For anyone looking for a good, smart historical fantasy for grownups, I’ve got a recommendation: the four-book series called The King of Ys, by Poul and Karen Anderson.
A good encyclopedia will tell you that in Breton legend there was supposedly a city on the coast of Armorica, called Ys, which was built at the edge of the sea but was safe behind its seawall, to which its King Gradlon had the only key. His daughter, Dahut, was his dearest treasure but she became evil, and eventually caused the city to be destroyed when the sea flooded in. The survivors of Ys were settled by Saint Winwaloe among the Celtic people of Kemper in the heart of Brittany.
In this series of novels, Poul Anderson speculates that Ys, like Carthage, was originally a Phoenician colony; only shallowly influenced by Celtic culture, but much stranger at heart. He sets the story in the fifth century, when Roman power so rapidly waned across northern Europe. Given the period and setting, it’s only natural that Saints Martin and Corentin are important characters (Patrick shows up fleetingly, too, if you know what to look for), along with their contemporaries the proud Irish hero Niall of the Nine Hostages, and the Roman poet Ausonius. The protagonist is a Roman centurion named Gratillonius, a worshiper of Mithras; the story begins when Gratillonius is assigned as Roman prefect of Ys, but finds himself hailed King of Ys, husband to the city’s nine queens, and high priest of the Celtic god Taranis. The books are anchored in thoroughly-researched Roman and Gallic history, but in the end this is a story about civilization, humanity, and what gods deserve to be served.
Two suggestions: First, take my word for it and buy at least the first book in the series, Roma Mater, and give it a try. (The other three books are Gallicenae, Dahut, and The Dog and the Wolf.) And, second: Do not read any spoilers about the plot of the books. Beyond the basic legend everybody knows, let the author keep surprising you.
This is a series I reread every few years, and it’s always a moving and thoughtful experience.
It’s in Kindle, and paperback copies are intermittently available. But the two-volume Science Fiction Book Club hardcover edition, in all its 1980s glory, is usually available inexpensively in used editions on Amazon and eBay:
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