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Marked in Flesh

Marked in FleshMarked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
Series: The Others #4
Published by ROC on 8 Mar 2016
Genres: Type X - Alien Space Bats
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Premise – Point of Divergence (POD)

NOT APPLICABLE

The Story

For centuries, the Others and humans have lived side by side in uneasy peace. But when humankind oversteps its bounds, the Others will have to decide how much humanity they're willing to tolerate—both within themselves and within their community...

Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the fragile yet powerful human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the delicate dynamic between humans and Others changed. Some, like Simon Wolfgard, wolf shifter and leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn, see the new, closer companionship as beneficial—both personally and practically.

But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don't realize is that there are older and more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land that belongs to the Others—and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect what is theirs...

The Review

Well first off, let me wish the marketing genius who decided that this work of fantasy is alternate history to a shared cell with one of Ms Bishop’s ‘others’, because it isn’t. Not at all, no way. The central premise for the series being that the ‘gods’ are real, and that shapeshifters share the world with humanity – explain to me how that is Alternate History.

Obviously ROCS marketing department decided that Ms Bishop had a better chance of getting a number one rating in Alternate History rather than in the much larger field of Fantasy. Can’t argue with that – EXCEPT ITS WRONG PEOPLE!

Having said that, although I really enjoyed Books 1-3 I found ‘Marked in the Flesh’ quite frustrating, for the simple reason that the Human Supremacists are stupid. Mindbogglingly stupid. I mean how could any organisation without nuclear weapons (or even with nuclear weapons for that matter) believe they had any chance of beating the Mediterranean, let alone the Atlantic.

three-stars

Conquistador

ConquistadorConquistador: A Novel of Alternate History by S. M. Stirling
Published by ROC on 2003
Genres: Type II - Hard/Soft
Pages: 596
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
five-stars

Premise – Point of Divergence (POD)

Firstside: 1946, John Rolfe accidental creates a portal to the line that is subsequently named New Virginia.

New Virginia: This universe is one in which Alexander the Great lived a full lifespan, creating an empire that stretched from Spain to India. In this world, the MAcedonian Empire proved so strong and durable that it redirected the barbarian migrations of the Goths, Vandals, and others eastward towards China and the rest of the Far East. As a result, what remains of China is a hodgepodge of Indo-European dominated states, the Americas remain undiscovered by the Old Worlds, and technology has barely progressed to a medieval level.

The Story

Oakland 1946. Ex-soldier John Rolfe, newly back from the Pacific, has made a fabulous discovery: a portal to an alternate America where Europeans have never set foot - and the only other humans in sight are a band of very curious Indians. Able to return at will to the modern world, Rolf summons the only people with whom he is willing to share his discovery; his war buddies. And he tells them to bring their families ...

Los Angeles, twenty-first century. Fish and Game warden Tom Christiansen is involved in the bust of a smuggling operation. What he turns up is something he never anticipated: a photo of authentic Aztec priests decked out in Grateful Dead T-shirts, and a live condor from a gene pool that doesn't correspond to any known in captivity or the wild. These finds soon lead him to a woman names Adrienne Rolf - and a secret that's been hidden for sixty years ...

The Review

One of my favourite books ever, and one I have read multiple times. I mean, what could be better than two swashbuckling Rangers (ex-rangers but now serving wildlife rangers) and a beautiful heroine dressed in black and leather boots who shanghais them to the other side of the gate.

There’s even a nod at multiple other alternate realities in the library of one of the main characters, and in the slogans of some of the ruling families, I mean ‘Down Styphon!’. What’s there not to like.

five-stars

Gunpowder Empire

Gunpowder EmpireGunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove
Series: Crosstime Traffic #1
on 2003
Genres: Type III - Soft
Pages: 286
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Buy on Amazon
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Premise – Point of Divergence (POD)

Homeline: The discovery by Galbraith and Hester in the 2040's on the home timeline of the alternatives allows the creation of 'Crosstime Traffic'. Traffic is undertaken via capsules.

Agrippan Rome: General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa did not die until much later and thus oversaw the conquest of Germania. Agrippa later succeeded Augustus as emperor, and laid the foundation for a more stable and longer-lived empire.

