kurt_h's Full Review: Eric Flint and David Drake - The Tide of Victory
"The Tide of Victory" is an alternate history novel in the BELISARIUS series by Eric Flint and David Drake.
For those of you who are looking for a fascinating alternate history series, this is the one! The premise is relatively simple as these things go: two beings from humanity's far future have gone into the past to radically alter human history. One, called Link, is a cyborg of sorts that takes over an individual and then makes its presence known and commands people by its ruthlessness. Its aim is to set up a super-caste system in which all humans will be categorized forever more. It decided that things started to get a bit too disorderly during the 6th century A.D. and decided that what remained of the Roman Empire just had to be vanquished.
The other being, called Aide, is a crystalline structure that has no mobility and can only communicate when someone is actually touching it. Aide wants to stop Link, but wasn't able to get the year absolutely right and arrives a year or so after Link does. Aide arranges for itself to be found by a holy man that can be persuaded to take Aide to a friend. That friend is General Belisarius, and from there on history will never be the same....
Each book in this series covers about 8 months to a year or so of history. With the help of Aide Belisarius is able to see how future technology works and why it was implemented, but the low tech environment of the mid-6th century just isn't up to very sophisticated things. Thus Belisarius decides to do what he always does on a major campaign: create a competent staff to cover the details. In this case he starts with his wife, Antonina, and John of Rhodes who is an ex-admiral who was given the choice of leaving the navy or facing up to many outraged Patricians who would find out his seductive ways with their wives. Soon the first fruits of John's work comes to bear with fused grenades, and Antonina points out the type of peasant labor force that would be perfect for this work. And since her husband feels that she was the one to figure that out, she should also be their leader. And so the Belisarius style of command takes hold time and again thereafter: You suggest it, you get to do it!
Link has been busy getting muzzle loading muskets and cannon to a group in India called the Malwa, who then proceed to conquer the sub-continent. Soon they are a threat to Persia... and they Malwa are scheming against Constantinople, soon forcing historical events to have a nasty undertone. In the revolt of the Blues and the Greens (fans of chariot racing teams), they pay of the Eunuch Narses to switch sides and deliver Justinian up to the Malwa, who then proceed to blind the Emperor. Antonina is able to save the city and the Empire from those in revolt by using her grenadiers to clear the city streets, bottle up the chaotic masses in the Hippodrome and then enter that with her troops. This subtle change in history, marks the major turning point in the first book which will echo down to book 5.
In the intervening years Belisarius is able to stabilize Constantinople, forge alliances with the Axumites, Persians, Bedouin tribes, and the displaced Kushans. At each and every turn Belisarius uses his skills as General, planner and schemer to frustrate the plans of the Malwa until they can no longer be an effective external threat. Book 5 dawns on major parts of the sub-continent breaking free of the Malwa, and Persia, Axum and Constantinople now combining their forces and capabilities to field an army that is only outnumbered 10 to 1 against the Malwa.
General Belisarius was planning on a long lead-up to the campaign, waiting for favorable weather after the Monsoon season, but his wife, the Persians and Axumites are each able to provide persuasive arguments and logistics that finally convince Belisarius that attacking early is his best bet. These circumstances require that he divide up his forces and move quickly to catch the Malwa off guard with unexpected attacks across their western and northern frontiers. Throughout the book we get to see how personality, maneuver and logistics guide events, with the random chaos of battle thrown in for good measure time and again. Decisions made early on to put Justinian in charge of the entire R&D complex now yield the first true cannon armed warships and the first warship armed with Greek fire. Pistols and muskets are now being slowly replaced with breech-loading firearms.
On the political and foreign policy side of things the alliance between Rome and Persia are cemented when the 10 year old Emperor Photius is wed to a 16 year old Persian Princess. With Theodora's capable hand behind things until the young Emperor comes of age, Constantinople will be secure. The Axumite King of Kings and his equivalent of the Prime Minister (the Keeper of the fly whisks) both set out on the expedition against the Malwa, only to have the King take a mortal wound in combat and die of it just has his Marines are invading the last major Port the Malwa control. By his own wish Antonina will be put into temporary power until the King's infant son will be ready to rule. And Theodora's spymaster, Irene, is now married to the Kushan commander who would release his people from the Malwas and carve out his own Empire of the Mountains.
The multiple blows taken on all sides by the Malwa force it to finally pull back and recognize it must improve its defenses. Morale finally gets low enough to force Link to personally take command. By that point the rainy season is about to start and the campaigning season is over, seeing Belisarius firmly situated in a growing fortress at the confluence of the Indus and Chenab rivers. Justinian's first steam powered ships are now sending supplies on a regular basis and the Kushans have taken the Kyhber Pass. Now is the time to grieve for those that were lost, lay telegraph wire, and prepare for the next campaign.
As you may have guessed this alternate history series in unlike many others in that it seriously asks not only what the first order, immediate impacts to historical changes would entail, but then carries out a multi-level analysis from those changes. Thus the technology becomes the original driver, but how it is implemented and supported become the major source of change thereafter. And these changes force changes in society, social policy and foreign policy, all of which must play out and interact at all levels. Thus Justinian moves from Emperor, to Grand Justiciar (creating an entirely revamped legal system using some future laws as guidelines) and then puts his tinkering bent to use for the creation of the first steam engines. Blinded by his foes, Justinian may be even more powerful now than he was as Emperor. And he also knows how Theodora will die of cancer in a few short years and is determined to let her know how much he cares for her and what her value is to him and the Empire. Much of this takes place off-stage in books 3 and 4, but by the end of this book the true intelligence of Justinian is becoming a prime mover in the world.
And we can not ignore the man who was Belisarius. Aide has matured from its relatively simple emotional state when it arrived into a caring being who is in constant contact with General. We get to see their internal monologues as they debate policy, personality, duty, responsibility and the ultimate goal of life. Belisarius' quick analysis of the possible and the probable is still something we marvel at today, and the extra dimensions afforded by Aide in knowing how the future played out has put powerful capability into play. His very first realization is that the way he was leading his life really would end in a sort of failure, because he would not work in the realm of politics and policy. With the blinding of Justinian, Belisarius can no longer afford to do that for the safety of those he loves and the Empire in that order. And to twist things around he definitely sees foreign and internal policy as war by other means, and he is the one General all opponents learned to fear.
On top of all of this is the wonderful writing style of these two authors as they give us very personal interaction with all of these people. We come to understand and appreciate each of the major and some notable minor characters as they interact with each other. These people give us their viewpoints on events and the world, while still being firmly rooted in their world which is undergoing heavy change. Keeping up with and making that change understandable to the reader is what these novels are about and these authors do an excellent job of it.
If this sort of alternate history sounds interesting to you then you can read the rest of it starting with:
"An Oblique Approach", "In the Heart of Darkness", "Destiny's Shield" and "Fortune's Stroke".
It feels like the next novel will be the last in the series, and then all of you who have been collecting it can start in on the best alternate history series that I have run across.
And if you would like to see how Mr. Flint handles alternate history on his own, check out "1632" in which a small town in West Virginia gets transported into the middle of the 30 Years War. For other reading do check out H. Beam Piper's "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" and his PARATIME stories. Also of interest is Fred Saberhagen's "Brother Assassin" in which the most complex machine available to the Berserkers is sent into the past to strike down a powerful religious leader.
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