The first war novels were from the 1600s. At that time fiction novels written in prose (instead of poetry) were becoming popular. These early war novels were usually satires and picaresque novels. The soldier was usually a rogue and not very realistic. One example is "Simplicissimus" by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen. "Simplicissimus" is a semi-autobiographical novel (based on the author's life) about the Thirty Years' War.