The Gladiator (Crosstime Traffic)

Book Description

The Soviet Union won the Cold War. The Russians were a little smarter than they were in our own world, and the United States was a little dumber and a lot less resolute. Now, more than a century later, the world's gone Communist, and capitalism is a bad word.

For Gianfranco and his friend Annarita, a couple of teenagers growing up in Milan, life in a heavily regimented, surveillance-rich command economy is just plain dreary. The eventual withering-away of the state doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.

Annarita's a hard-working student and a member of the Young Socialists' League. Gianfranco is a lot less motivated--but on the other hand, his father's a Party apparatchik. The biggest excitement in their lives is a wargame shop called The Gladiator, which runs tournaments, and stocks marvelous complex games you can't find anywhere else.

Then, abruptly, the shop is shut down. Someone's figured out that The Gladiator's games are teaching counterrevolutionary capitalist principles. The Security Police are searching high and low for the shop's proprietors, who've not only vanished into thin air, but have left behind sets of fingerprints that aren't in the records of any government on earth.

Only one staffer is left: Gianfranco and Annarita's friend Eduardo. He's on the run, and he comes to them in secret with an astonishing story: he's a time trader from our own timeline, accidentally left behind when the store was evacuated. The only way Eduardo can get home to his own timeline is if Gianfranco and Annarita can help him reach one of the other time trader sites in this world--and the Security Police will be on their tails all the way there.

Customer Reviews:

juvenile or adult??.......2007-10-06

I found this action-packed alternate world one of Harry's better juveniles... a good Heinlein replica 50 +/- years later. It moves swiftly, with well-drawn high school characters and their "supporting" adults -- and is an almost believable yarn. If you ever visited the old USSR and also understand some of our "real" historical turning points this story makes sense. It didn't happen in our world, but this apparently "re-made" socialist "paradise" a very believable Italy. It is a very "1980's Hungarian or Leningradian almost-replica. I'd debate whether or not such an empire would last 150 years, but that is author's perogative.

Bottom-line -- I enjoyed it thoroughly - and that is after 50 years of deeply reading science fiction, with a personal knowledge base going back to the 1930's pulps. Harry, while I thought some of your other recent books had "slipped," this is one of the better alternative adult world(s) you have invented. In some ways I enjoyed this as well as "Guns of the South." Quick, straight, relatively uncomplicated and easy to sort thru and out. As the saying goes, "you got your groove back."

Nice addition to Crosstime series.......2007-08-06

Annarita is a star student, excelling in everything from math to Russian. Her neighbor, Gianfranco doesn't have much interest in school--instead he's fascinated by the games in a weird shop called The Gladiator--especially a game about railroads. But when a math problem asks about trains, all of a sudden, Gianfranco starts to understand. Unfortunately for him, the State Police have discovered that The Gladiator is spreading subversive material and the next thing Gianfranco knows, one of the shop's employees is asking for his help.

In a world where the Soviet Union won the cold war, and where Peoples Republics form the basis of every nation, getting into trouble with the State Police is serious--and potentially fatal. The only thing going for Gianfranco and Annarita is that nobody would believe the truth--that Eduardo from the shop actually comes from a different timeline, a timeline where the US won the cold war and then discovered cross-time travel. But with the State Police occupying his shop, his chances of getting back seem to be close to zero.

Author Harry Turtledove continues his Crosstime Traffic series with a look at a world where typewriters and mimeograph machines are registered as dangerous weapons, where saying the wrong thing can lead to a midnight knock on the door, and where the state is doing everything but withering despite having won in its battle against capitalism. With its teenaged protagonists, THE GLADIATOR should appeal to young adult as well as adult SF readers.

As with the other Crosstime Traffic stories, Turtledove creates an interesting and plausible future. While I think the best opportunity for Soviet Communism to win in the west probably took place earlier than the Cuban Missile Crisis (the inflection point in this story), strong Communist parties in Italy, France, and Greece could have resulted in a very different outcome than we experienced in our timeline, isolating the US and gradually making us irrelevant. It's certainly instructive to consider how this could have happened and what would have been the likely result.

THE GLADIATOR has its flaws. The discovery that Annarita's cousin was a criminal should have put Annarita and her father--as well as Gianfranco's family at more risk in a world where secret police have no limits and where correct thinking is essential. And the coincidence of just the right elevator repairmen making the repair and having just the right conversation seemed a bit forced. Then there's Turtledove's frequent use of repetitive phrasing (she wished she could, wished it, but she couldn't) which slows down exposition. It would be a great quirk for a single character but it makes dialogue and interior dialogue seem unnatural when applied to everyone. Still, THE GLADIATOR is an interesting read about an plausible alternate world. It just might also be Turtledove's answer to reviewer accusations that he's some sort of leftist--he certainly didn't make leftists the heroes of this story.

