As many of you know, I have a love-hate relationship when it comes to Conn Iggulden’s books because his incessant need to mess with history is infuriating.  It happens more and is more noticeable in his Emperor series, which annoys me to no end because some of the changes are not justified.  So, in this article I will discuss when writers need to be accurate and when it’s okay to mess with history.

I don’t know anyone who went to see The Mummy (1999) for its historical accuracy.  But that’s how cinema is so different from literature: in the former, accuracy is a bonus while people expect it in the latter.  Authors should not betray the bond of trust between them and their readers or their readers (especially reviewers like myself) will eat them alive.  Unlike The Mummy, a novel about the same thing would be ridiculed for having five canopic jars instead of four, giving Seti a beard and including the idiotic idea that someone can be mummified alive and survive more than the first day.  Basically, if you’re going to write historical fiction be sure, if nothing else, to get the basic facts of the time period right. Continue reading →