The Story

Jeremy Solter is a teenager growing up in the late 21st century. During the school year, his family lives in Southern California - but during the summer the whole family lives and works in the city of Polisso, on the frontier of the Roman Empire. Not the Roman Empire that fell centuries ago, but a Roman Empire that never fell.

For we now have the technology to move between the timelines, and to exploit the untapped resources of those timelines that are hospitable to human life. So we send traders and business people - but as whole-family groups in order to keep the secret of Crosstime Traffic to ourselves.

But when Jeremy's parents duck back home for emergency medical treatment, the gateways stop working. So do all the communications links. Jeremy and his sister are on their own. Polisso is suddenly under siege, and there's only so much you can do when cannonballs are crashing through your roof ...

The Review

Obviously this was developed as a primer and a way of introducing young adults to the Alternate History genre. As a result there is a lot of info dumping as the young reader is introduced, whether they like it or not, to the concept of alternate histories.

I enjoyed the book, but there certainly wasn’t much depth to the characters, and I don’t think Turtledove was able to realistically portray the young brother and sister who were the hero’s of the book.

Turtledove’s strengths have never been his characters, and in this book  restricted by length and a fairly generic back-story he can’t play to his strengths, nor can he play around with history. As a result I think it stumbles as an introduction to the genre.

three-stars

Sealion

SealionSealion by Richard Cox
Published by Futura on 1974
Genres: Type I - Hard
Pages: 188
Format: Paperback
four-half-stars

Premise - Point of Divergence (POD)

Hitler invades England Sep 22 1940

The Story

The German paratroops jumped at dawn as they had done in Holland, in Belgium, in Norway. But this time there were more of them ... the time was six o'clock on the morning of September 22, 1940 ... by breakfast time close on 90,000 troops were successfully ashore on the beaches between Folkestone and Seaford.

Operation Sealion: the German invasions of England. Minutely planned. What would have happened if the invasion had gone ahead as planned?

Hitler had intended to capture the whole of Southern England within only ten days. Sealion is a vivid, authentic documentary novel based on a War Game organised by the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, umpired by six top British and German officers in an effort to determine whether Hitler would have succeeded.

The Review

This is a professionally written book by a former Defence correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and it shows. It is also a book that I have reread on at least three occasions. Its research is exemplary, and the style is free flowing and easy to read. Don’t expect much in the way of characterisation though, it isn’t that sort of book. It will grab your attention though, and keep you interested until the end.

four-half-stars

Gunpowder God

Gunpowder GodGunpoweder God by H. Beam Piper
Series: Paratime
Published by Sphere on 1978
Genres: Type III - Soft
Pages: 189
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
five-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

First Published as: "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" 1965

Premise - Point of Divergence (POD)

Aryan-Transpacific line (Aryans move east rather than west, eventually settling the Americas)

The Story

The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time-dimensions, the worlds which had branched off at every crucial point in history. Their job was to keep the existence of the alternate Earths a secret. And to keep them from mixing and destroying each other.

But even the Time cops could make mistakes. They made a big one when Calvin Morrison, an apparently ordinary State Trooper from the Fourth Level, Europo-American / Hispano-Columbian subsector was accidently switched through the dimensions into the Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styphon's House subsector.

In a mere few week, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvin. Even worse, he was masterminding a local war that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky-high.

The Review

OK – I have to admit that this is one of my favourite books of all-time, and I must have read it at least ten times over the past 20 years. But what else do you need in a book other than:

  • a pretty, intelligent, and unattached princess;
  • a hero whose skills are not terribly useful on his own line, but who finds himself ideally suited for the new line he gets dumped into;
  • a fight worth fighting against the House of Styphon; and
  • a well set out alternate history.

As Verkan Vall tells the Chief of the Paratime Police on his return from investigating Kalvan Morrison’s accidental transfer to the Styphon subsector timeline:

“Look what he has, on his new time-time, that is old one could never have given him. He’s a great nobleman: they’ve gone out of fashion on Europo-American, where the Common Man is the ideal. He’s going to marry a beautiful princess, and they’ve even gone out of fashion for children’s fairy-tales. He’s a sword-winging soldier of fortune, and they’ve vanished from a nuclear-weapons world. He’s commanding a good little army, and making a better one of it, the work he loves. And he has a cause worth fighting for and an enemy worth beating.”

The only problem is that the book is no longer in print!

five-stars