I heard someone being interviewed who referred
to this novel and I liked the sound of it so I tracked down a second hand copy
to read. It has several layers to it and initially seems quite disjointed and random
short stories, but eventually patterns appear and context is revealed until you
get a sense of the bigger picture that the author has been trying to put across.
As an alternative history it is a
interesting exploration and the use of certain religious ideas to link the vast
period together is also revealing, though occasionally baffling, the novel does
suffer somewhat for its grand vision and scope and requires a certain amount of
commitment from the reader o get through it to the end.
‘As
Bold Bardash, a horseman in the army of Temur the Lame, rides west across the
steppe and on to the Magyar Plain, he comes across a town in which everyone
lies dead. Long dead. Plague has struck Europe. Kali’s black blanket has fallen
over the lands of the West and nothing will ever be the same again.
Into
this empty land pour the opportunists: the merchants, slavers and warlords. The
Chinese cross the oceans in their huge fleets; the Arabs traverse the deserts
by camel and mule and the mediterranean by dhow. The last Europeans are killed
or enslaved – consigned to the seraglios of the sultans. So die the ancestors
of Da Vinci and Copernicus; Columbus and Machiavelli; the Spanish Inquisition
and the Conquistators; Shakespeare, Newton and the Pilgrim Fathers; Einstein
and Hitler. And the world becomes a different place.’
A delightfully silly and ‘naughty’
steampunk comic from one of the Weta Workshop artists allowed free reign to
create a fun, diverting book complete with imagined advertising and branding.
This book is one I felt I had to read
as it is highly regarded, not just as science fiction but for its political agenda,
written as it was at the time of the Vietnam War. For me though it was the personal
battle of the lead character as he becomes increasingly removed from the world he knew and thought he
understood that strikes the strongest chord.
‘The
Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact
that the fierce alien enemy that they would oppose is inscrutable,
unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite
Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and
time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties
without rancor and even rise up through military ranks. Pvt. Mandella is
willing to do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But
"home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to
the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the
Earth he left behind is aging centuries.’
This is an interesting collection of
stories all with the usual Gaiman wit and deftness of words, but varied in
style and subject including poetry and homage’s to other authors and occasional
erotica all great to dip in and out off.
‘This
definitive collection of Neil Gaiman's short fiction will haunt your
imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul.
An
elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat. A stray cat fights
and refights a terrible nightly battle to protect his unwary adoptive family
from unimaginable evil. A young couple receives a wedding gift that reveals a
chilling alternative history of their marriage. These tales and much more await
in this extraordinary book, revealing one of our most gifted storytellers at
the height of his powers.’