Some holes in the plotting.......2007-07-22

I wanted to like The Gladiator. Unfortunately, while reading it, I kept coming across what at best I'd describe as very improbably plot elements that made it hard for me to take the book seriously.

(An aside: some may wonder how I can consider anything improbable in a sci-fi book about alternate realities but sci-fi works or doesn't work by getting the reader to accept one big improbability and then setting up a world that proceeds logically from that one changed premise).

For instance: the secret police shut down the game shop in Milan; one employee is left behind when the rest escape. He makes contact with the teenage protagonists and talks with one of their parents. By the end of this chat, he's got a cover story and a usable set of false ID. Is false ID really that easily come by in this police state?

A little later, repair people come by to fix the elevator in the apartment, which has been broken for years and years. The teenagers discover that the repairmen are from a company in Rimini- quite a distance away, and (correctly) guess that they must have been others from the alternative world searching for their missing colleague. How did they track him down? Why did they give up the search after fixing the elevator?

There are other similar holes in the plot...

I did read this book through to the end, but it was less fun than it could have been.

simple repetitive structure in the narrative.......2007-06-28

Already the 5th book in this Crosstime series! Turtledove has impressive if not prodigious productivity. Commendable how this book continues the trend of describing a timeline quite different from those in the earlier books. Reading across the series, there is an unpredictability in settings that can be an attraction to some readers.

By the way, here there seems to be a slight reference to Turtledove's first big hit, The Guns of the South. The latter was also about alternate universes. In which the logo of Apple Computer was described. Also done in Gladiator. Turtledove probably put the remarks here, simply because a reader could recognise it, without him having to explicitly name the manufacturer. But maybe he's also reaching out to his earliest fans.

Another person who reviewed this book was spot on, hilariously but accurately, in labelling it "mission creep". An interesting development harking back at policy changes in the parent world.

Unfortunately, the narrative, in the combination of both the spoken dialog and the thoughts attributed to various characters, is often weak. There is a structure often present, usually involving a statement immediately followed by a counterpoint or negation of that statement. If you haven't noticed this, try rereading and parsing carefully. Once you see it, then you see it everywhere. Also true of the author's other works, like his 10 or 12 volume Civil War series. But in this book, the repetitive structure seems especially pronounced. As though he is dumbing down the narrative, for a young audience. Or that he is not putting enough effort into writing interesting prose. It can get stale to read, after you notice.

By contrast, look at Rowling's Harry Potter books. Also ostensibly for a similar audience. However the narrative flow is far more varied and interesting to read. You cannot easily deconstruct her works to detect a simple narrative pattern. Also reflected in the marketplace. Her books outsold any in the earlier Crosstime series books, probably by over an order of magnitude.

Granted, the typical reader of Gladiator probably will not consciously notice the repetitive structures. But unconsciously, this may be subsumed and expressed simply that the book is "ok but not great". And ultimately in sales. A pity, because Turtledove's series is a great idea, that deserves stronger expression. We need a successor to Piper's Paratime, and this series is the closest active approximation.

strong futuristic alternate history tale.......2007-06-12

Over a century ago the Iron Curtain came down as the Soviet Union won the Cold War. As a result of the communist triumph over western capitalism, society is extremely controlled with surveillance everywhere. Though security is tight, as long as one avoids counterrevolutionary activity, a person was safe and secure as most violent crimes have been eliminated. That is except those perpetrated by the state against individuals and since it is government doing the act, it is not a crime.

Whereas the elderly embrace the secure environs just secretly praying to live one more day, the young students are bored having a passion for life. In Milan, Stalinist Italian People's Republic seventeen years old Annarita Crosetti and sixteen years old Gianfranco Mazzilli attend Enver Hoxha Polytechnic. Gianfranco is a terrible student going nowhere while Annarita is a superb pupil with a future as the daughter of a party hack and a member of the Young Socialists' League. They find the Gladiator game shop where they play a complex game Rails Across Europe with enthusiasm. However, shops like the Gladiator are always betrayed from within leading to the security police shutting it down for the capital punishment crime of teaching capitalism although the owner Eduardo escapes. Having been exposed, he has no place to go, but tells his two teen customers that he is a marooned Trader from a crosstime line in which capitalism defeated communism.

