” all-out duel between the United States and Soviet carrier fleets seemed strangely prescient.
“Before Clancy, there was Taylor…” is something I’ve said many times when discussing this era of fiction. Unlike many Cold War authors, Taylor makes a point to show both sides have compelling reasons to be in harm’s way. Although the ending isn’t Bridge to Terabithia savage (IYKYK), it’s still a solid gut punch after the preceding couple hundred pages. It taught me at a young age the power of making people care about characters (before you kill them).
As you can see from my book, I write alternate history. This is one of the finest World War II alternate histories I’ve ever read. Conroy does a very good job of sticking to historically accurate portrayals of all the major players as they were in 1945, not how people writing many years later wish they had been. It’s a delicate tightrope to balance on, and Conroy walks it like the experienced author he was by this point.
As with every other book else on this list, 1945 doesn’t kill a character for shock effect. No, Conroy does in historical figures because it’s necessary and in accordance with the “What if…?” frameworks he sets up earlier in the plot.
In April 1945, the Allies are charging toward Berlin from the west, the Russians from the east. For Hitler, the situation is hopeless. But at this turning point in history, another war is about to explode.
To win World War II, the Allies dealt with the devil. Joseph Stalin helped FDR, Churchill, and Truman crush Hitler. But what if “Uncle Joe” had given in to his desire to possess Germany and all of Europe? In this stunning novel, Robert Conroy picks up the history of the war just as American troops cross the Elbe into Germany. Then Stalin slams them…
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
This book is recommended because it’s one of the best historical fiction works of all time.
Even though the reader knows what’s going to happen (“General Pickett, come on down!”), Shaara still humanizes both the Union and Confederate participants.
I read this before I took a Civil War class, and it amazed me just how well Shaara managed to turn primary sources into three-dimensional characters with all their human foibles and flaws.
“My favorite historical novel . . . a superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.”—James M. McPherson
In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty…
My book is the story of a different Battle of Leyte Gulf. For the Japanese, an errant bomb (literally) scrambles the chain of command. For the Americans, seeming misfortune stops what was historically a bad decision.
The result is a naval brawl that is equal parts Hornfischer, Clancy, and Bond.
In an underground coal mine in Northern Germany, over forty scribes who are fluent in different languages have been spared the camps to answer letters to the dead—letters that people were forced to answer before being gassed, assuring relatives that conditions in the camps were good.
This is Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman's first case in a series of six books. Months from retirement Kent-based Fran doesn't have a great life - apart from her work. She's menopausal and at the beck and call of her elderly parents, who live in Devon. But instead of lightening…
