The Videssos Books (The Tale of Krispos) — (1987-2005) Publisher: As they faced one another in a duel of survival, the Roman tribune Marcus Scaurus held the spell-scribed sword of a Druid priest, and the Celtic chieftain Viridovix held a similar sword, bespelled by a rival Druid sorcerer. At the moment they touched, the two found themselves under a strange night sky where no stars were familiar and where Gaul and Rome were unknown. They were in an outpost of the embattled Empire of Videssos — in a world where magic and dark sorcery would test their skill and courage as no Roman legion had ever been tested before.

The Tale of Krispos omnibus contains the original three novels of that series: Krispos Rising, Krispos of Videssos, Krispos the Emperor
The Time of Troubles Series contains The Stolen Throne, Hammer and Anvil, The Thousand Cities, Videssos Besieged

The Tale of Krispos

The opening chapter of The Tale of Krispos really sucked me in. There is realism, which I'm always a fan of, and there are hardly any wasted words. At least that's how it is at first — but more on that later. Harry Turtledove does a great job of describing what is going on by working the information you need into the narrative in natural ways rather than just straight-out telling you certain facts.

The three books that make up The Tale of Krispos — Krispos Rising, Krispos of Videssos, and Krispos the Emperor — are based on the life and times of Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty of Byzantium. As such, this story rests in the fantasy sub-genre of alternate history. There is a little bit of magic, though it doesn't play a role in the day-to-day lives of most people. Fans of David Gemmell's historical fiction, such as Lion of Macedon, will find themselves in fairly familiar territory. Even readers who are not very familiar with their history should at least recognize the setting, which bears a strong resemblance to the Roman Empire of the mid-9th century AD. Many of the names from the history of the time pop up in The Tale of Krispos. One example is the character of Tanilis, who was actually named Danielis in real life, though of course spelling was anything but standardized back then anyway. The role she plays in the book would have been very similar to the one she played in Basil's life. Harry takes some liberties with history in order to make his main character more palatable to readers, and some of the plotters against him more sinister and deserving of their just rewards. He also messes with the historical timeline a little bit in order to have events occur at more opportune moments in the book. Of course, that's not a problem, since I don't expect a one-hundred percent factual account anyway. (Heck, I don't expect a one-hundred percent factual account from history, either — but then, I'm a bit of a cynic.)

As I said, the book starts out with quite a bit of realism, though it does falter a little as it goes on. The realism is not necessarily the gritty kind found in GRRM and the like, though that crops up infrequently, but more of the — well, the boring kind, really. For instance, peasants are given a realistic chance of fighting back against trained soldiers — i.e., very little. But you can tell Dr. Turtledove is a historian, and I was quite impressed at his detailed depictions of life on a farm — and in the palace — in the 9th century. Unfortunately, as he goes on he falls into rambling about things we don't particularly need to know. And not just historically-detailed info, either; I really didn't need to know every single time that Krispos used the chamber pot, though I think I found out. I'd love to have this book in digital format so that I could do a quick search for those two words to see how often they crop up. I think the number would be depressingly high. And the creed of the god Phos is repeated verbatim every time it is mentioned, so instead of just saying that someone recited the creed he quotes it over and over again. Other times he just rambles. Here is one example:

“After that, Krispos spent a good stretch of time staring at the float and waiting for something to happen [like the readers]. Fishing was like that sometimes. He had sometimes thought about asking Zaidas if sorcery could help the business along, but always decided not to. Catching fish was only part of the reason he came out here in his little boat. The other part, the bigger part, was to get away from everyone around him. Making himself a more efficient fisherman might net him more fish, but it would cost him some of the precious time he had to himself. Besides, if fishing magic were possible, the horny-handed, sun-browned sailors who made their living from their catch would surely employ it. No; maybe not: it might be feasible, but too expensive to make it worthwhile for anyone not already rich to afford it. Zaidas would know. Maybe he would ask him. And maybe he wouldn't. Now that he thought about it, he probably wouldn't.”

To argue against myself for a moment, this is actually an excellent way of showing how Krispos is relaxed and letting his mind wander, without merely saying it. On the other hand, he does this a fair bit as the books progress, so I think he just needed to get on with it.

It's funny, because there are some sections where I wanted more detail, such as during military campaigns where I didn't really get a good grasp of how the terrain looked, but when it came to things like meals... well, my goodness, Mr. Turtledove must be a connoisseur; he could stretch the description of a dining experience out to three or four pages.

