Worst Historical Fiction you have read.

[Anne Lyle]

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy - I love the movie adaptations, but the original books have all the literary quality of Barbara Cartland on an off day

 

[Mouse]

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy - I love the movie adaptations, but the original books have all the literary quality of Barbara Cartland on an off day

Oh dear. I've got this as an audiobook but I've not had chance to listen to it yet.

 

[Anne Lyle]

TBH I didn't get far in - her writing style grated on me too much. But I'm fussy like that

 

[Clansman]

Almost as bad as the time I was snowed in in a hut in the Alps with nothing but the first book in the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series.

We used te drrrrream of bein' snowed-in in a hut in the Alps with nuthin' but the first book in the Robert Jordan Wheel o' Time series! We were frozen-in in a shoebox, in the bottom of a lake, with nuthin' te read but Chainfire, the **th book in the Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind!!!

Speaking of Terry Goodkind, the worst historical novel I ever read was by Ayn Rand, namely We the Living. I read it at the behest of my girlfriend at the time, with whom I broke up shortly thereafter. Made me want to kill myself, that novel did. Hated the characters (all of them. Not one redeeming person at all), and as it was set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, you knew it would not end well from the outset. It didn't, but at least all those characters I hated managed to die or get sent to some gulag.

My goodness, this has brought back a lot of bad memories. I'm going to go drink a bottle of scotch.

 

[John Davy]

I would like to add "The Young Empress" to the list. Starts off well being the story of the Emperor Constantines second wife Fausta. (There are a lot of books about the early roman empire, but few concerning the later empire.) But then...well it had a disgusting account of how the Emperor punished prostitutes!

 

[megamaniac]

pardon, but doesnt 'The DaVinci Code' count?
Pretty bad, wasnt it. And the film was just aweful. I've in fact read 5 books explaining the false info, wrong dates, and historical innacuracies in that book.
Now, yes, it wasnt a history book ifcourse; thus, the author's statement that it is fiction is correct. But, ifcourse, so is the Bible... nothing but silliness about a God who punishes folks for doing this and that.

 

[Mirannan]

I would disagree with that. That interpretation is the "modern" viewpoint but if you really read the book and more particularly in later ones in the series Ayla vigorously disapproves any suggestion of their "dark nature" despite the fact that she herself is H. Sapiens. Note that she was brought up and adopted by them whereas the "white people" would never consider taking in a Neanderthal. Who is the better group now?

For something seriously bad, I would nominate any Gor books for their use of dominant men and women slaves fawning at their heels as utterly despicable.

Seconded to your impression of the Gor books, although they aren't historical fiction. I once saw a short fanfic involving the arrival on Gor of a female character from another book. Felice Landry, from the Many-Coloured Land series. Now you know why the fanfic was short!

 

[Gramm838]

I can't remember the name of the book but it was by Jack White and was set during the Crusades (usual Knights Templar are up to something type gubbins)...and in one passage had has his hero, who's has been shipwrecked somewhere, make his way back to the Holy Land by way of Malta,stopping off in Valetta...which was founded in the 1400's when the Hospitallers were kicked out of Rhodes by the Ottomans.

I stopped reading at that point; if the writer can't be bothered to get his facts right, I can't be bothered to read it

 

[Hex]

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy - I love the movie adaptations, but the original books have all the literary quality of Barbara Cartland on an off day

I read them as young teen and thought they were wonderful. I haven't tried them since, though!

I don't read much historical fiction and when I do, I happily suspend my disbelief so I shouldn't really have posted on this thread!

 

[the Jester]

Try Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, you might be surprised.

I just have to second this really quick- those books are amazing.

 

[BetaWolf]

I like Jean Auel. I consider her closer to fantasy or experimental archaeology in written form.

Anyway, worst historical fiction. . . . I could suggest some good ones. Bad ones: I don't like Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. Always ends up devolving into sleaziness, IMHO.

But the worst, I forget the title, but there was a Southern US Plantation mansion on the cover, and a ripped bodice falling off a female model on the cover. I was fourteen and the only books that my dad had in his house were published by Harlequin and its competitors.

 

[JoanDrake]

The ******* by John Jakes.

Jakes also wrote Brak the Barbarian which is probably the worst Sword & Sorcery I have come across. That is saying something.

I nominate Clan of the Cavebear.

I once had a Brak comic book. I thought it was like Groo, but no, it was meant seriously. Jakes at this point took being called "a pale imitation of Conan," as a compliment. Five years later his "Kent Family Chronicles" was selling 55 million copies, go figure

To me he's like Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler, proof positive that you don't have to be any good to be successful as a writer.