Cecelia Holland bibliography

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A list of works by or about American historical novelist Cecelia Holland.

Contents

Historical fiction

Novels

Series

California

  1. Railroad Schemes (1997) – Irish American outlaw "King" Callahan and the young orphaned Lily Viner from the Virginia City mining camps battle the railroad barons in Los Angeles (new terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad) during the 1870s. Holland considers this her second-best novel.[ citation needed ] ISBN   978-1953034267
  2. Lily Nevada (1999) – Sequel to Railroad Schemes. The twenty-year-old Lily Viner, escaping her shattered past, becomes an actress in San Francisco and leads a double life in trying to deal with the return of the railroad detective who killed both her outlaw father and Callahan, her foster-father—and also tries to find her mother, who disappeared when Lily was an infant.

Corban Loosestrife series

Holland spent between 2000 and 2010 writing the six novels in her Corban Loosestrife series, set in the world of the Vikings over a period of some fifty years.

  1. The Soul Thief (2002) – The first in the series, this novel takes place in the mid-10th century in the Norse kingdom of Jórvík (York). It focuses on the struggles of Corban Loosestrife and his twin sister, kidnapped from Ireland.
  2. The Witches' Kitchen (2004) – Fifteen years after killing Erik Blódøx (English, Bloodaxe), Norse King of Jórvík, the renegade Corban Loosestrife is living thinly but idyllically with his family on the coast of Vinland, until warfare among the local tribes and trouble from back home force him to return to Denmark, where he again becomes embroiled in politics.
  3. The Serpent Dreamer (2005) – His service to the King of the Danes concluded, Corban returns to his new home in Vinland to find the colony destroyed, his beloved wife dead, and his twin sister Mav, with whom he shared a mystic bond, transfigured into a numinous being caught between this world and the next. Seeking shelter with a nearby tribe, Corban is shunned for his pale skin and dark, coarse hair, and feared for his strange powers to make fire and cut through the toughest skins with his magic blade.
  4. Varanger (2008) – Corban Loosestrife's son Conn is a clever and strong leader of men; his cousin, the god-touched Raef, is his shield and navigator. They have joined a fur-trading ship to Russia, and are forced to over-winter in Novgorod. While there, they take service with the leader of the Rus, Dobrynya, and with him travel south to Kyiv, and then on with a raiding party into the northern reaches of the Byzantine Empire.
  5. The High City (2009) – Raef Corbansson arrives, rowing, in Constantinople in time for Bardas Phokas the Younger's rebellion against Basil II (c.989). He catches the eye of the Empress Helena, but not in a good way! Byzantine politics, the formation of the Varangian Guard, life in the big city is interesting for someone of Raef's fey sensitivities. It doesn't take long for him to fatally irritate Basil, too. (The book jacket is in error about whose wife Helena is — NOT Basil's, but his brother Constantine VIII's.)
  6. Kings of the North (2010) – Raef returns to Jorvik and meets his destiny, along with several actual historical figures, among them Æthelred the Unready and Knut Sweynsson.

Princess Eleanor

  1. The Secret Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine (2010), set in the years 1151–1152, is centered on Eleanor's relationship with her sister Petronilla; it narrates the meeting of Eleanor and Henry Plantagenet, the beginning of their love affair, Eleanor's annulment of her marriage to Louis VII, and Petronilla's role helping her sister in these events, in a fictional secret history concordant with the known facts of their lives.
  2. “Nora’s Song” (2013), short story in the cross-genre anthology Dangerous Women edited by Martin and Dozois, about Princess Eleanor and her observations of the royal household of Henry II of England and (future) Richard I. [4]

Short stories

Modern novels

Speculative fiction

Media tie-in fiction

Children's fiction

Non-fiction

Speculative non-fiction

Book reviews

DateReview articleWork(s) reviewed
December 2013Holland, Cecelia (Dec 2013). "Locus Looks at Books : Divers Hands". Locus (635): 22. Griffith, Nicola (2013). Hild : a novel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Critical studies and reviews of Holland's work

The angel and the sword

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References

  1. Maclaine, David. "City of God by Cecelia Holland". Historicalnovels.info. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  2. Holland, Cecelia. "Jerusalem book page". author's website. Retrieved 21 January 2023. I think this is my best novel.
  3. Shelton, Heather (July 31, 2020). "Local author explores 'Heart of the World' in new novel Cecelia Holland's 30th novel to be released in September". Times-Standard .
  4. "Dangerous Women Arrives on Tor.com". Tor.com. July 24, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  5. DeNardo, John (January 14, 2010). "Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois". SF Signal . Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  6. Johnson, Suzanne (October 27, 2010). "Fiction Affliction: Diagnosing November Releases in Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance". Tor.com. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  7. "Pocket Releases Songs of Love and Death". GeorgeRRMartin.com. November 24, 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  8. Martin, George R. R. (March 31, 2010). "Not A Blog: Love. Death. Sex. Heartbreak". GRRM.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2014.