Books like “The Long Ships”

What to read after “The Long Ships” by Frans G. Bengtsson: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
2
The Wager
David Grann · 2023
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
In 1740 a British warship hunting a Spanish treasure galleon is wrecked off Patagonia. Months later two groups of survivors reach South America with opposing stories, and a court martial must decide which men were heroes and which were mutineers.
3
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Coming of Age
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.
4
The Terror
Dan Simmons · 2007
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
In 1845 two Royal Navy ships sail to find the Northwest Passage and vanish into the Arctic ice. As the crews endure cold, scurvy and starvation, they are stalked across the frozen waste by a creature that should not exist.
5
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing · 1959
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton sets out to cross Antarctica; in 1915 his ship is crushed by the ice and the crew is left stranded. This account follows their months on drifting floes and the desperate open-boat journey he makes to seek rescue.
6
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London · 1904
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
A literary critic survives a ferry collision in San Francisco Bay and is picked up by a sealing schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, a brutal and brilliant captain. Thrown into the crew's rough life, the soft scholar must find his footing under a man who answers to no law but his own.
7
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
Jules Verne · 1870
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
Three men are taken aboard the Nautilus, a submarine commanded by the brilliant Captain Nemo, after it attacks their ship. As they travel the ocean depths they witness wonders and terrors of the undersea world while their host's motives stay hidden.
8
The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne · 1875
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
Five Union prisoners escape a siege in a hot-air balloon and are blown onto an uncharted island. There they rebuild a small civilization from its resources, aided by an unseen hand and threatened by a hidden danger.
9
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
10
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · 1719
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
Shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, a castaway named Robinson Crusoe builds a life from nothing: shelter, crops and a canoe. Years of solitude end when he finds a footprint in the sand and rescues a man he names Friday.
11
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway · 1952
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
An aging Cuban fisherman, Santiago, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. When a huge marlin finally takes his line far out to sea, he must hold on through a long, painful contest of endurance and will.
12
Life of Pi
Yann Martel · 2001
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
After a shipwreck, a teenage boy shares a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. For months he struggles to survive at sea while holding on to his beliefs and his story. A fable about faith, storytelling and the versions of events we choose to believe.