Historical Fiction | The BiblioSanctum

Book Review: Blood & Beauty by Sarah Dunant

Posted on July 27, 2013 Leave a Comment

Blood & Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant As you know, every once in a while I will find myself veering from my usual pattern of reading mostly sci-fi and fantasy and venture into the realm of historical fiction. I admittedly will do this for any interesting looking books about European royals or powerful families, […]

Book Review: Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Posted on July 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Tess’s father, Mr. Durbeyfield, is jokingly told by a minister that his family is the direct lineage of an old, noble family that was once thought to be completely gone. There’s nothing left of the family’s land and fortune, except the family name (d’Urberville). However, Mr. Durbeyfield and […]

Book Review: Firebrand by Gillian Philip

Posted on July 1, 2013 Leave a Comment

Firebrand byGillian Philip It’s been a while since I’ve come across such a difficult book to write about. Part of the issue involves the subject matter, themes, and ideas in Firebrand which all seem at variance with each other. This in turn gives me mixed feelings about the novel, because I struggle to even pin […]

Book Review: The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

Posted on June 29, 2013 Leave a Comment

The Curse of the Wendigo byRick Yancey I loved Rick Yancy’s The Monstrumologist so much (my review here) that I quickly picked up this one, the second book of the series. Now that I’ve finished it, I’d probably hesitate to say that it was as strong as its predecessor, but nevertheless I wasn’t disappointed. This […]

Audiobook Review: Medicus by Ruth Downie

Posted on June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

Medicus by Ruth Downie This story follows military medicus (doctor) Gaius Petreius Ruso who is a Roman man living in Brittania (England). He’s escaped to the Brittania to heal from a disaster of a marriage that ended in divorce and the death of his father that left the family with many undue debts to pay. […]

Wendy: Favorite Series

Posted on June 9, 2013 Leave a Comment

I’m not necessarily a fan of historical fiction, or of the Arthurian legend, but a friend recommended this to me and I ended up loving the book so much that I bought the entire series and have read it twice. The Warlord Chronicles is the story of King Arthur, as told in the first person […]

Book Review: Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

Posted on May 20, 2013 Leave a Comment

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis This book could have been a story arc in a comic book, and I mean that in a good way. In fact, I’m thinking that could be why I liked this book so much. You have British warlocks versus Nazi Germany’s engineered super soldiers in an alternate history of World War […]

Book Review: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Posted on May 12, 2013 Leave a Comment

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey I won’t claim Young Adult speculative fiction as my main interest, though lately, it does feel like I’ve been on a YA kick. I like picking it up occasionally, but it always seems like my favorite books in the genre are the ones that can be enjoyed by all ages, the […]

Book Review: The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Posted on July 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Lotus Eaters is a historical fiction about three photojournalists brought together during the Vietnam War. Helen Adams, a naive girl from California who drops out of college to travel across the ocean, hoping to change the world through her pictures. Sam Darrow, an experienced Pulitzer prize winning photographer, jaded by violence, but finds it […]