Another issue I have with the books is that I found it hard to connect with the main character, Krispos. Perhaps it's because this is historically-based and the characters don't have that larger-than-life aspect of many out-and-out works of fiction. I found Krispos to be interesting and even in some ways admirable, but not really someone I could especially empathize with throughout the story. Although he has some depth to his character there were elements missing that made him less well-rounded than he could have been. Overall he was shallow.

Speaking of shallowness, Krispos seems only able to connect with the female characters through sex. Come to think of it, that's true of basically all of the characters. But if a female character is mentioned by name, you can pretty much guarantee that Krispos will end up bedding her sooner or later. I know that is a bit of a spoiler, and I apologize, but the book is so predictable in this respect that I think I can include it without giving anything important away. There is a heck of a lot of sex in this book. It's not graphic, but what it lacks in detail it makes up for in frequency. Oh, and homosexuality seems to be strangely anachronistic in the way it is depicted here. Much of the first book is filled with modern phrases saying “it's perfectly normal” and “there's nothing wrong with it” and so forth, which is quite at odds with the historical setting of the very Catholic 9th century Roman Empire, where it was strongly condemned. There is one scene in particular that not only does nothing at all for advancing the story, it is actually quite out of place. The author seemed to be pushing an agenda.

There are few strong supporting characters. Actually, there are a couple of characters whom the author spends quite a bit of time developing and making big portentous statements about and then... nothing. That was irritating. I think he was overly enamored of them, but couldn't properly decide what to do with them. The third book, Videssos the Emperor, which takes place much later than the first two, introduces some new characters with whom we spend time with, but the first two books don't stray at all from Krispos' viewpoint.

The three books, if you buy them separately, are self-contained stories that follow on logically one to the other, though they can be read individually. The endings are all rather abrupt, though.

The Tale of Krispos is a reasonably well-written and fairly enjoyable, if not gripping, story. It could have done with a much tighter edit — or the author could have spent more time describing things other than meals and bodily functions. This tale will be of interest to fans of historical fiction or people who are after fantasy that has a fair whack of realism rather than being a big, stirring saga full of dragons and damsels in distress. —Mark Pawlyszyn

Great War & American Empire & Settling Accounts

Great War — (1998-2000) Publisher: When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different — that war itself would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly efficient innovations — the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare. Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states — Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews — Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation...

American Empire — (2001-2003) Publisher: Twice in the last century, brutal war erupted between the United States and the Confederacy. Then, after a generation of relative peace, The Great War exploded worldwide. As the conflict engulfed Europe, the C.S.A. backed the Allies, while the U.S. found its own ally in Imperial Germany. The Confederate States, France, and England all fell. Russia self-destructed, and the Japanese, seeing that the cause was lost, retired to fight another day. The Great War has ended, and an uneasy peace reigns around most of the world. But nowhere is the peace more fragile than on the continent of North America, where bitter enemies share a single landmass and two long, bloody borders. In the North, proud Canadian nationalists try to resist the colonial power of the United States. In the South, the once-mighty Confederate States have been pounded into poverty and merciless inflation. U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt refuses to return to pre-war borders. The scars of the past will not soon be healed. The time is right for madmen, demagogues, and terrorists. At this crucial moment in history, with Socialists rising to power in the U.S. under the leadership of presidential candidate Upton Sinclair, a dangerous fanatic is on the rise in the Confederacy, preaching a message of hate. And in Canada another man — a simple farmer — has a nefarious plan: to assassinate the greatest U.S. war hero, General George Armstrong Custer. With tension on the seas high, and an army of Marxist Negroes lurking in the swamplands of the Deep South, more than enough people are eager to return the world to war. Harry Turtledove sends his sprawling cast of men and women — wielding their own faiths, persuasions, and private demons — into the troubled times between the wars.

