History was never such fun: S. M. Stirling’s Nantucket Trilogy and other must-read Alternate History thrillers (Part II)
One of my all-time favourite Alt-hist series is The Nantucket Trilogy by S.M. Stirling.
The Nantucket books are titled
Island in The Sea of Time
Against the Tide of Years
and
On the Oceans of Eternity
(As with all my blogposts, I’m not going to tell you every detail of the plot and describe every character. You can find all that on the Amazon or BN page for each book or on the author’s website.
Oh, and I won’t provide links either. Just my own rambling comments. This is a blog, after all, not a zine!)
The island of Nantucket, USA, is suddenly struck by a mysterious “Event” which separates it from its time and plunges it back, with its entire population of 5,000 citizens (which includes tourists and vacationeers) several thousands of years into the past. Specifically, the Bronze Age, or what’s popularly identified as the age of Troy, as in the recent film of the same name.
Like all Alt-Hist novels, Island in the Sea of Time doesn’t dwell on how the “Event” was caused or the scientific phenomenon behind it–even the Islanders never find out–but on the consequences of that “Event” and how the main characters deal with it.
And what fun it is!
First off, the Islanders are scared stiff at the challenges they’re faced with, bereft with all of the 20th century and its luxuries and comforts and support systems.
They’re geographically still in continental America (or to be precise, just off the coast of it, since they’re on an island–which is probably the reason why the “Event” cut them off) but the land is a wilderness overrun by the ancestors of what they know as Native Americans.
After a period of struggling to come to terms with their new situation, during which phase different Islanders react in widely different ways–some commit suicide, others become lawless criminals, still others rise to the occasion and take charge of the crisis and restore order and sanity–they start to realize that they’re here to stay.
And since this is now their world, they had better start preparing and planning for the future. This means building ships and exploring the world, seeking out potential allies (and potential enemies), trading for things they need but don’t possess, like certain crops and herbs and raw materials.
Inevitably, as in any end-of-the-world tale, two factions emerge, one faction the Good Guys, the other the Bad Guys.
(It is an American novel, after all.)
The Bad Guys are led by Walker, who sees the opportunity to rule the whole world, using his superior technological knowledge, and his knowledge of warfare, to build an Empire.
By the end of the first book, Walker and his team break away from the Islanders and start their own quest to build an Empire.
Over the next two books, this quest becomes a race to gain allies and conquer territories, using 20th century weaponry and technology (and helped along by a knowledge of the history of the period) to build not one but two separate American Empires across the otherwise barbaric world (boy, Bush would wet his pants in joy!).
S. M. Stirling uses brilliant research–the books are filled with piles of detail, yet the details never overwhelm or bore you–and amazing characterization to weave a story that’s exciting, suspenseful, action-packed (there are wars and battles galore), as well as profoundly moving and emotionally touching. He even weaves in philosophy and morality, raising the key questions of American empirical ambitions himself, and at times, the series offers fascinating insights into the mindset of the country that’s trying so hard to dominate the world by any means possible right here and now.
One of the most entertaining elements of the Nantucket books is the manner in which the Islanders shrewdly mingle with the various cultures of the time–all of which, to repeat, are thoroughly researched and portrayed with impressive accuracy–and manipulate, control, and motivate them, using whatever means necessary, be it trade, bribery, coercion, or, as a last resort, open warfare.
Sound familiar? That’s right. At times, it reads like a contemporary account of American ‘handling’ of various foreign situations, be it in the South Americas, South East Asia, Africa, or, as now, West Asia.
Stirling’s strength lies in his characters, all of which are not just credible, but interesting, whether they’re a tough-as-nails coastguard captain and her native consort, or Walker and his main associate, a devilish Dr Hong who is an upfront psychotic who loves to torture people as well as manage Walker’s medical and health governance…I can’t even begin to list all the characters here, but trust me, none are boring…
And these fascinating characters have lots of interesting things to do, crises to face. From lion hunts to charging elephants, to wild savages, to skirmishes, ambushes, outright battles–these last are most exciting because of the mixture of technology, bullets versus arrows, 20th c. tactics versus classic ancient-world strategies, intrigue and espionage, politicking and karma, and through it all, the constant theme of ‘controlling or being controlled’.
Stirling may not endorse his characters’ politics but the recurring theme in the books (and several of his other books as well) is that of US, joe-everyman, Mr Typical Red-Blooded American adrift in a hostile world filled with savage non-Americans.
As I said, if you can get past that…
Then, you’ll certainly find, as I did, that this is not just a hugely entertaining and informative trilogy, it’s a brilliant exercise of the intellect and imagination. A must-read.
After the success of the Nantucket trilogy, Stirling also wrote a one-off Alt-Hist book titled Conquistador.
Conquistador’s nowhere near as good as the Nantucket trilogy, because, although it has some exciting action sequences, it goes so heavily overboard on the US-Versus-Them imbalance that it gets too much to take at times.
Even though you know that Stirling obviously isn’t a racist bigot as some of his characters, the fact is that those racist bigots happen to be the protagonists of the story, and there’s only so much time you can spend in the mindset of such a person or persons.
If you read and like the Nantucket books, Conquistador is worth a dekho too.
Otherwise, I’d give it a smart miss.
Stirling’s other one-off Alt-Hist book is much better, especially for Indian readers or those interested in these climes: It’s titled The Peshawar Lancers.
This time he jumps forward in time, to a period some fifty years ahead, when the British empire still rules, but in a somewhat changed scenario.
I read it a while back (unlike the Nantucket books which I only recently finished) so the story isn’t very clear in my head but I remember that it was a fun read, with Stirling’s usual mix of exciting action, strong characters and interesting plot twists and turns.
But personally, if you like the Nantucket books, I’d recommend you try Stirling’s new series next.
That’s what I’m doing. And I’m loving it so far!
I’ve read only the first book of the new series, titled Dies the Fire, and the second is due to be published shortly as of this writing.
But I can recommend it as highly as the Nantucket novel. In this, Stirling does something truly ingenious and clever: He reverses his “camera” and shows us what happened to another community after the same “Event” that split Nantucket Island off from the 20th century.
Except that here it’s called the “Change” and the consquences are totally different.
Again, he explores the notions of survival and then, supremacy, recurring themes in all his work.
(They’re also the recurrent themes in most Alt-Hist books, as well as in, you guessed it, history itself.)
I’m waiting for the second book and when I’ve read it and the third (I assume it’s going to be a trilogy and not an endless series) which is due out next year, I’ll report back on them as well in more detail.
Right now, I’m going to take a break. But I’ll continue this tomorrow with a look at another Alt-Hist author who’s really well worth checking out.
It’s not for nothing that he’s called the ‘Master of Alternate History’…
(…to be continued)
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 12:37 pm. It is filed under Ashok.
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