The Firedrake (1966) – After wandering across
Western Europe, Laeghaire, an Irish
mercenary knight, finds himself reluctantly accompanying the
Norman invaders at the
Battle of Hastings in 1066. The novel spans a period of years and focusing on the historical period and Laeghaire's life as a mercenary.
Rakóssy (1967) – Rakóssy, a
Hungarian aristocrat with a wide independent streak, fights the
Ottoman Turkish invaders in 1526.
The Kings in Winter (1968) – The authority of High King
Brian Boru is being contested by other clans and by the
Danish invaders, and Muirtagh O'Cullinane must balance his own honor and that of his clan against loyalties to the various kings. It all comes to a head at the
Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
Until the Sun Falls (1969) – Psin, a senior general of reconnaissance from the steppe, takes part in the
Mongol conquest of Russia and the nearly successful invasion of
Eastern Europe in the first generation following the death of
Genghis Khan, c. 1240. Portrayal of Mongol horde conquest, way of life, as seen through Psin, a Merkit rather than a Mongol and his fights with his son who is coming into his own in the army. Told in the 3rd person.
The Earl (1971) – Fulk, the Anglo-Norman Earl of Stafford, carries out his political and family schemes but manages to maintain his loyalties during
The Anarchy that followed the death of
Henry I of England, c. 1140. [Published in the UK as A Hammer for Princes.]
The Death of Attila (1973) – Tacs, a young, ne'er-do-well
Hunnish warrior, becomes unlikely friends with Dietric, son of a subject king, in the harsh world of 453.
Great Maria (1974) – Maria is the daughter of a Norman robber baron in
Southern Italy in the late 11th century, forced to marry her father's choice, the young and ambitious Richard d'Alene, though she prefers his brother, Roger. She must struggle to maintain her independence and identity during the
Norman conquest of Sicily. This is often described as Holland's first "
feminist" novel.[citation needed]
Two Ravens (1977) – Bjarni Hoskuldsson, a pagan Icelander trying to maintain the old values in an increasing Christian world of the early 12th century, leaves the family's Icelandic farm in search of adventure in the England of
William Rufus; he eventually returns to
Iceland to finally make his presence felt.
Valley of the Kings (1977) [credited to Elizabeth Eliot Carter in earlier editions] – Structured as two independent narratives, one about the last years and death of
Tutankhamen, the other about
Howard Carter's search for the
pharaoh's tomb in the 1920s.
City of God (1979) – In 16th-century Rome during the
Borgia period, Nicholas Dawson — a highly educated homosexual and the secretary to the Florentine ambassador — is drawn into dangerous political intrigue by the ruthless
Cesare Borgia.[1]
The Sea Beggars (1982) – A young Dutchman joins the revolt by the Netherlands in the 1590s (led by
pirates) against their Spanish overlords and the
Inquisition.
The Belt of Gold (1984) – Hagen, an unsophisticated
Frankishpilgrim in
Constantinople at the beginning of the 9th century, blunders into politics at the court of the
Empress Irene, where nothing has value but power. Holland herself does not consider this a particularly successful work, "maybe because it didn't take long enough to grow."[citation needed]
Pillar of the Sky (1985) - The charismatic and visionary Moloquin – "the unwanted"—leads The People to erect the stone circle at
Stonehenge on
Salisbury Plain, and to defend it from their enemies.
The Lords of Vaumartin (1988) – Everard de Vaumartin, a young, orphaned French aristocrat driven from his home, decides to immerse himself in books rather than continuing his knightly training, and experiences the turmoil of Paris of the mid-14th century, including
chivalry vs. political realism, the
Black Death, and the First Commune.
The Bear Flag (1990) – After her husband's death on the trek across the
Great Plains, Catherine "Cat" Reilly finds a home in the new state of
California in the 1850s, in a world driven by the forces of
Manifest Destiny.
ISBN978-1953034625
Pacific Street (1992) - Mitya, a taciturn
American Indian man, and Frances Hardheart, a sharp-tongued and manipulative escaped
slave, come together with other lost souls and make their way in San Francisco during the first years of the
California Gold Rush.
ISBN978-1953034748
Jerusalem (1996) – Beginning with the Christian victory at the
Battle of Montgisard,
NormanTemplar Sir Rannulf Fitzwilliam struggles to maintain his personal values (which serve him better in war than in diplomacy) while trying to survive the politics of the Latin
Kingdom of Jerusalem, all of which come to an end at the
Battle of Hattin in 1187. Holland considers this her best novel.[2]
The Angel and the Sword (2000) – The young Princess Ragny of Spain, having escaped from her disreputable father, disguises and transforms herself into the bold and fearless warrior, Roderick, seeking revenge for her mother's murder and saving Paris from
Viking assault in 861. Based on the medieval fabliau of Roderick the Beardless.
ISBN978-1953034465
Jack (2021) - During the summer of 1776, a young woman ran away from her fleeing family to join the Continental Army dressed as a man after the British Army started to land troops near her home on Long Island to reclaim the colony from the rebels.
ISBN978-1956015249
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
"Demon Lover" (2010), short story in the cross-genre anthology Songs of Love and Death edited by Martin and Gardner Dozois, an erotic fairy tale.[5][6][7][8]
Modern novels
Home Ground (1981) – A band of post-1960s
hippies, searching for a haven where they can recover and work out what to do with their changed lives, struggles to revive a failing commune in Northern California during the 1980s. A contemporary novel when it was written, it has now become almost as "historical" as most of her other works.[citation needed]
Speculative fiction
Floating Worlds (1976) –
Anarchist Paula Mendoza climbs from unemployed obscurity to become a diplomat trying to keep the peace (with startling and unconventional methods) between Earth, the
Mars colonists, and the mutant Styths from the outer planets of the solar system. This novel is notable for its sexual content, its feminist theme, and its literary quality—all comparable to the mid-70s work of
Joanna Russ and
Ursula K. Le Guin.[citation needed]
Ghost on the Steppe (1969) – Spun off from Until the Sun Falls, this is the story of a young
Mongol boy tracking down a mysterious killer on the steppe.
The King's Road (1970) – Spun off from Antichrist, this tells of the young
FrederickHohenstaufen, on the run from assassins in
Sicily, discovering his true identity.
Non-fiction
The Story of Anna and the King (1999) – Published as a companion book to the
Jodie Foster film, Anna and the King (1999), it includes (in addition to notes on and photographs of the making of the film itself) material on the real
Anna Leonowens and the real King
Mongkut, with sections on
Siamese history, religion, and culture.
An Ordinary Woman (1999) – A fictionalized biography of
Nancy Kelsey, the first American woman to reach California by crossing the
Sierras. She arrived in 1841 after a six-month trek—on foot, pregnant, carrying her two-year-old daughter, and only nineteen years old. She later contributed the petticoats from which the original
Bear Flag of the Republic of California was made. Nancy lived until 1896 and Holland relies strongly on her letters and on archival material.
Finding California (2011) – Accounts of farmers and their families who travelled west to California, based on their diaries and other writings (
Amazon Kindle Single).
Speculative non-fiction
Holland, Cecelia (2000). "The death that saved Europe : the Mongols turn back". In Cowley, Robert (ed.). What if? The world's foremost military historians imagine what might have been.
"Repulse at Hastings, October 14, 1066" (2001) in What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, edited by Robert Cowley
"The Revolution of 1877" (2003) in What Ifs? of American History, edited by Robert Cowley
Book reviews
Date
Review article
Work(s) reviewed
December 2013
Holland, 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
Killheffer, Robert K. J. (Jan 2001). "Books". F&SF. 100 (1): 29–36.