Tales of Dunk and Egg

Now I've officially run out of A Song of Ice and Fire reading - George R. R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg is a series of three novellas set in the same world as A Game of Thrones, 90 years earlier (three novellas counts as a novel, right?).

It's the Tale of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk), a Hedge Knight who grew up as a street urchin in the city of Kings Landing; and Aegon Targaryen (Egg), 5th or so in line to the throne of Westeros, who decides to become Dunk's squire. It's a nice little series of tales, much less dark and gritty than than A Game of Thrones and the other novels in the main series.

These novellas shows the depth of Martin's world building - many lords, knights, commoners, and other folk are mentioned, and many are related to people in ASoIaF. But it's not done in a shonky Star Wars style "everyone from the original trilogy who might have been alive 20 years earlier has an important part to play"; it's just that people have ancestors, and if you're a noble, chances are 90 years earlier that your family were nobles. These stories flesh out the history, and show another side to the Targaryens and many other families who appear in the novels.

I'm glad to read that Martin is planning to write more of these novellas - the series will either be six or twelve novellas, apparently.

Roma Eterna

I do like a good alternative history book. Especially when it's do do with Roman history. Robert Silverberg's Roma Eterna is more a series of short stories in a single alternate history than a novel, and it traces a parallel history where the Roman Empire never fell. The point of divergence is the Exodus - in this world, the Exodus failed, and Pharaoh recaptured the Israelites and kept them in slavery. The rest of european history stayed mostly the same, but Christianity didn't happen. The knock-on effects meant that the Western Roman Empire didn't collapse.

The divergence is explained by two scholars in the opening story, and then the book moves on. Each story is related to a key event in the history of this alternate Rome, moving forward over the centuries, to the final story, set in 1970.

If you like Roman history, you'll enjoy this book. I certainly had a hard time putting it down - I read it over the course of a few days. It feels reasonably true to Roman culture, though I took issue with a number of things, including: the strange coincidence between the dates of particular events in our timeline and the timeline of the book; the stasis of Roman culture and religion over the centuries (implying that the author felt that Christianity, for example was a unique phenomenon, rather than just the best contender at that time for a societal niche that was sitting empty); the emergence of Islam (which is really a syncretion of Judaism, Christianity, and local Arabian superstitions, and so wouldn't have emerged in any similar way in this timeline).

Many of the episodes in the book are very entertaining, and it is an interesting alternate history. However, it feels a little distopian; I'm not sure I'd want to live in that world, dominated by that Roman Empire. Surely over the centuries a little of the democratic theory developed by the Greeks would have taken effect, and Rome's semi-democratic republican past would have resurfaced, particularly once an industrial revolution happened. I've seen it argued (Hobsbawm, maybe?) that the conditions of relative economic and intellectual freedom that existed in Britain were a necessary catalyst for an industrial revolution - that despite the relevant technological preconditions existing in other places earlier, the lack of sufficient economic incentives for innovation meant that revolutions just didn't happen. A fun read, regardless. I should probably read more of Silverberg's books; I've enjoyed both of those I've read.

Anno Dracula

Anno Dracula begins where Bram Stoker's Dracula didn't end, with Dracula defeating Van Helsing's posse, and proceeding with his plans to take over England. The novel starts several years later - it's 1889, vampires, both rich and poor, are common in London, and society is undergoing a massive upheaval to cope with the changes. Vlad Tepes is now married to Queen Victoria, and as Prince Consort is ruling the land. The plot centers around the hunt for Jack the Ripper, who is killing vampire prostitutes in Whitechapel.

The novel is a lot of fun - Kim Newman pours in historical and literary references by the bucketload - pretty much any historical figure I could think of from the late 19th century was at least mentioned in the books, as well as pretty much every vampire character from the era. It reminded me an awful lot of many of the games run by my good friend Ben, and is filled with similar wit and delight in the characters and settings.

It's well worth a read. It stands up quite well by itself, but it is also the first in a series, which will follow Dracula through the 20th century.