View From A Hill

Dominic Flandry visits a shrine on a hill with a view of a town here and Juniper Mackenzie visits another on pp. 359-363 of SM Stirling's The Protector's War (New York, 2006), Chapter Thirteen. There is no particular connection betwen these passages except that reading one made me think of the other. Flandry is on an extrasolar planet in the future whereas Juniper is on Earth in an alternative timeline. Other planets and other timelines have become two classic sf scenarios and Anderson wrote both. However, Stirling has perfected alternative timelines. In particular, I advise anyone to read his account of North America undiscovered by Europeans in Conquistador.