Peter And Poul

I have now read two alternative historical fictitious accounts of the English Civil War. In Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Shakespeare was the Great Historian. It follows from this fantastic premise not only that Auberon, Titania, Puck etc existed and that Prospero's magic worked but also that there was knowledge of the Earth's sphericity in Lear's time and that there were clocks in Caesar's time. This early knowledge of science and mechanics led to an industrial revolution in the seventeenth century. The Roundheads had steam trains and balloons.

In Peter Cakebread's The Alchemist's Revenge, there was an alchemical revolution in the seventeenth century. Cavaliers and Roundheads fought each other with magical mechanisms, philosopher's stones and elementals.

In all three seventeenth centuries, ours, Anderson's and Cakebread's, the Roundheads were led by Oliver Cromwell whereas the Cavaliers were led by Charles I and Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert is Anderson's hero but a minor character in Cakebread's novel. All three Ruperts could meet in the Old Phoenix, Anderson's Inn between the parallel universes.

As I have said before on this blog, Anderson's characters meet in many colourful dives and inns, including the Old Phoenix. Cakebread matches these with the Throttled Pig, the most dangerous pub in Oxford, whose landlord is rumoured to be in the pay of cutthroats. I have just started to read The Alchemist's Revenge and will look out for any more parallels of interest to Anderson fans - although, meanwhile, since the novel is also well written, I will enjoy it in any case.