Books like 'Ten Cities that Led the World: From Ancient Metropolis to Modern Megacity'
Readers who enjoyed Ten Cities that Led the World: From Ancient Metropolis to Modern Megacity by Paul Strathern also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy 20th century urban politics ancient-civilization ww2
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Dead Eagles by Phil Ward
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this sequel to Those Who Dare, U.S.Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea-lane... -
![The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov]()
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsMoscow, 1929: a city that has lost its way amid corruption and fear, inhabited by people who have abandoned their morals and forsaken spirituality. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in town with a bizarre entourage that includes a giant talking cat and a fanged assassin, all hell breaks loose... -
![Signal Moon by Kate Quinn]()
Signal Moon by Kate Quinn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA short story about an impossible connection across two centuries that could make the difference between peace or war.Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption... -
![Queens' Play by Dorothy Dunnett]()
Queens' Play by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSecond in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Queens' Play follows Francis Crawford of Lymond who has been abruptly called into the service of Mary Queen of Scots. Though she is only a little girl, the Queen is already the object of malicious intrigues that extend from her native country to the court of France... -
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![Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman]()
Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThis is Simon de Montfort's story—and the story of King Henry III, as weak and changeable as Montfort was brash and unbending. It is a saga of two opposing wills that would later clash in a storm of violence and betrayal, a story straight from the pages of history that brings the world of the thirteenth century completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive... -
![Lovely War by Julie Berry]()
Lovely War by Julie Berry
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIt's 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She's a shy and talented pianist; he's a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it's immediate and deep--and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches... -
![In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman]()
In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA debut collection of linked stories from a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, set in a German-occupied town in Poland, where tales of myth and folklore meet the real-life monsters of the Nazi invasion.1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland’s towns and cities of their Jewish populations... -
![The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso, Tim Parks]()
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso, Tim Parks
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPresenting the stories of Zeus and Europa, Theseus and Ariadne, the birth of Athens and the fall of Troy, in all their variants, Calasso also uncovers the distant origins of secrets and tragedy, virginity, and rape. "A perfect work like no other. (Calasso) has re-created . . . the morning of our world."--Gore Vidal. 15 engravings... -
![Servant of the Bones and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice]()
Servant of the Bones and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings... -
![Limelight by Dan Willis]()
Limelight by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen a madman starts robbing banks the really old fashioned way, by blowing holes in them with magical explosives, the police want Alex to catch him before he kills and robs again. There are two problems with that, however, first as far as Alex knows there’s no such thing as a blasting rune, and second his friend Danny Pak is up for a promotion and that’s not Danny’s case... -
![River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Wilbur Smith]()
River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Wilbur Smith
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTanus is the fair-haired young lion of a warrior whom the gods have decreed will lead Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shattered halves...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization urban 20th-century action-adventure adult africa audiobook book -
![The island of missing trees by Elif Shafak, Rūta Razmaitė]()
The island of missing trees by Elif Shafak, Rūta Razmaitė
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 57 ratingsA rich, magical new book on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home... -
![Blood Relation by Dan Willis]()
Blood Relation by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYoung women are turning up dead, exsanguinated by a killer who leaves strange and powerful symbols behind, drawn in his victim's blood. Now Alex Lockerby must stop the killer before he can complete his dark ritual and release hell on the city... -
![Capital Murder by Dan Willis]()
Capital Murder by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.65 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen the FBI wants to sweep the murder of a US Senator under the rug, Alex Lockerby must navigate the halls of political power and corruption in order to catch a professional killer and uncover dark conspiracy that threatens the very foundations of government... -
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![World at War, 1944 by Mary Pope Osborne]()
World at War, 1944 by Mary Pope Osborne
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first Magic Tree House(R) Super Edition--and Jack and Annie's most dangerous mission ever in the scariest time the world has ever known--World War II... -
![People of the Mist by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear]()
People of the Mist by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith People of the Mist, bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear take us to the Chesapeake Bay of six hundred years ago, when the unprovoked and brutal murder of a young woman on the eve of her wedding threatens to turn the entire Algonquin Nation against itself in a brutal war that could destroy them as a people...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century adult book female-author fiction historical historical-fiction -
![The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg]()
The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train.Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around them, making it difficult for them to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child... -
