Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Latin America

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Latin America

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Thu August 28th, 2008, 2:32 am

Just to get this side of the world started, here is my list of books that cover everything from south of the US border to pre-Columbian Patagonia. (Actually, I don't know of any novels set in Pre-Columbian Patagonia, but maybe somebody out here does.)

Isabel Allende, Ines of my Soul (see review, already re-posted) and Daughter of Fortune (which also goes other places)
The Incas by Daniel Peters, review posted
Aztec by Gary Jennings (not a personal recommendation, could not get though it for sheer crudity, but others seem to like it)
Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger I recommend it, one of my all-time faves. Also set in Spain.
The King's Fifth, YA by Scott O'Dell

annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Thu August 28th, 2008, 3:31 am

Clare Bell's novel "Jaguar Princess" makes a good alternative to Gary Jennings' series. One caveat, it does contain fantasy elements, so if you don't enjoy fantasy you'd perhaps skip it.
Last edited by annis on Thu August 28th, 2008, 3:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Ariadne
Bibliophile
Posts: 1151
Joined: August 2008
Location: At the foothills of Mt. Level

Post by Ariadne » Thu August 28th, 2008, 3:46 am

Here's my review of Barbara Wood's Woman of a Thousand Secrets, set in early 14th-century Mesoamerica. The prequel of sorts is Daughter of the Sun. (They're loosely connected but you don't have to read them in order)

Another good one is Jaime Manriquez's Our Lives Are the Rivers.

User avatar
HF Enthusiast
Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: August 2008
Location: Southern California
Contact:

Post by HF Enthusiast » Sat August 30th, 2008, 7:20 pm

I am trying to educate myself on Latin America history and specifically with Mexico.
I have just finish reading Aztec by Gary Jennings. My next book will be Aztec Autumn and then the following books listed below:
Aztec Rage (Aztec), 1491: New Revelations of the America before Columbus by Charles C. Mann, Feathered Serpent of the Mexican Conquest by Colin Falconer, Tonatiuh's People of the Mexican Cataclysm by John Ross, Encounter With Destiny by Martha Melahn, The Texan Star - The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty by A. Altsheler Joseph a. Altsheler, The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes and all of Carlos Fuentes books and finally The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai.

Any recommendations and or comments would be appreciated.

Helen_Davis

Post by Helen_Davis » Wed November 26th, 2008, 11:57 pm

Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez

annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Thu November 27th, 2008, 12:53 am

Then there's James Michener's sprawling multi-generational saga, "Mexico"

Ash
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2475
Joined: August 2008
Location: Arizona, USA

Post by Ash » Thu November 27th, 2008, 1:34 am

Isabel Allende's early books House of Spirits and Eva Luna take place during revolutionary upheavels in Chili, and are a good introduction to those events. I couldn't get into Aztec (which is weird because I loved his Journeyer). I'd like to try some Mesopotamia novels but I've found most of them to be overly romantic and short on history, or tend to over glorify the natives to unrealistic proportions. I'll have to check out the ones you listed HF, they sound interesting.
Last edited by Ash on Thu November 27th, 2008, 1:38 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
donroc
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 858
Joined: August 2008
Location: Winter Haven, Florida
Contact:

Post by donroc » Thu November 27th, 2008, 1:37 am

And there is a Michener-multi-generational type book titled Brazil, which was released decades ago by an author whose name I have forgotten.
Image

Bodo the Apostate, a novel set during the reign of Louis the Pious and end of the Carolingian Empire.

http://www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZthhY6 ... annel_page

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Thu November 27th, 2008, 4:11 am

[quote=""donroc""]And there is a Michener-multi-generational type book titled Brazil, which was released decades ago by an author whose name I have forgotten.[/quote]
Errol Lincoln Uys wrote that. I have not read it.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude is said to be a good read. Another one on my TBR.

User avatar
Margaret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2440
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
Contact:

City of Silver by Annamaria Alfieri

Post by Margaret » Fri July 31st, 2009, 8:04 pm

City of Silver is about to be released on August 4, and I've just posted a review at HistoricalNovels.info (and also an interview with the author on my blog). It's a mystery set in 1650 in the silver mining city of Potosí (then Peru, now Bolivia), as the mines are becoming less productive. This is one of those novels in which the setting is so strong it might be called a character in itself. While the mystery is pretty good, it was the setting that really had me riveted.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

Post Reply

Return to “By Country/Continent”