The fifth Crosstime Traffic saga (see IN HIGH PLACES) may be the best in a strong futuristic alternate history series. The vivid landscape comes alive through the escapades and capers of the lead teenagers. The story line is fast-paced as Harry Turtledove paints a deep tale of living in the middle to late twenty-first century in a Soviet Republic beyond the Cole War's Iron Curtain. Targeting young adults, older sub-genre fans will want to read this intelligent superb thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic)

Average customer rating:

Wasted opportunity
Despite the title, this is not yet another "What if the South had won" book,
I heart Turtledove
Crosstime traffic- The Disunited State of America
The Disunited States of America

The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic)
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0765314851
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Book Description

Time travel doesn't work. You can't go backward or forward; you're stuck at "now". What you can do is travel sideways, to the same "now" in another timeline where history turned out differently.nbsp;So far, only our home timeline has figured out how to do that. We usenbsp;Crosstime Trafficnbsp;to conduct discreet trading operations in less advanced timelines, selling goods just a little bit better than the locals can make. It's profitable, but families who work as Time Traders have to be careful to fit in, lest the locals become suspicious. nbsp;Justin's family are Time Traders. The summer before he's due to start college, he goes with them to a different Virginia, in a timeline where the American states never became a single country, and American history has consisted of a series of small wars. Despite his unease, he accompanies Randolph Brooks, another Time Trader, on a visit to the tiny upland town of Elizabeth, Virginia. He'll only be away from his parents for a few days. nbsp;Beckie Royer thanks her stars that she's from California, the most prosperous and advanced country in North America. But just now she's in Virginia with her grandmother, who wants to revisit the tiny mountain town where she grew up. The only interesting thing there is a boy named Justin--and he'll be gone soon. nbsp;Then war between Virginia and Ohio breaks out anew. Ohio sets a tailored virus loose on Virginia. Virginia swiftly imposes a quarantine, trapping Becky and Justin and Randolph Brooks in Elizabeth. Even Crosstime Traffic can't help. All the three of them can do is watch as plague and violence take over the town. nbsp;It's nothing new in history, not in this timeline or any other. It's part of the human condition. And just now, this part of the human condition sucks.

Customer Reviews:

Wasted opportunity.......2007-09-22

In the unlikely event that scholars decide to study Harry Turtledove's fiction, they will certainly note the frequent mismatch between the author's inventive ideas and failures in execution. As with so many other recent Turtledove books, The Disunited States of America is a virtual primer on those deficits.

This book, obviously intended for a younger reader but not so labelled, is part of Turtledove's "Crosstime Traffic" series. The premise is that by the end of the 21st centry, the world has solved few problems -- most have gotten worst -- but does know how to travel to "crosstime" alternate realities. These parallel universes are exploited for their resources in a merchantilistic way, while the authorities at Crosstime Traffic make sure that the more advanced of these worlds do not stumble upon crosstime travel themselves.

In this volume, the alternate world is a very high tech version of the United States that never stayed united. The action, such as it is, centers around two older teenagers, Beckie, a politically correct native of the powerful nation of California, and crosstime traveler Justin. Both have been stranded in a tiny town in the racist nation of Virginia, which is under attack by aggressive Ohio. Ohio, for what we are told are generally economic reasons, has gone so far as to unleash a deadly plague on its neighbor, while cynically stirring up a doomed insurrection by Virginia's oppressed blacks at the same time. From Ohio's over the top behavior, you would almost think that there was a football rivalry at stake. Either way, virtually none of Turtledove's largely passive characters react in a realistic way.

Leaving aside that very little of this hangs together, this book represents about the worst Turtledove writing I've seen in years. Here you will find all of the mind-numbing repetition, cliches, tepid pacing, bland characters and lack of satisfying resolution the made the World War series so painful to read.

Turtledove has written nice things in the past several years -- but not too many. Whatever is going on, and my bet would be overproduction, the "Master of Alternative History" may need to take a sabbatical.

Despite the title, this is not yet another "What if the South had won" book, .......2007-08-10

Fourth in the "Crosstime Traffic" series of books about a company which trades between parallel universes.

This series is obviously aimed at teenagers. The hero or heroine is always a teenager, all swear words and strongly offensive comments are censored and referred to indirectly - e.g. after a quote Turtledove will often add something like "except that the hateful word he used was not 'people'." There is usually a romance between the central character and a person of the opposite sex but it is always extremely chaste and the books never directly refer to it going beyond a kiss.

