Best Speculative Historical Fiction Quotes

“She finished cleaning him off and then held her baby boy up high to behold this new wonder in his full glory. The brilliant glimmers dancing upon the restive sea as his halo and the winged legions to announce and to extol his arrival and the eternal tide rhythmically whispering of deeds long foreseen. The light and the song and the abiding heart. Creation in its purest form. It was to this divine ensemble that Isa lifted her voice to give name to the precious enigma that she knew would elevate the harmony of all things to realms transcendent.”

Birth Transcendence Beginning Speculative Historical Fiction Beginnings Speculative Fiction Birth Quotes Genre Bending African Fiction Cross Genre

Book:The Subtle Cause

Source: The Subtle Cause

“It took witnessing it happening, in person, for me to realize all the abstractions were real. And, even then, I tried my hardest to look away. It’s hard to accept what you don’t want to see.”

Dark Fantasy Speculative Historical Fiction Speculative Fiction Historical Fantasy Alternate History

Book:Babel

Source: Babel

“They were, in the end, only vessels for the languages they spoke.”

Dark Fantasy Speculative Historical Fiction Speculative Fiction Historical Fantasy Alternate History

Book:Babel

Source: Babel

“The professors like to pretend that the tower is a refuge of pure knowledge, that it sits above the mundane concerns of business and commerce, but it does not. It’s intricately tied to the business of colonialism. It is the business of colonialism.”

Dark Fantasy Speculative Historical Fiction Speculative Fiction Historical Fantasy Alternate History

Book:Babel

Source: Babel

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal.”

Dark Fantasy Speculative Historical Fiction Speculative Fiction Historical Fantasy Alternate History

Book:Babel

Source: Babel

“If you’re stupid enough to sleep with your superior, you’d best be smart enough to use whatever you have left.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“The candle on the nightstand ascended into the air and was joined and circled by others that materialized out of the darkness. A vast, lumpy darkness, clawing with enormous hands like annealed black clots of wax, a ring of candles blazing on the gnarled stump that might have been its hands.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“She leaned into the embrace for a long, quiet moment, listening to the pounding of his heart.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“His knock apparently startled the scullery maid, but a good suit and a sober-headed cane opened many a door, including this one. And if she seemed inclined to shut it in his face again quite promptly, a silver shilling slipped into her hand with his visiting card corrected the matter.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“Anything that Jack and Abby Irene could not manage together might just as likely be too much for Sebastien.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“The wand carried a spell that paralyzed the target in a kind of stasis, a forensic sorcerer’s tool of arrest and self-defense. Sebastien had always presumed, with-he now understood-inadequate evidence-that it left the target insensible. He wished it so now.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“She wondered when she had moved from mere conspiracy to treason.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“England. When she entered her self-imposed exile in the colonies, she’d never expected to see it again. Now, she wondered if she was seeing it for the last time. An unexpected gift, perhaps. Or an unlooked-for cruelty.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“She could not bear to feel England’s earth and cobblestones under her shoes again, she thought. And if she could bear that, then she might never bear to leave.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“A Gallic-nosed fellow, slight with silver-shot dark curls and dark eyes, brushed rudely past them just as Jack returned from the top of the plank. He reeked of vertiver and musk; Jack’s nose wrinkled as he passed, and he half-smiled at himself to realize how accustomed he’d become to the Puritan cleanliness of American colonials, and their aversion to heavy perfumes.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“She had long since stopped finding it ironic or eerie that the city at large paid no attention to a murder, whether the victim was a prominent citizen or a guttersnipe.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“For a moment, Garrett permitted herself a frown at the waste of talent, though she could not say if it was because of the artistry was wasted on a maid, or because an artist was wasted as one.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“Real sorcery was not particularly spectacular, despite the flash and gunpowder one might see devoted to making ritual convincing when it came to stage plays.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“Another small victory. Pile enough of them together and they became like bricks in the wall.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:New Amsterdam

