Post by timothylane on Jul 4, 2019 19:18:38 GMT -8
This is an alternate history book by H. Beam Piper, written in 1964 (it appeared as multiple stories in Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, many after Piper committed suicide that year) and available at Lord Kalvan.
This started as a novella set in a future history he worked on, but his editor (John W. Campbell) thought it would be better set in the Paratime series he used to write. The original was a fine story, but I think the final version (a short novel by today's standards, with definite room for sequels) improved it.
It starts when Pennsylvania state trooper Calvin Morrison, part of a stake-out for a criminal hiding in an isolated farmhouse in central Pennsylvania, suddenly finds himself picked up in some sort of alien vessel occupied by someone who seems to be about to shoot him with some sort of alien weapon. He shoots first, and then finds himself in (as he comes to realize) the same place -- but not the same time. His initial assumption is that he somehow has found himself in the future, after an atomic war. (Later he realizes that certain large quarries that had been cut out of nearby mountains weren't there, and eventually grasps that he was in neither future nor past, but somehow in an alternate universe.)
He meets a local farm family who provide him with food as he tries to orient himself. He repays them in kind when some raiders attack the area, helping stop the attack. But at the end an armed woman riding to the rescue, seeing him and not knowing whose side he was, shoots him.
He wakes up under medical care, and starts to learn the local language (which he eventually links to the Aryan languages) and meet various people -- including the apologetic woman who shot him (and turns out to be the sole heir to Prince Ptosphes, ruler of Hostigos, where he now is). The raiders were from Nostor, whose ruler Gormoth is not well liked in Hostigos, having started a war with them at the behest of the evil religion of Syphon -- which has a monopoly on the production of gunpowder.
Fortunately, Calvin Morrison has a strong military interest (and served in Korea). Among other things, he knows how to make gunpowder -- and even a better quality than Styphon's. He finds himself helping the hitherto doomed Hostigos (and also becoming very friendly with Princess Rylla, a most attractive blonde as well as a good shot and a fine rider).
Meanwhile, the paratimers who accidentally brought him there are concerned with what happened and how to deal with it. Of especial concern is the Paratime Secret -- their very existence as people who travel between timelines to acquire supplies. They realize that Morrison will figure it out at some point, and they have to protect the secret even if it means killing him. So a team led by Paratime Police agent Verkan Vall and his sometime wife Dalla goes to check things out.
Verkan goes as a trader from a distant land (more or less Duluth, I think) and learns how things have changed in Hostigos since the arrival of a mysterious Lord Kalvan. He also sees the said lord with his new beloved, and realizes what his job may require doing to them (and Hostigos). Meanwhile, he finds ways to help out the locals in their war. He also learns that while Lord Kalvan has grasped the Paratime Secret, the version of his past that he told his new country involves magically-induced time travel.
Many years before, a Hostigi traitor had sold out a major fortress to Nostor. Now Lord Kalvan takes it back, a major victory. This is helpful, because Gormoth is finally preparing a full invasion (timing is all in farming societies). The Nostori forces cross a river into Hostigos, but Kalvan anticipates their behavior and basically pulls off an extreme version of Brice's Crossroads, routing the enemy army. This takes care of Gormoth, but not Styphon's House, their real enemy. (Hostigos has a sulfur spring Styphon wanted to use, but refused to grant them access.) They anticipate attacks from two other small realms, especially Sask under Prince Sarrask.
This leads to yet another battle, in which Sarrask faces the Hostigi with assistance from Lord Balthames, son of the ruler of Beshta. Piper based this on another battle, Barnet in the Wars of the Roses, though again an extreme version. It proves to be a very bloody battle, but in the end a rout that leads to the capture of Sarrask -- by Rylla and Dalla, who had been so concerned at the risks Kalvan and Verkan were taking in battle.
This leads to a few switches as Sarrask decides to join Hostigos as a new great house (under the new Great King Kalvan). Several other princes find this convenient (joining Hos-Hostigos gives them a great excuse to seize any Styphon assets in their statelets, and those tend to be wealthy). This sets things up for a sequel or series of sequels, and indeed there have been several mostly by John F. Carr. I've read the first and was less than thrilled by it, since they changed things around greatly.
But that hardly matters to anyone interested in reading this book.