Nevertheless it would not be entirely fair to characterise this series as "Paratime-Lite." It's not afraid to cover complex or difficult issues such as how you deal with racism or intractable hatred between races, the steps that a universe which had discovered travel between worlds would almost certainly take to keep it secret from other universes, and fact that war is not glamorous when the person next to you gets shot or, worse, you get shot or you have to shoot someone yourself. It is quite possible for an adult to enjoy these books.

Stories about travel between parallel universes are a rapidly growing genre. The closest examples to this are H. Beam Piper's "Paratime" books, and Keith Laumer's "Worlds of the Imperium" series. The "Crosstime Traffic" books are another take on the same sort of idea, and if you enjoyed them you will probably enjoy this one.

When I saw the title of this book I wrongly assumed that the alternative history world in which it was set would be yet another example of a universe where the South won the United States Civil War/War between the States. No: the divergence goes back further than that. Most of the action of this book takes place in a world where the United States constitution was never ratified, and the original confederation between the 12 colonies which successfully rebelled against British rule in the 18th century fell apart a few decades later. So the states of North America are nations, which are completely independent and frequently go to war against one another. Almost all the Southern States are openly racist, including the one state no longer run by whites, Mississipi, which has simply replaced white oppression of african-american people with african-american oppression of white people.

The story revolves around Beckie Royer, a girl from California in that timeline, and Justin, a boy from the Crosstime Traffic homeworld who is pretending to come the local Virginia. Both of them are trapped in a small Virginia town, when a war starts between Ohio and Virginia. First Ohio attacks Virginia with bioweapons causing a plague and forcing a quarantine, then incites an african-american revolt.

The Crosstime series is:

Gunpower Empire
Curious Notions
In High Places
The Disunited States
The Gladiator

I heart Turtledove.......2007-03-10

This is not an objective review. I'm an avid reader of just about everything Harry Turtledove writes. I enjoy the Crosstime Traffic series, both for it's speculations about travel to alternate dimensions as well as the view it gives us of life in bygone eras or imagined alternative worlds. The time I spend reading his books is a welcome escape to an alternate universe that I love to visit.

Crosstime traffic- The Disunited State of America.......2007-01-29

Was one of the better written and plotted stories in this series.

The Disunited States of America.......2007-01-15

Time after time Harry Turtledove's books are so enjoyable to read that you just don't want to put them down. The story is so real that it makes people think just how if one moment is change how history could change.
I would recommend to read this book and all the other Crosstime Traffic novels.

Average customer rating:

Flat with no passion or real adventure
A Power Trip
Good to see
Strongest installment yet in Crosstime Series
Good read with an excellent plot

In High Places (Crosstime Traffic)
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0765346273

Book Description

In the 21st-century Kingdom of Versailles, the roads are terrible and Paris is a dirty little town. Serfdom and slavery are both common, and no one thinks that's wrong. Why should they? Most people spend their lives doing backbreaking farm work anyway.

But teenaged Khadija, daughter of a prosperous family of Moorish business travellers, is unfazed. That’s because Khadija is really Annette Klein from 21st-century California, and her whole family are secret agents of Crosstime Traffic, trading for commodities to send back to our own timeline. Now it's time for Annette and her family to go home for the start of another school year, so they join a pack train bound for their home base in Marseilles, where the crosstime portal is hidden.

Then bandits attack while they're crossing the Pyrenees. Annette/Khadija is separated from her parents and knocked out, and wakes up to find herself a captive in a caravan of slaves being taken to the markets in the south. She's in a tight spot.

Then the really scary thing happens: her purchasers take her, along with other newly purchased slaves, to an unofficial crosstime portal…leaving open the question of whether Crosstime Traffic will ever be able to recover her!

Customer Reviews:

Flat with no passion or real adventure.......2007-03-24

This third installment of Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series focuses on a young woman from a "modern" society that travels across dimensions into alternate Earths. This modern world is NOT ours, perhaps one of the other dimensions they trade with is ours. Like all the Crosstime books the hero and heroine are in their late teens and the book appears to be pointed at the young adult audience. The hero of this piece is a young man from a version of Europe that never rose out of the Dark Ages and must, in the end, find his way in the heroine's modern world.

The concept is intriguing, the twists to history are interesting but the writing is flat! There's wonderful detail but it's presented almost like a text book. I never became engaged with either of the main characters and found both more than a little annoying at times. Turtledove's books for adults, like Guns of the South, are so much better written it isn't funny. It's almost hard to believe that they are written by the same person. There's no reason why a young adult book can't be an exciting read even if it is trying to be very, very moral with good "things" for young readers to learn!