Source: New Amsterdam

“His laugh came forth as a voiceless sob.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“The news of Will’s escape was enough to grant Kit new strength of intent. He’ll come for me. He won’t leave me here. He knew it, with the same calm certainty with which he’d known that he could not leave Will to take his own place in Hell.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“It’s peace we offer the world: an end to the black sorceries that foul men’s minds, an end to the power of Faeries who steal babies from cradles and poets from graves. A Senate like Rome, perhaps, or a democracy like Athens. Peace. An end to tyranny.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Who would have thought three separate peaces so irreconcilable?”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“It was Robert Poley who unhooded Will, much later in a candlelit room with an arrow slit that show only blackness but admitted the stink of the Thames.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“You will be quite safe, Master Shakespeare. My lord Salisbury would never permit you to come to harm; you are one of England’s treasures in your very own person. But simply too much trouble to be left lying until things are more certain.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Poley rested his knuckles on his lips, the image of a fighting cock.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“His bones ached of a morning, winter and summer, these days; it was only a matter of degree.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“God protect the halt and the lame,” he muttered. “Also the purblind fools. And one Kit Marlowe, wherever he may be.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“While thou art looking out for the halt and the stupid, Lord, let me put in a word for a crippled bird as well.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Salisbury pushed the heavy door a little more open and came forward, the sleeves of his black robe rippling in the cold breeze from the window.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“This will never serve,” he said, casting a disdainful eye over the cell. “I will not have your breath at risk.” “My lord-“ “Peace, Will.” The Earl drew himself up to his full, slight height as if the gesture pained him. “Thou’rt here for thine own protection.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Will pitched his voice low, a servant’s deference, and hoped Salisbury’s expansive mode continued, although he dreaded to learn the source of it.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Something filled the Earl’s eyes-not fury, precisely, or desperation, but whatever it was the player’s part of Will’s mind saw it and recognized it as motivation. And saw in that silence the thing Salisbury wouldn’t say. James is a terrible king.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Tis not as thou wert not noted for the occasional abrupt disappearance.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“The Earl pressed his lips together and considered long enough that faintness made Will light-headed. And his words sent Will’s stomach plunging hopelessly.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“What we know instinctively,” she continued, “is simply what we are trying to remember. Knowledge is memory.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Four Weird Tales

Source: Four Weird Tales

“Regrettable,” Salisbury said. “Truly regrettable. But I need them more than I need Marlowe, Master Shakespeare, for the next month or so. Conspiracies are useful-a force that may be directed to profitable service, like a waterfall through a millwheel, but I learned well from my father that they must not be plucked before they are ripe. I mean to use these conspiracies as he would, to secure the future of the realm.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Kit sat in that darkness too deep for his witch sight to pierce, even had the use of it, and ran his fingers over the rugged surface of the scold’s bridle Baines had left to keep him company.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“He knew every inch of the thing’s surface by now, had bloodied his fingertips with worrying at it, with picking at the spikes of the mouthpiece and exploring the curve and cheeks. It weighed as much as a small child in his arms, resting against his knees, and holding it close to his breast was the only thing that silenced the savage pain in his brands any more.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Kit took a deep breath, and walked into the light.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“The crippled Raven found Will in his new room and seemed well pleased with the wider window, for all it must rattle at the glass for attention. Will didn’t think this typical behavior in a raven, but perhaps the pampered birds at the Tower had been hand-fed into audacity.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Tis the side we’re on.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Lucifer caught him by the wrist, pulled him close, cradled him in the warm snowfall of wings.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Lucifer smiled, that glorious expression that turned his crown of shadows into the gentle darkness of a moonlit night.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Thou wert always the teacher, wert thou not? The seducer with truths, the bestower of knowledge and power.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Lucifer’s halo filled the grim little room with light, and he seemed suddenly more beautiful than ever. Something fragile and almost mortal, unreal, outlined against the sweating stone.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“How could I ever love anything else, once having been loved of thee? I can’t comprehend thy logic, Father of lies. Both ends against the middle. Like a two-headed serpent devouring itself. Christ. What canst thou hope maintain?” Lucifer smiled only and into the sadness of that smile Kit knew the answer. “Oh. For the love of God.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“The white tree on the bluff over the ocean was hung with icicles like curtains of glass, creaking faintly in the wind. Morgan’s cottage, once they passed through the icy snowless beech wood, was white as bone and black as aged oak among the weathered stems of the garden.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Despite his worry, Will straightened his spine and breathed the cold scent of crunching leaves, drank deep of the welcome air of Faerie and let its strength fill him up.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth

“Look down wells and look in the dark wet places. Look in forgetful places, and for forgotten things. Ask those that know the secrets whispered under earth and between stones.”

Speculative Historical Fiction

Book:Hell and Earth

Source: Hell and Earth