Beyond the Gap

December 4, 2006
In this promising first of a new saga, alternate-history maven Turtledove (Ruled Britannia
) depicts a Bronze Age society in transition. A growing gap in the glacier that has formed the Raumsdalian Empire's northern border for millennia allows Count Hamnet Thyssen and Trasamund the jarl, of the nomadic Northern Bizogot, to become the empire's Lewis and Clark. They and their entourage, which inconveniently includes Hamnet's unfaithful ex-wife, Gudrid, depart the empire's capital city, Nidaris, to explore what lies beyond the glacier and search for the fabled Golden Shrine. On the way, a formidable and attractive (if unbathed) Bizogot shaman, Liv, joins the expedition—and Hamnet under the animal hides. If the Raumsdalians and Bizogots don't always get along, their culture clash is nothing compared to the threat they face on the other side of the glacier: the Rulers, a tribe of imperious, mammoth-riding warriors. A vivid setting and strong characterization bode well for future installments.

January 1, 2007
In a time when the great Glacier covers the North, Count Hamnet Thyssen travels to the capital city of the Raumsdalian Empire, where he receives word that a group of mammoth hunters have discovered a gap in the Glacier. Behind this opening, rumors say, is a strange land filled with mysterious animals. Most important, the opening leads to the Golden Shrine, a place of legendary beauty and plenty. Beginning a new alternate history series with this tale of two eras on the edge of catastrophic change, Turtledove ("The Guns of the South") brings an era to life and explores the change in civilizations when they meet a crisis. A significant addition to most libraries' sf or speculative fiction collections, his book should interest fans of alternate history and early cultures. [Library marketing campaign planned.Ed.]

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2007
The Raumsdalian imperial capital Nidaros was originally a mammoth-hunter's camp at the edge of a great glacier. The glacier retreated, and city, then empire, grew. The glacier remains, out of sight beyond the northern horizon but not, with the houses of Nidaros built to withstand frigid northern blasts, out of mind. A chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots brings to Nidaros word of a narrow gap that has opened in a supposedly endless wall of ice, revealing new lands and new beasts. Are there new people? The emperor sends Count Hamnet Thyssen, an old soldier recently, painfully divorced, to explore. Rather than the fabled Golden Shrine beyond the ice, he finds enough blood, toil, and ignorance (also a few sympathetic women) to convince him that empire and Bizogots need to develop new defenses fast. Neither welcomes his counsel, and he'll have his hands full in subsequent books. Readers familiar with late imperial Rome will recognize the period and peoples Turtledove adapts. Not top-drawer Turtledove, but a solid actioner with an ironically attractive protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)