Authors Like Ken Follett: 6 Sweeping Historical Sagas
If Ken Follett's vast historical sagas, rich period detail, and unputdownable plotting are your idea of a great read, these six writers deliver — each with a book to start.
Ken Follett does something deceptively hard: he makes a 900-page historical epic feel like a thriller. Whether it’s the building of a cathedral in The Pillars of the Earth or a century of war and family in the Century trilogy, he combines meticulous period research with relentless, soap-operatic plotting — ambition, betrayal, love, and revenge, all sweeping across decades. So the writers who satisfy Follett fans share at least one of his strengths: the rich history, the big intertwined cast, or the sheer unputdownable momentum.
If you’ve read your way through Ken Follett, here are six writers who deliver, each with a place to start.
Hilary Mantel — the literary step up
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall brings Follett’s immersive historical world-building to a higher literary register, following Thomas Cromwell’s rise through the deadly Tudor court. It’s denser and more interior than Follett, but the political intrigue and the feeling of inhabiting a vanished world are exactly what his readers crave.
Start with: Wolf Hall.
Philippa Gregory — the Tudor court, dramatised
Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl delivers Follett’s blend of history and high drama, telling the story of the Boleyn sisters’ dangerous rise and fall at Henry VIII’s court. It’s juicy, propulsive, and rich with period detail — perfect for readers who love the romance and betrayal in Follett’s sagas.
Start with: The Other Boleyn Girl.
Kate Quinn — the wartime page-turner
Kate Quinn’s The Rose Code follows three codebreakers at Bletchley Park through love, betrayal, and a postwar mystery. Quinn matches Follett’s gift for weaving big history through intimate, intertwined lives, with the same can’t-stop-reading momentum. One of the best in the modern historical-fiction wave.
Start with: The Rose Code.
Robert Harris — the historical thriller
For Follett’s plotting with a sharper thriller edge, Robert Harris’s Fatherland imagines a detective uncovering a conspiracy in a world where Nazi Germany won. Harris pairs meticulous research with taut suspense, ideal for the Follett reader who wants the history to drive a genuine mystery.
Start with: Fatherland.
Larry McMurtry — the sweeping American epic
Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove delivers Follett’s epic scope on the American frontier — a cattle drive that becomes a vast, moving saga of friendship, love, and loss. It’s character-rich and utterly immersive, the kind of big book you live inside for weeks, which is exactly the Follett experience.
Start with: Lonesome Dove.
Amor Towles — the elegant historical saga
Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow follows an aristocrat confined to a Moscow hotel across decades of Soviet history, turning one building into a window on a changing world. It’s more elegant and contained than Follett, but the sweep of history through individual lives will resonate deeply.
Start with: A Gentleman in Moscow.
How to choose your next one
Match the writer to what you love most. The literary depth? Hilary Mantel. The Tudor drama? Philippa Gregory. The wartime page-turner? Kate Quinn. The historical thriller? Robert Harris. The sweeping American epic? Larry McMurtry. The elegant saga? Amor Towles.
For more, browse our historical fiction collection or our best historical fiction books roundup, and start with whichever era and scale call to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who writes historical fiction like Ken Follett?
Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory are the closest matches for immersive, character-driven historical fiction. For Follett's specific gift of unputdownable plotting across a sweeping canvas, Kate Quinn and Larry McMurtry are excellent next reads.
What should I read after The Pillars of the Earth and the Century trilogy?
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is the obvious step up for Tudor intrigue rendered with literary depth. For the same big, immersive, plot-driven experience, Kate Quinn's wartime novels and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove are superb.
What makes a book similar to Ken Follett?
Three things: a richly researched historical setting, a large cast whose fates intertwine across a sweeping plot, and propulsive, page-turning storytelling that never lets the history slow it down. The writers here each capture at least two.
