Gunpowder Empire

I found "Gunpowder Empire" very enjoyable. I thought it was a very good book. I've never read an alternate history book, but I found it really interesting. I can't wait to get the next book in the series.

Gunpowder Empire (2003) is the first novel in the Crosstime Traffic series. In the near future, economic conditions continued to worsen as oil reserves were drained and global warming intensified. Inflation drastically increased the cost of goods and services. The world was sliding into a worldwide depression. In mid century, however, Galbraith and Hester discovered a means of accessing alternate timelines. The world began to import petroleum, food and ideas from these other timelines. The economies of the advanced countries started to turn around and grow, but other economies barely improved. In this novel, at the end of century, Jeremy and Amanda Solters are children of Crosstime Traffic employees. Every summer, the Solters live in Polisso of Dacia within the Agrippan Rome alternate, trading simple mechanisms and manufactured goods for grain. As in previous years, they ride the transposition chamber across the timelines to a cave outside Polisso, carry a load of mechandise into the town, see the Stone family off to return to the mainline, and settle into the house for their tour of duty. While Polisso is part of a civilization that has existed for two millenia, the local technological level has not advanced much since the days of the Roman Republic. The town has paved streets, storm drains (in the more affluent sections) and public baths, but town still stinks of horse manure, sewage and unwashed humanity. The Solters hope that their olfactory systems will quickly become acclimated to the stench. Since the house contains advanced devices and other secrets, including a concealed subbasement for the transposition chamber, the Solters do all their own housework rather than using slaves or servants; in fact, they are expressly forbidden to buy slaves. Moreover, Agrippan Rome is a very patriarchial society, with strict customs concerning the roles of men and women; thus, Amanda and her mother do all the cooking and cleaning, using only primitive methods. Making your own bread by grinding the wheat in a quern and kneading it by hand is one of the less attractive features of this timeline. In this story, Melissa Solter becomes ill and has to return to the mainline. John goes with her, leaving their children behind. All goes well at first, although a war seems to be brewing between Rome and Lietuvia. Then the communications access to the mainline goes down and stays out of service for weeks. The city prefect starts asking questions about their parents and the source of their merchandise. The war heats up and Polisso is besieged by the Lietuvans. Cannons are firing into the town, destroying buildings and killing people. Jeremy and Amanda are really unhappy about their situation. The author provides a vivid portrayal of a way of life very different from contemporary Western living. Although this is SF, similar lifestyles could be found in many places in the real world during the past millenium. While this is a young adult novel, it is also a fasci

In Gunpowder Empire Harry Turtledove begins another series of books, this one with enormous potential to please. He has revived H. Beam Piper's Paratime concept of multiple Earths on different time tracks (which can be visited by those with the right technology). This provides unlimited numbers of possible alternate worlds for Turtledove to explore.Gunpowder Empire takes a late twenty-first century American family to an alternate world where the Roman Empire never fell. They do business there in order to provide scarce resources to their own world, and for a time all seems well. Then the mother gets very ill and she and her husband return to their own world, leaving their two teenage children behind. Then the technology breaks down, and the children are left on their own, possibly for the rest of their lives.Turtledove has not only revived Piper's idea of Crosstime traffic, he has also hearkened back to Robert Heinlein's juvenile science fiction works of the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time he has provided some thought provoking commentary on war and on gender roles and relationships which give the book more depth. This is the beginning of a fine new series which I hope will see many additions.

In this start to the "Cross-Time Traffic" projected three book series by Harry Turtledove, Jeremy And Amanda Solters travel from bustling late 21st century Los Angeles to "Present-day Rome". In Jeremy and Amanda's time, it is as routine as ever to travel to "alternates" in parallel universes in different timelines. They are the crosstime traders, and they are bring in the wealth and livelihood of resource starved 21st century Earth. Because resources are scarce and space even more so, family's like Amanda and Jeremy's travel to timelines much different then their own to bring back things like grain or produce to their time. In return, they sell wonderous things such as pocketwatches or Swiss army knives to the locals.In this novel, Jeremy and Amanda don't spend their suers on a beach in Florida, but trade in a Rome where the Roman empire has never fallen and life is primative. When Jeremy and Amanda's mom comes down with a sickness that can't be fixed with simple antibiotics, their parents go back to the home timeline where the children are left to fend for theirselves among falling cannonballs and snoopy prefects, with no hope whatsoever of going home.This book was a great read, even for a college age person like myself. I'm not a history buff, and I thought that this book was easily readable for someone like me. A teenager or even someone younger would I am sure find it intriguing and imaginative. In this book, I did not get tangled up on huge words and intricate plots that might be found in other 200000 word Turtledove novels. I just found a fast moving tale that's sure to engage any eager reader to jump into a transposition chamber and travel with the Soltairs family to a Rome that never was.

The title deliberately evokes the classic "Gunpowder God" by H Beam Piper. While it was not the first book to introduce the concept of travel to a backward parallel universe, it is widely considered to be the one of the best of its ilk. Turtledove has made his name specialising in science fiction about alternate history. So this is a natural and slight shift in emphasis, where travel is permitted between the universes. None of his other books depict this, if I recall.Certainly, the cover raises high hopes of a similarly swashbuckling tale of war, akin to Piper's classic. Alas, it falls short. The book is not military science fiction. Rather, you might consider it as a fitting sequel to "Household Gods" that Turtledove wrote with Judith Tarr. Granted that was pure fantasy, while this is hard SF. But the bulk of both books are thematically similar. Household Gods shows life in ancient Rome. This book depicts it in a Roman Empire in about 2100 CE, but at the technological level of our 17th century. In both are the gritty details of everyday life that most novels set in those eras omit. It is quite well done for that. Turtledove shows his scholarship in his attention for historical detail. The plot is quiet. The war is just a backdrop. This may disappoint some readers. He does introduce some deliberate cognitive dissonance, by having his American characters loathe the touch of furs. He uses that to place some separation between us and them, since they are depicted as being from the late 21st century. But therein is my biggest problem with this book. His depiction of that is far too similar to ours. Apart from the ability to travel between dimensions, he posits very little change. And in one paragraph, one of the characters uses a Powerbook?! In case you didn't know, that is a computer made by Apple now, in the early 21st century. What are the chances that anyone eighty years from now will use that piece of junk? Turtledove goofed on that one, sadly. But the rest of the book is ok.The closing paragraphs are the most promising. They allude to the possibility that other technologically advanced dimensions might also develop this capability. The problem is that several of these are quite loathsome and would be a mortal peril to us. Which is why we have to keep an eye on them...Does this suggest sequels of a more warlike nature?