Product Description
An alien intelligence from beyond time is using the Malwa Empire as a tool to conquer sixth century Earth. Standing against them is Belisarius, Earth's greatest commander, with all eternity at stake.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 28 reviews)

This Could Be The Start Of Something Beutiful

A great start to a alt. history series. Between Flints quality character work and up-beat nature and Drakes great historical knowledge and ability to write battle scenes, this series is starting with a solid pedigree. Especially noteworthy is that Drake has already take one approach to this story in the Raj Whitehall series, with very similar characters and settings (Raj is essentially Belisarius).

Something I find especially intriguing about this novel is that it is both a alt. history and time travel book in one, with both sides being supported by a being from the future, somewhat indirectly.

As is common with these books, the heroes are hyper-competent and the villains are semi-competent. The white hats are very white and the black hats are very black.
May 11, 2008

Rough spots, but excellent military history detail

I was expecting a quick and dirty SciFi jaunt but was very pleased to discover some excellent military history, fine attention to detail, some wit, well-drawn characters, and a strong plot.

Sure, there are weaknesses. Belisarius (as other reviewers have pointed out) is too perfect and flawless. Most of his enemies -- the ones we're meant to admire -- spend pages musing on his greatness. It's a little trying but be does create some interesting scrapes and escapes. Sometimes Belisarius is clever, sometimes ruthless... he's more interesting than a A "superman" character.

I think the whole business with the crystal is a poor device -- but it's so central to the plot that you have to suspend disbelief.

Once you've gotten past that you have some juicy characters that experience realistic and suprisingly accurate battles, very convincing banter and the rough wit of soldiers, and some exciting scenery and travels. If you care to check on the authors you'll find that almost all the passing references are real and historically/geographically correct. Whether this is due to their erudition or they just had Wikipedia open through their writing and deliberately peppered references in I can't tell you. I only know that those of us who have studied history and military history will come across old friends and references not infrequently and that's quite gratifying.

All told, I've read the first two books in the Belisarius series and expect to read the rest. I note that the authors are starting to introduce several more major characters -- they must have suspected that they needed to flesh out the ensemble if they were going to wring several books out of this -- so I predict that the next few books will be a little heavy with parallel story lines and plot complications. We'll see.

Bottom line, I must have stopped reading this book ten times to glance at the cheap cover art and comment on how good the book was and how true the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover.

Read these!
April 01, 2008

A waste of time

I have two serious gripes with this book (and I shan't bother with the rest of the series at all).

1. The writing is extremely weak. In places the authors manage a few quips worth a chuckle, but their command of the English novel is almost nonexistant. Drake and Flint barely let their characters speak for themselves, and rely instead of bald statement of the characters' attributes. On the other hand, this may be a good thing, as their dialogue more resembles a group of adolescents hanging than anything else I can think of. I have to assume that this is Flint's influence, since Drake, while not a particularly good writer, is generally a cut above this.

2. Neither of the authors is up to imagining anything are fascinating and convoluted as the real tale of Belisarius's life. They capture absolutely zero of the flavor of the age, and what they do manage to put in (such as Anastasius's hidden love of philosophy) verges on the rediculous. The book seems the more absurd since there exist two other documents that are far more interesting: Procopius (who does put in an appearance in the book) wrote "A Secret History" about Belisarius, Antonina, the emporer and empress, and those around him, which is rather obscene, and considered to be largely a work of revenge for not being showered with sufficient honors; Robert Graves, one of the 20th century's finest historical novelists and a good poet to boot, produced a work called "Count Belisarius" which is beautifully written, compelling, and extremely sensitive to historical detail (Graves's hallmark).
June 28, 2006

First of a great series !

