Shogun

The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

A man wrongly imprisoned for years escapes, acquires immense wealth, and returns as a mysterious stranger to exact precise and intricate revenge.

The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Arthurian legend retold through the eyes of its women -- Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar, the Lady of the Lake -- as the old ways of the Goddess give way to Christianity.

World Without End Ken Follett

Two centuries after The Pillars of the Earth, four children witness a secret murder in a Kingsbridge forest -- and the consequences pursue them across a lifetime and a plague.

Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry

Two retired Texas Rangers lead a cattle drive from the Rio Grande to Montana -- a thousand miles through a country that rewards endurance and punishes haste.

The Last Kingdom Bernard Cornwell

A Saxon boy captured by Vikings grows up to fight for both sides, uncertain which he is -- and finds himself at the center of Alfred the Great's struggle to hold England together.