![Tales from Ovid by Ovid]()
Tales from Ovid by Ovid
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun's ground-breaking anthology After Ovid (also Faber) was published in 1995, Hughes's three contributions to the collective effort were nominated by most critics as outstanding... -
![The Little Black Fish and Other Modern Persian Stories by Samad Behrangi, Mary Hegland]()
The Little Black Fish and Other Modern Persian Stories by Samad Behrangi, Mary Hegland
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA collection of stories that express criticism of the social, political, and economic structures of contemporary Iran...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century action-adventure animals anthologies audiobook children classics -
![The Deer and the Cauldron: The First Book by Jin Yong]()
The Deer and the Cauldron: The First Book by Jin Yong
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOn the Dragon Throne of China sits the young Manchu Emperor Kang Xi. Back in 1644, his great-uncle Dorgon broke through the Great Wall from Manchuria in the north-east and took the Imperial capital, Peking. Now twenty years later, the Manchus are quelling the last sparks of Chinese resistance, hounding down members of the underground movement known as the Triad Secret Society...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century action-adventure adult ancient-china book classics fiction -
![The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry]()
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War... -
![Threads of Blue by Suzanne LaFleur]()
Threads of Blue by Suzanne LaFleur
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA war took Mathilde away from her family when she was chosen to serve her country, Sofarende, with other children working on a secret military project. But now the other children—including her best friend, Megs—have fled to safety, and Mathilde is all alone, determined to complete her mission. In this sequel to Beautiful Blue World, Mathilde must make her way through a new stage of the war... -
![Curse of the Phoenix (The Arcane Irregulars Book 1) by Dan Willis]()
Curse of the Phoenix (The Arcane Irregulars Book 1) by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen a trail of magical murders follow a stolen statue, Lieutenant Danny Pak and FBI Agent Buddy Redhorn have to get it back, before its dire curse falls on the city.New York Police Lieutenant Danny Pak has a problem. When one of his officers calls him out to an unusual crime scene, Danny realizes that it’s terrifyingly similar to something the department thought was dead and buried... -
![Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw]()
Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAriantes is a Sarmatian, a barbarian warrior-prince, uprooted from his home and customs and thrust into the honorless lands of the Romans. The victims of a wartime pact struck with the emperor Marcus Aurelius to ensure the future of Sarmatia, Ariantes and his troop of accomplished horsemen are sent to Hadrian's Wall...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century action-adventure adult book christian fiction historical -
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![Yendi by Steven Brust]()
Yendi by Steven Brust
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsVlad Taltos tells the story of his early days in the House Jhereg, how he found himself in a Jhereg war, and how he fell in love with the wonderful woman, Cawti, who killed him... -
![Day of War by Cliff Graham]()
Day of War by Cliff Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn ancient Israel, at the crossroads of the great trading routes, a man named Benaiah is searching for a fresh start in life. He has joined a band of soldiers led by a warlord named David, seeking to bury the past that refuses to leave him. Their ragged army is disgruntled and full of reckless men. Some are loyal to David, but others are only with him for the promise of captured wealth... -
![People of the Sea by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear]()
People of the Sea by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA spellbinding tale of life and love, death and adventure, in North America eleven thousand years ago, when mammoths roamed the continent. Award-winning archaeologists Michael and Kathleen Gear, using the best archaeological information, have created a stunning vision of our pre-history, and of the men and women who lived in this rapidly changing world...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century action-adventure adult book female-author fiction historical -
![The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker]()
The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhat would you die for?That's the question suddenly thrust upon a small band of women and children in Bosnia at the close of World War II. When a group of bitter soldiers stumble upon their peaceful village, they suddenly face an insidious evil...and the ultimate test.It is then, in the midst of chaos and pain that the Martyr's Song is first heard... -
![How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis]()
How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTheir secret didn’t die with her.Colorado, 1918: Millie Boylan is a nurse who sees darkness marking those soon to die. When she falls for a doomed soldier named Edward Gainsbury, she vows to save his life. But Millie soon finds the greatest danger is the one she cannot see.Colorado, 1943: With a brother gone to war, Dinah must learn how to fend for herself... -
![Weeping in the Wings by Terry Lynn Thomas]()
Weeping in the Wings by Terry Lynn Thomas
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSan Francisco, March 1943Sarah Bennett harbors two secrets: She sees ghosts, and she’s in love with a spy.When Sarah takes a job with occult expert Dr. Matthew Geisler, he promises to help her understand the sorrowful spirit that seems to have attached itself to her—a spirit whose incessant weeping only she can hear... -
![The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood]()
The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations…Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace.Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside... -
![The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson]()
The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThis moving story about a magical bookstore explores the way war can shape a family and is perfect for book lovers everywhere, especially fans of Pages & Co., Pax, and Wolf Hollow.It's 1944 Sutton, NY, and Poppy's family owns and runs, Rhyme and Reason, a magical bookshop that caters to people from all different places and time periods... -
![The Mind's Eye by K.C. Finn]()
The Mind's Eye by K.C. Finn