Great, great, great book. I especially enjoy a great series since I sometimes read 2 to 3 books a week. Very engaging, the characters are real and well developed, the plot is very interesting. I generally do not go in for alternate history but this one draws me in for some reason.
June 17, 2004

A Divergence in Time

A Divergence in Time

An Oblique Approach (1998) is the first novel in the Belisarius series. Byzantium was the Empire of Rome in the East, ruled at this time by Emperor Justinian. A former Thracian peasant, Justinian had selected a minor Thracian noble, Belisarius, to be his bodyguard and then later to head the army facing their Medean foe. While Belisarius was not the Emperor's friend (for Justinian had no friends), they respected each other and Belisarius' wife Antonia was a close friend of the Empress Theodora.

When Belisarius was traveling to assume command the army at Daras, the monk Michael of Macedonia and Anthony Cassian, the local bishop, came to his new house in Aleppo, bringing a strange object found by Michael within his cave in the desert. A faceted crystal that seemed to form and reform, they said that it had brought visions to their minds when they held it and they urged Belisarius to take it into his own hands. When it was passed to him, the crystal flared into light and flooded his mind with visions.

The crystal could induce visions and feelings, but was mostly unable to communicate directly. The visions showed a future in which the Malwa empire of northern India conquered all the known world and induced feelings of dread and despair. But all who held the crystal also felt certain that the future shown and felt was not necessarily the only possible future. The crystal had come to enlist Belisarius himself in an effort to preclude this bitter future in favor of one more consistent with their own desires and inclinations.

While the exhausted crystal quietly regained its strength, the human party formed a conspiracy to counter the evil plans of the Malwa. Deciding to keep the secret among themselves for a time, they arranged for a location to build a secret arsenal and weapons project on property controlled by Anthony. They also agreed that Anthony would arrange for the services of John of Rhodes, a clever ex-naval officer, as the head of the project.

Belisarius had to leave the conspiracy in the others' hands while he assumed command of the army in Daras. The prior commander, Libelarius, had left his army understrength and riddled with corruption, so weeding out the rot was Belisarius' first task. Then he had to rebuild his command structure and replace those struck from the roles.

Belsarius was charged with building a fort near the border as a deliberate provocation of the Persians, but Belisarius needed to conclude the campaign quickly in order to get back to the conspiracy. Once the fort was finished, he arranged for the Army of Lebanon under its two generals, Bouzes and Coutzes, to join with him against the Persians. Then he baited Bouzes and Coutzes with news of a Persian army pay chest and sent the Persian commander a nasty note. Thereafter, he waited for the afternoon wind to blow from the west.

This story depicts an intervention from the future followed by a counter-intervention from the same era. The intervention itself is not described in this volume, but the crystal represents the counterforce. The first portion of the story consists mainly of clearing the decks to allow the conspirators to investigate the real enemy, which could only be done in India by Belisarius himself.

Belisarius does have one large advantage in that his bucellarii, his personal guard, are past masters of covert operations. He doesn't have to hire or acquire specialists, but only has to say who will be left behind. He gains another asset in Irene Macrembolitissa, spymaster for his friend, and fellow general, Sittas.

A reviewer complains that this is a rehash of the General series, but does not seem to understand that that series was loosely based on the historical actions of the real live Belisarius. Another reviewer frets that Belisarius is too perfect, yet fails to note the respect given to the actual general by military historians. Belisarius was only a man, but clearly an unusual man in many respects and nothing in this novel up to the initial visit by Michael and Anthony is inconsistent with known historical facts.

Still another reviewer accused the authors of poor characterization, citing the similar sense of humor among all the military personnel. Interesting enough, that observation is not new, having been made by many others down through the centuries. Professional military men (and women, for that matter) have an ironical and sometimes morbid sense of humor, maybe due to their close association with death and dying. Drake has first-hand knowledge of that sense of humor!

This story sets the stage for the series and tells of the initial efforts of the conspirators. It contains enough battles, raids, and assorted mayhem for any two other books. And it is just getting started.

Highly recommended for Drake & Flint fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alternate wars and political intrigue.

-Arthur W. Jordin
November 28, 2003

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

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The Tide of Victory (Belisarius)
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The Dance of Time (Belisarius)
by Eric Flint

1634: The Bavarian Crisis (The Assiti Shards)
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