Down in the Bottomlands & Other Places

The first novella, Bottomlands, is a brilliant idea for alternative history. Turtledove is often seen as the master of Alternative History, but I must say, after reading many of his books, he is more the master of the Alternative History idea. He comes up with a lot of great ideas. It's the follow-through that he has more difficulty with. His dialogue tends to be uninteresting and unrealistic, his characters not engrossing, and his plots feeling contrived. Not to say that all of his writing is bad, but the trend tends towards the less enlightened. Bottomlands is in keeping with this trend. The idea that the Mediterranean didn't refill, but in historical human times, is a great idea to explore, but I found myself having to skim sections of this novella because the characters felt so unrealistic. I cared not a whit about any of them. "Wheels of If" is a different story. This was a great twist on the alternative history genre, but sadly it wasn't written by Turtledove, but rather de Camp, and in the 40s. I was engrossed by the story and characters, and intrigued to discover what might happen next. Far too little attention has been paid to the what if of Irish Christianity surpassing Roman Catholic Christianity. De Camp plays with this idea, with novel explanations for alternative universes and how they are entered. The final novella, "The Pugnacious Peacekeeper", is a follow-up to "Wheels of If", written by Turtledove. The writing isn't as snappy as that of de Camp, but is still engrossing, for de Camp's brilliance still comes through the original idea, extended out a year in time. Turtledove has applied the greater Western knowledge of Islam in the late 20th century to de Camp's world, to understand what a South America might be like. Turtledove gives us an intriguing understanding of multiple religious faiths and the nature of religion itself, while accurately reflecting some key aspects of Islamic jurisprudence, theology, and the Qur'an.

This is a good novel of an alternate Earth where the Straits of Gibraltar are blocked by a mountain range and the Mediteranean Sea is smaller and below sea level, allowing mining and petroleum production on the margins of the smaller sea. The hero is a guide in a park down in the bottomlands, and the villains are enemy agents set on flooding the area. It is a well developed tale, and interesting to read.

The Turtledove stories here (especially Bottomlands) are excellent, and "The Wheels of If" was like meeting an old friend who has aged very well. DeCamp hasn't stayed in the spotlight as much as many science fiction authors of his era. That's too bad because he was great. I'm glad to see Turtledove keeping his name alive.

The title story is an excellent piece of allohistory, a world in which the Mediterrean Sea never reflooded. A world where Neanderthals (Strongbrows) have not only survived, but hold their own with modern type humans (Highheads) in an atomic age present. A couple of lines in the story make me suspect Turtledove is slipping in a small tribute to Randall Garrett's Gandalara saga, which was about a humanity evolved for the the "Bottomlands". The second story is a classic, de Camp's "The Wheels of If", while the the third is a sequel to 'Wheels' written by Turtledove. A nice salute to a classic, but Turtledove's smooth dialouge clashes oddly with de Camp's two-fisted '30s style speech.

In the title Novella the Mediterranean is cut off from the Atlantic and is thus a below sea level depression like the Dead Sea. Turtledove's hero, a biologist, acting as expedition chief and National Park Ranger, has to solve a deadly puzzle against time. There are two other stories (Wheels of If and Pugnacious Peacemaker) about a Norse American timeline and a US DA who is translated to it. Usual Turtledove characters, if you liked the Fox, you will like these, if you haven't read an Fox book (Wisdom of the Fox, 2 in one just out) try them first.