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA girl with a telepathic gift finds a boy clinging to his last hope during the war-torn climate of Europe, 1940. At fifteen, Kit Cavendish is one the oldest evacuees to escape London at the start of the Second World War due to a long term illness that sees her stuck in a wheelchair most of the time... -
![The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves]()
The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAlong with I, Claudius, The Golden Fleece is considered one of Robert Graves's most exciting and transporting historical novels. The Golden Fleece was at one time the most sacred religious object of the ancient Greeks, and had been sent away as the result of a power struggle between the Greeks and earlier inhabitants of the Greek peninsula...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics epic -
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![The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth]()
The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's August 1939 in Germany, and Ava's world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime, and finds herself compelled to stand against it.Ava joins an underground resistance movement that seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine... -
![The Watchmaker's Daughter by Dianne Haley]()
The Watchmaker's Daughter by Dianne Haley
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHiding the worn piece of paper among her father’s watch deliveries, her eyes fill with tears at the memory of her brave friend walking towards the Nazi soldiers, and the sharp sound of gun fire. Her friend sacrificed herself so that she could deliver this message... -
![Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor]()
Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason?"Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity... -
![The Garden of Time by J.G. Ballard]()
The Garden of Time by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings...Categorized as:
politics classics fantasy fiction dystopia literary-fiction historical-fiction magical-realism -
![The Circus Train by Amita Parikh]()
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAt the World of Wonders, Europe's most magnificent travelling circus, every moment is full of magic, and nothing is as it seems--especially for the people who put on the show Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo... -
![Sinuhé, el egipcio I by Mika Waltari]()
Sinuhé, el egipcio I by Mika Waltari
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTranslated by Naomi...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization africa northern-africa egypt historical-fiction fiction historical classics -
![People of the River by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear]()
People of the River by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA gripping new saga of pre-historic America that takes us to the Mississippi Valley and the tribe known as the Mound builders. It is a time of troubles. In Cahokia, the corn crop is failing again and a warchief--and the warrior woman he may never possess--are disgusted by their Chief's lust for tribute. Now even the gods have turned their faces, closing the underworld to the seers...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century action-adventure adult book female-author fiction historical -
![The Ever Falls by Robin D. Mahle]()
The Ever Falls by Robin D. Mahle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe epic conclusion to The World Apart Series.Addie and Clark have just defeated one evil, only to have another closer to home than they thought possible.They thought they were finally safe, but Spectrum has been waiting for them.And this time, there are more lives at stake than anyone could’ve imagined...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization 20th-century book dieselpunk exploration fiction historical historical-fiction -
![The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsA continuation of Homer’s epic poem, Kazantzakis’s own Odyssey finds Odysseus once again leaving Ithaca on finding that the satisfactions of home and hearth are not as he remembered them... -
![The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault]()
The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization politics 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
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![Dawn of Empire by Sam Barone]()
Dawn of Empire by Sam Barone
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFive millennia ago, on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, the course of human history changed forever . . .The people of Orak cherish their peaceful village and the life they have made. Though not proficient with the bow or sword, they possess a weapon far stronger: the ability to coax food from the ground. This is why the barbarian leader Thutmose-sin hates and fears them...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![Polostan by Neal Stephenson]()
Polostan by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first installment in Neal Stephenson’s three-part Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora... -
![Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone]()
Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, which Library Journal called, “ripe for Oprah or fans of Elizabeth Berg or Anne Tyler,” comes a magical novel about a family of women separated by oceans, generations, and war, but connected by something much greater—the gift of wings.On March 29, 1973, Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with a pair of wings molded to her back... -
![No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien]()
No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsInspired by the real-life experiences of his grandfather, J. R. R. Tolkien, during World War I, Simon Tolkien delivers a perfectly rendered novel rife with class tension, period detail, and stirring action, ranging from the sharply divided society of northern England to the trenches of the Somme. Adam Raine is a boy cursed by misfortune... -
![Dagger Magic by Katherine Kurtz, Deborah Turner Harris]()
Dagger Magic by Katherine Kurtz, Deborah Turner Harris
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAdam Sinclair, the Adept, faces mankind's most dire threat--a cult older than Christianity, with the power to resurrect a new, demonic Third Reich... -
![An Encyclopedia of Tolkien by David Day]()
An Encyclopedia of Tolkien by David Day
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA comprehensive, illustrated guide to the history, lands, and inhabitants of Middle-earth. The fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth contains a rich assortment of people, cities, and creatures—as well as a deep, intertwined history that spans thousands of years...
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