Fitzpatrick's War

This book was simply fantastic and hits on so many themes I would fail to try and even list them. The basic premise is a future Alexander the Great conquers the world and suffers the mental and emotional consequences if absolute power. The author does a great job showing how reality us converted into a historical narrative with questionable connections to the truth. I highly recommend this book.

This book presents an interesting take on history in the frame of Caldwells "Captains and Kings". Set in the future it is written as the protagonists historical biography with footnotes from the perspective of an opposing revisionist historian. It reads like a history book from the future and as Judson's first effort shows marvelous imagination and grasp of human nature and the plasticity of history. (History is written by the winners?) Excellent choice for conspiracy theorists, natural law buffs and libertarians (who happen to be sci-fi fans).

At its core this story is mostly a re-telling of the story of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the world with enough Sci-fi tossed in to move the story along. However, that being said, its a REALLY good re-telling of the story and brought with it fresh thoughts to the age old question of what is History and what is Truth? As the Author shows with his choice of portraying this as work of Non-fiction with editors remarks we see that history is flexible and perhaps on this level should challenge us to wonder how much of what we "know" is also truth. Overall I can see how some might dismiss this story as the actual war is short compared to the overall novel and some parts do go on a bit longer than I would have liked. Additionally the challenge of creating a world devoid of electricity with advanced genetics is a bit far fetched. Still, I couldn't find myself putting it down for more than a few hours before I wanted to get back into the world the author created, technical flaws or not. If you are a fan of alternative history or simply a fan of history you should enjoy this book.

It's nice, in this day and age, to see a writer unafraid to venture into "contrived" points of view (and other less accessible storytelling techniques) that can come across as cumbersome but seemed to work out OK for Edgar Rice Burroughs and others(usually covering up lapses in scientific knowledge, but, hey, who's quibling?). In Theodore Judson's hands, though, the writing techniques include the discrepancies in the stories (the controversy of Bruces version as opposed to the more-accepted history, for example,) and make it a part of the story of the Timermen's takeover of the world...One can almost see this story as a possible future timeline of OUR own world (though you'd have to be really caught up in conspiracy-theory type paranoia to expect it). This story is a multi-layered feast of speculative fiction, satisfying on many levels and ending with an almost literary-quality flourish, inviting the reader to come to his own conclusion(and the more knowledgeable you are the more satisfying this is). I hope to see more from this writer...Good Sci-Fi writing has been around for a long time now, and there are a lot of "giants(sci-fi writers)" with shoulders good writers can stand on, continually raising the standards to aspire to.

I actually picked this one up by accident - i was looking for space opera and thought this was, considering it takes place in the 25th century. Unfortunatly i failed to find what i was looking for. Fortunatly what i found was this. I was going to say something long and informative, i doubt i'd do it justice. I'll say one thing: it's beautifully written. The air of an annotated memoir is so well done that, sometimes, after reading it for a few hours you might look up from the pages and be mildly surprised to find yourself not in a Yukon homestead. Awesome book.

If this is Mr. Judson's first work of science fiction, I hope he will publish more. This book is outstanding. The book is presented as the memoir of Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, a soldier and engineer from the 25th century. Due to the "Storm Times" of the late 21st century, humanity has been forced back to the age of steam. The most powerful nation on earth is the Yukon Confederacy, which comprises the former United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. In his college days, Bruce befriended an ambitious young man named Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, son of the Confederacy's then ruler. An unfortunate "accident" befalls Fitzpatrick's father and the son is made Consul. Fitzpatrick entrusts Bruce with engineering projects that prove most useful in the war he starts. Judson goes one step further with something that may be unique: Bruce's memoirs have been annotated by a college professor writing in the 26th century, Dr. Roland Modesty Van Buren. In that time, Fitzpatrick is thought of as a hero and Van Buren tries to discredit and refute many of Bruce's assertions in the footnotes. By clever use of these two diametrically opposed narrators, Judson makes critiques of everything from the concept of the history books being written by the winners, to religion, and to ambitious men who want to be Great Men. I strongly recommend this book.