Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post where I’m delighted to hand the reins over to the fantastic Shauna Lawless – author of The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Head of Zeus/Ad Astra, 2022) – to talk about historical fantasy, and some of the best recent examples of the genre. Featuring some fascinating insights into what historical fantasy actually is and why it appeals to us as readers, observations on what drew her to the genre as both a reader and a writer, and loads of recommendations for great historical fantasy novels – both recent releases and classics – this is a brilliant primer for a justifiably popular genre.
Whether you’ve read The Children of Gods and Fighting Men and are looking for something to tide you over until the sequel (The Words of Kings and Prophets) lands in 2023, or you’re brand new to the genre, there’s loads here to enjoy and look forward to!
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Shauna Lawless: The fantasy genre changes all the time. With every year it transforms, moves through phases, and new subgenres emerge as king.
Epic, fantasy romance, grimdark, steampunk – there are many subgenres to choose from, but it seems to me that a certain flavour always rises to the top in any given year.
In recent years, one subgenre has become more noticeable than the others. Historical fantasy.
I’ll be honest. It is my favourite subgenre and I have been writing inside it for nearly a decade now. Does that make me biased? Most certainly. And yet, the evidence that it has grown in wider popularity is there.
Indeed, I believe it’s been burning away in the background for quite some time. I remember Brandon Sanderson talking about the genre in one of his podcasts quite a few years ago and discussing whether it might break through. Historical fantasy has not exploded onto the scene, not in the same way as grimdark did, but perhaps it has slowly weaved its way in until suddenly it has become a regular feature of the bestseller lists and book charts.
Have you missed it? Perhaps mistook it for another subgenre?
Well, then let’s talk about what the subgenre represents and some of the best novels to have broken through in recent years.
The Words of Kings and Prophets is due out in September 2023
What is Historical Fantasy?
As a base genre description, I would say historical fantasy has a real-world historical setting where characters have magical powers.
When I sat down to write The Children of Gods and Fighting Men it wasn’t really a premeditated genre choice. Gormflaith (a historical character) unfolded on the page as a Fomorian, and it therefore made sense that her counterpart, Fódla, was from the rival tribe of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
I’ve been reading Irish mythology for years. The most famous story, The Táin, features historical kings and queens, a famous warrior called Cú Chulainn (who is the son of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann) and a powerful witch/prophetess called Morrígan of the Tuatha Dé Danann. It therefore seemed quite natural to place fantastical characters beside historical ones in my own novel.
In hindsight, I think reading so much mythology set me on this path. For what is mythology? Mythology is a collection of stories about our past, steeped in history, that often include magic. If The Iliad, The Táin or Beowulf were to be written and released in today’s market, I’m fairly sure they would be marketed as historical fantasy themselves.
Of course, ‘mythological retellings’ are having a moment too. Circe, The Song of Achilles, Ithaca, Stone Blind – these are also feeding into our desire to understand where we come from. What did our ancestors believe, and which parts of those values ring true today?
However, I would argue that historical fantasy is a separate genre to mythological retellings. It does not set the story inside one already told, rather it explores where else in history magical elements might or could have held sway.
It is also different to epic fantasies with historical inspirations. Old school epics like The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time have all borrowed from world religions, power structures as well as mythologies. However, in these novels we have new worlds to explore. New rules. The good can be good and the bad can be bad. But perhaps the darker shades of humanity remain unexplored when the land these characters step upon can never be visited beyond the realms of our imagination.
Stories ‘inspired’ by mythologies have also come to the forefront. Works like Black Leopard, Red Wolf, The Rage of Dragons, Heart of the Sun Warrior and Fireheart Tiger are some of the best examples of this. These stories blur the lines between our world and another with great effect, but again, this isn’t real history.
And so, to come back to historical fantasy, this is the subgenre where the author has brought us closer to home. We do not travel across Westeros or Middle-Earth. We do not visit a land that is similar to ours. No, it is Ireland, Russia, China, Egypt. Had we been born a thousand years ago, this is the land our eyes would have beheld.
The question remains, why have audiences enjoyed this so much?
Is it perhaps the increased understanding and awareness of history? An attempt to reclaim ancient aspects of our culture that modern society has eroded? Is it a deep-rooted wish that magic might once have existed on our Earth – and our ancestors might once have utilised it?
I have no definitive answers.
Just books for you to read.
My Historical Fantasy Recommendations
Babel by R.F. Kuang – set in 19th century Oxford
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden – set in 14th century Russia
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan – set in 14th century China
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke – set in 19th century London
Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon – set in 18th century Scotland/America
City of Brass by S.A Chakraborty – set in 18th century Egypt
Gurzil: The Wars of Wrath by I Anonymous – set in 6th century Britain & Libya
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Shauna Lawless is an avid reader of Irish mythology and folklore. As an Irish woman, she loves that Irish mythology has inspired so many stories over the years, however, she wanted to explore the history and mythology of Ireland in a more authentic way. She lives in Northern Ireland with her family. Her debut novel, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is a historical fantasy set in 10th century Ireland.
Follow Shauna on Twitter @shaunaLwrites, or on her blog at www.shaunalawless.com
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Huge thanks to Shauna getting involved in the Track of Words Advent Calendar 2022, and for taking the time to write such a great guest post! The Children of Gods and Fighting Men looks amazing – it’s on my list to read, and it was on Nicholas Binge’s list of the six best SFF books he read in 2022 – and I’ve got my eye on several of Shauna’s recommendations too (also Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell is one of my all-time favourites!).
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is out now – check out the links below to order your copy:
The Words of Kings and Prophets is available to pre-order now, ahead of its September 2023 release date – check out the links below to pre-order your copy:
*If you buy anything using any of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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