Gunpowder Empire

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

A Clash of Eagles

I received this book for free from Del Rey in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Clash of EaglesA Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale
Published by Del Rey, Titan Books on 20 March 2015
Genres: Type III - Soft, Type IV - Utterly Implausible
Pages: 416
Format: eBook
Source: Del Rey
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four-stars

Premise - Point of Divergence (POD)

In 211 AD Geta survives an assassination attempt by his older brother, and co-Emperor Caracalla. Geta wins the following decade long civil war and introduces a number of civil reforms designed to limit his own powers and those of his successors. Military reforms also deter individual legions from aligning themselves with pretenders to the Imperial throne allowing the Roman Empire to continue to flourish, and to successfully weather the subsequent barbarian invasions.

The Story

The Roman Empire never fell. Now, in 1218 AD, jaded commander Gaius Marcellinus leads his legion into North America confident that he will find easy victories and the gold necessary to finance his Emperor’s endless wars with Mongol China.

Marcellinus couldn’t be more wrong. The inhabitants of Nova Hesperia have impressive fighting skills, along with sophisticated flying machines constructed of wood, skin and sinew which decimate even his disciplined legionaries. And after a harrowing march into the middle of the vast continent, Marcellinus will face the full might of the Mississippian mound-builder culture in a battle that will change his life forever….

The Review

I will start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and that if I hadn’t its significant failings wouldn’t have been so important. But the author has told a damn good story, with believable, likeable characters. I am aware that other reviewers are complained that there is too much focus Marcellinus, with other characters remaining undeveloped. But I must beg to differ here. Certainly Marcellinus serves as the focus of the plot, but other characters were developed sufficiently for you to understand their needs and desires. As Marcellinus learnt about them, so did the readers.

As an ‘alternate’ history, however, this rates well up there with Harry Turtledove, and not in a good way. I mean, flying machines, and a Roman Army with a technology that hasn’t progressed in over 1,000 years. I mean, pleeese!

What I couldn’t decide is whether the author’s world he designed was so utterly implausible by accident, or whether he deliberately designed the story to be a work of fiction. In the end, given the number of references on the Roman Army he quoted I had to plump on the side that he deliberately designed it as a fantasy. In short, this is a conceit (defn. a fanciful thought, idea, or expression, especially of a strained or far-fetched nature). Admittedly a very well written and entertaining conceit, but if you intend reading it you need to be aware of this.

The army as described by the author appears to closely represent the Roman Army of the 1st century. But the book takes place 1218, over 1,000 years after the Point of Dviergence (POD). More importantly many of the technologies used by Marcellinus’s soldier had already changed by the POD. Take for example the pugio, a dagger used by Marcellinus and other Roman soldiers – the problem is that there is no archeological or artistic evidence of the pugio past the 3rd century. And then there’s the shields. By the third century the familiar convex, rectangular shield were already being replaced by a simple oval or round shield. And then the pila. Macellinus’ soldiers still used the pila yet by the POD Roman soldiers had replaced these with half a dozen lead-weighted throwing darts, which incidentally would have proved very useful against the native Americans.

The biggest failure, however, is Rome’s exclusive use of foot soldiers. OK, so there are contrary views concerning whether the Roman Army was actually making greater use of cavalry during the 4th century (the traditional view). But Marcellinus’ Roman Empire is now involved in an endless series of wars with Mongol China, which would have required a heavy use of cavalry. And it’s not impossible to transport horses across the Atlantic (as witnessed by the fact that Marcellinus did have his own personal mount). In support of the expectation that the legion should have included at least a number of light cavalry Spain had established sufficient horses in the Caribbean within 27 years of Colombus’ first voyage, to permit Cortez to include 15 horses with his expedition against the Aztecs.

So am I going to purchase the sequel? Yes – I like Marcellinus and I want to see him achieve his dream – but it doesn’t get a five from me.

four-stars

Second Front: The Allied Invasion of Europe 1942-43

Second Front: The Allied Invasion of Europe 1942-43Second Front: The Allied Invasion of Europe 1942-43 by Alexander M. Grace
Published by Casemate Publishers on 2014
Genres: Type I - Hard
Pages: 288
Format: eBook
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four-stars

Premise – Point of Divergence (POD)

The Allies invade Europe via the coast of southern France in 1942

The Story

One of the great arguments of World War II took place among Allied military leaders over when and where to launch a second front against Germany in Europe. Stalin, holding on by his teeth in Russia, urged a major invasion from the west as soon as possible. The Americans, led by Marshall and Wedemeyer, argued likewise. It was Churchill who got his way, however, with his Mediterranean strategy, including a campaign on the Italian peninsula, which he mistakenly called the “soft underbelly of Europe.”

This realistic, fact-based work posits what would have happened had Churchill been overruled, and that rather than invading North Africa in the fall of 1942, then Sicily and Italy, the Allies had hit the coast of southern France instead. The key element that enables the alternative scenario is the cooperation of Vichy, which was negotiated at the time but refused. If the Allies had promised sufficient force to support the French, however, the entire southern coastline of France would have been undefended against a surprise invasion.

In this book, once the Allied armies are ashore, Germans stream toward the front, albeit through a gauntlet of Maquis, Allied paratroopers, and airpower. Meantime the Allied forces push up the Rhône Valley and titanic armored clashes take place near Lyons. Already in desperate straits at Stalingrad, where they had committed their air and armored reserves, the Germans had also yet to switch to a full total-war economy, with tanks like the Panther and Tiger not yet deployed.

The Review

The first two thirds of the book was definitely edging into a 5 but as the story moved further away from the initial landing it became increasingly difficult to suspend my sense of disbelief at where the author was pushing the story to. What I did enjoy was how the author used real persons doing the same sort of the same thing they were famous for but at a different time, or in different place. And the re-imagining of ‘the Battle of the Bulge’ was quite entertaining. This is definitely a book I’ll be reading again, although probably not for a couple of years.

four-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
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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