History and fantasy go together like peanut better and jelly, kind of a yummy, squishy mix of different flavors that can be blended in infinite combinations.

For lovers of Norse tales and Vikings, this one is a classic of historical fantasy, peopled with humans, elves, trolls and goblins, and gods. Tales of changelings are as old as time, and this is a good one, about how a human raised by elves and an elven child raised by humans cope with their various adopted worlds, while all the time Odin is stirring up the pot and real historical forces are nibbling at the edges of the Viking world. Masterful and well worth the read.

An offbeat adventure into the Old West, set in a Tombstone ruled by the Earp brothers, who really weren't all that nice in any version of history. A hero who wants nothing so much as to be left alone and not have to think about powers he never wanted gets dragged into a fight for the soul of the town, aided by a Chinese physician and an intrepid widow.

Finlay does a good job of evoking colonial America with his Traitor to the Crown series. Not all the witches are on the side of the rebels, which makes for an interesting twist on American history and the fighting of the Revolution. 

Others in the series are:

Traitor to the Crown: A Spell for the Revolution
Traitor to the Crown: The Demon Redcoat

A retelling of the clash between Rome and the Celtic druids from the druid point of view. Epic fantasy backed up by solid research. Rome usually gets all the attention because Rome wrote all the histories. It is refreshing to see a new take on this clash of civilizations.

We look forward to the publisher re-releasing this one, whenever that may happen.

This was probably the first great historical fantasy, since Mallory wove all the earlier chansons de geste into one wildly romantic and fantastical tale of a half-remembered king. From it arises an entire genre of Arthurian literature, from The Green Knight by Steinbeck to The Forever War by Molly Cochrane and Warren Murphy, not to mention Mary Stewart's classic quartet below.

This annotated edition is probably truest to the original manuscripts.

One of the classic retellings of the Arthurian tales, from Merlin's point of view. They are beautifully written, evoking a past and very real age of the world, skillfully weaving together real history and fable. Her very powerful--and very human--wizard both grows up and grows old in this series, but in the end even he cannot prevent Arthur's fate. The fact that they're still in print after 30 years tells you how good they are.

The other three in the series are:

The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day 

A rather good mix of humor and history, managing to poke fun at the de Medicis in 16th century France while mixing a frustrated queen, an inept magician, and an innocent country girl with fiendish results. It starts a bit slow but stick with it; it becomes quite satisfying to watch the smug and ancient box known as The Master of All Desires meet its match at last. The author manages plot twists with the deftness of, well, a de Medici. 

Willis has a true gift for evoking the past, and while set in the present, there is so much American Civil War history woven into the narrative you feel as though you were there. A novelist's research assistant meets a mysterious young woman plagued by odd dreams that he comes to recognize as the unhealed grief of Robert E. Lee. But his own dreams now: those too come from the past, and the reader will get a poignant surprise at the end.