Title: lord kalvan of nowhere
Product review: This has to be the silliest idea I've ever seen for an alternate-universe story. So the American East Coast is more primitive than ours because the ancient Europeans migrated east instead of west? If they did that they would have come into contact with India, China, and the Native Americans during the migration. No mention of that, nor any sign of it in their culture. Instead they're just transplanted midievals. Or do the other cultures not exist for some reason in this timeline?Supposedly the theme of the story is to study how the posession of gunpowder can change history. But Piper ruins that by having the Paratime cops give Kalvan secret aid -- which, incidently, Kalvan is too stupid to realize that he's getting. Some hero. A real dramatic ending would have had Kalvan catch the cops and demand the right to choose which timeline he'll live in.If you want a good alt-universe story, read MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, or LATHE OF HEAVEN, or THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE. Not this book.
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