Anderson, Bear And Stirling

Alexander the Great living longer and consolidating his empire sounds like a single alternative historical premise, doesn't it? Further, a premise that could lead to earlier social and scientific progress and to a Greek-speaking technological civilization in the twentieth century? See "Eutopia" by Poul Anderson and Eon by Greg Bear.

In Conquistador, SM Stirling turns this Alexandrian premise on its head. Alexander lived to seventy and bequeathed a vast, undivided empire that lasted for a hundred years but then fell apart in civil wars and barbarian invasions. Its twentieth century legacy is city-states, kingdoms and tribes with late medieval technology worshiping Zeus-Alexander and an undiscovered New World ripe for conquest from a timeline very similar to ours.

That is it for this month, folks. Posts will resume some time in July.