Settling Accounts — (2004-2007) Publisher: Harry Turtledove’s remarkable alternative history novels brilliantly remind us of how fragile the thread of time can be, and offer us a world of "what if." Drawing on a magnificent cast of characters that includes soldiers, generals, lovers, spies, and demagogues, Turtledove returns to an epic tale that only he could tell–the story of a North American continent, separated into two bitterly opposed nations, that stands on the verge of exploding once again. In 1914 they called it The Great War, and few could imagine anything worse. For nearly three decades a peace forged in blood and fatigue has held sway in North America. Now, Japan dominates the Pacific, the Russian Tsar rules Alaska, and England, under Winston Churchill, chafes for a return to its former glory. But behind the façade of world order, America is a bomb waiting to go off. Jake Featherston, the megalomaniacal leader of the Confederate States of America, is just the man to light the fuse. In the White House in Philadelphia, Socialist President Al Smith is a living symbol of hope for a nation that has been through the fires of war and the flood tides of depression. In the South, Featherston and his ruling Freedom Party have put down a Negro rebellion with a bloody fist and have interned them in concentration camps. Now they are determined to crush their Northern neighbor at any cost. Featherston’s planes attack Philadelphia without warning. The U.S.A. lashes back blindly at Charleston. And a terrible second coming is at hand. When the CSA blitzkrieg is launched, the U.S.A. is caught flat-footed. Before long, the gray Army reaches Lake Erie. But in its wake the war machine is spinning a vortex of destruction, betrayal, and fury that no one, not even Jake Featherston himself, can control. Now, President Smith faces a Herculean task, while an obscure assistant secretary of war named Roosevelt rises in his ranks. For the U.S.A., the darkest days still lay ahead. Across the globe, a new era of war has just begun. And in the hands of the incomparable Harry Turtledove, readers are treated to a masterful vision of what might have been. An enduring portrait of history, nations, and human nature in its many manifestations, Return Engagement is a monumental journey into the second half of the twentieth century.

Atlantis — (2007-2009) Publisher: New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove has intrigued readers with such thought-provoking "what if..." scenarios as a conquered Elizabethan England in Ruled Britannia and a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in Days of Infamy and End of the Beginning. Now, in the first of a brand-new trilogy, he rewrites the history of the world with the existence of an eighth continent... Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored land.

Available for download at Audible.com

Atlantis and Other Places

Atlantis and Other Places is a collection of short stories published over the last ten years, in which Harry Turtledove does his best to showcase the freedom offered to writers of alternate history. Just ask “what if” and see what happens. For example:

What if 21st century news media existed during World War Two? What if centaurs suddenly discovered humans? What if complex intelligence had evolved in mollusks instead of people? They’re interesting ideas and it’s tough not to be curious about what sort of ride Turtledove has constructed for his audience.

What’s more, Turtledove clearly enjoys exploring these historical reversals and alterations. In “Uncle Alf,” which is told in a series of letters from Uncle Ade/ Alf, Turtledove speculates about what would have happened if Germany had won the First World War. The challenge in this approach is to come up with an angle that is believable, but also surprising. When it comes to the latter, Turtledove is often not always successful. “Bedfellows,” for example, which literally marries George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, does little that is not implied by a summary of its premise. At times these stories navigate plots that are simply too smooth to allow for a very adventurous alternate history.

And since nearly every story here nabs an established character or historical figure, the characterization also feels rather convenient. The benefit of this approach is that Turtledove can fast-track his characterization and readers can similarly buy into these pastiches, mysteries, and adventures with ease. However, at other times, Turtledove is merely demonstrating his ability to parrot other authors’ voices. He borrows J.D. Salinger’s adolescent voice in “Catcher in the Rhine” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s formal rationalism as we read about Sherlock Holmes, here renamed Athelstan Helms. And in stories like these, a summary is hardly required to imagine what will happen.

Fortunately, other plots pack a little more punch. In “Audubon in Atlantis,” the famous ornithologist and wildlife painter John James Audubon considers mortality and his legacy. Audubon worries that this foray into the wilderness of Atlantis (in this alternate world, the eastern United States separated from the rest of the North American continent) will be his last adventure. Perhaps it’s just as well the natural world has been all but destroyed due to agriculture and overhunting.

“Daimon” offers another aged hero from history. Turtledove sends Socrates — or “Sokrates” here — into battle in defense of Athens. However wizened he may be by age and Socratic method, Sokrates is pretty handy with a spear and sword. And more than one of his peers invites him to bed. In our world, the Athenians lost this battle, but what would have happened if wise old (and surprisingly capable in battle) Sokrates had been there?

Some of these stories and characters are a little too smoothly drawn. However, readers with an enthusiasm for history and a weakness for “what if?” will find something to enjoy in Atlantis and Other Stories. —Ryan Skardal