Due to a discussion in a reading group I got to wondering about the Historical Fiction I’ve read in the past year (2014)  So I did a little survey analysis since I’d never actually done a count.    I read 20 historical fictions this year.  The quality ranged between excellent to very poor with adjectives used rather than “scores.”

By Historical Fiction I mean fiction which is about a time period prior to the author’s memory – probably before his birth.  The material has to be researched rather than simply remembered or only handed down tales from his family (memoirs are not history).

Classics are old books about old times but they’re not “historical” yet.  They’re more like historical artifacts or  historical literature.  >>>>MORE>>>>