In High Places has an interesting premise and is fast read, but it falls flat for me. The characters just go through their paces, there's no passion, no excitement, no real adventure. And it's sad, it could have been so much better.

A Power Trip.......2006-07-11

In High Places (2006) is the third novel in the Crosstime Traffic series, following Curious Notions. Annette Klein has spent the past year as Khadija, a muslim girl, in an alternate timeline. She is presently living with her parents in Paris within the Kingdom of Versailles, but will soon be returning to Marseilles and then to her home timeline. She is very happy to be returning to civilization.

In this novel, Jacques is a guardsman in the service of Duke Raoul. Jacques has met the Kleins in their identity of Muhammad al-Marsawi and family and was attracted by Annette, although the robe and veil hid all but her hands and eyes. He though she was about his own age, but he couldn't really be certain. Muhammad had aroused Duke Raoul's curiosity for various reasons, including his perfect Parisian accent; now Jacques is working as a caravan guard while spying on Annette's family.

South of Grenoble, brigands ambush the caravan, taking captives and looting the pack animals. Annette reacts to a lunging attack with a Judo throw and also to the next and the next, but then somebody hits her on the side of the head and she goes down. After another blow to the head, she loses consciousness. Jacques is shot in the leg as he runs back to the Kleins and then surrenders to the brigands.

When Annette regains consciousness, she finds that Jacques is still with her on their way to Madrid. But her parents had been taken to Marseilles. Arriving in Madrid, they are both sold to the same master and follow him to a compound within the city.

That evening they are taken down to a subcellar, placed against the wall, and see a silvery box suddenly appear in the center of the chamber. Annette immediately recognizes the box as a transposition chamber and knows that the slavers have access to crosstime technology. Soon she realizes that the technology must have been acquired within her own homeline; someone in Crosstime Traffic is running the whole show.

This novel portrays the ultimate nightmare of the Crosstime Secret: rogue employees using alternate timelines to act out their own frustrated perversions. The outlaws have taken slaves from various timelines and used them like animals. Even worse, some people have paid to be treated as such slaves, abused and beaten into submission. Of course, none of the paying customers are intentionally killed, but nothing keeps the guards from killing the real slaves.

This subject is addressed in Piper's Paratime series, but never covered to this extent. The characterization is much better developed herein, particularly among the technologically primitive slaves. Also, Annette and Jacques learn much about themselves and their cultures from such close contact with both the slavers and the slaves.

One of the things that Annette learns is the need for slaves (or the equivalent) in low technology cultures. All kinds of necessary work must be done by unwilling individuals if labor saving machines are not available. Insofar as the reviewer is aware, such work was performed involuntarily in all such low technology cultures, from the Norse thralls to the Chinese peasants. Such servitude -- from indentured servants to chattel slaves -- was common into the nineteenth century and, despite all efforts to eradicate it, still occurs elsewhere in the world.

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure and alien cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Good to see.......2006-05-01

I have, for some time, been interested in the Young Adult market, considering most the stuff I've found has been some kind of Catcher-in-The-Rye wannabe, about disfunctional losers.

An earlier reviewer reminds us that Andre Norton's work, before she went to fantasy in the Witch World--when she was doing "hard" science fiction--was frankly YA, and had its young protagonists facing moral choices. This is true of her longer-lasting Star Rangers series, beginning with Starman's Son. It is also true of the Solar Queen stories, and of the less well-preserved stories she did which apparently never got out of paperback. Do I recall her doing Ace Doubles half a century ago? Still, they were all YA, and all valuable. Heinlein, up through Starship Troopers, was primarily YA and well done.

I am a great fan of Rosemary Sutcliff, the British author who built YA stories around the history of Britain, and sometimes other places. I reviewed her Sword Song at some length.

I am glad to find Turtledove's series going forward. The moral instruction of the young is a responsibility of society. How it is done shapes the future. If it is not done--that shapes the future as well. The only choice is in the content.

Turtledove emphasizes courage, willingness to sacrifice for others, and self-reliance in this story of crosstime travel gone wrong. Not only do the protagonists save themselves, they clear up a monstrous traffic in slavery. As an interesting subject, Turtledove introduces the concept of people warped enough that they would pay to be a "slave" for a period of time, or to be a slaver, or slave guard, or a high-tech conqueror of poorly-armed primitive people. These miscreants, too, are dealt with by the exertions of the two young subjects. I must say that the bad guys are bad enough that I was disappointed our two young heroes didn't manage to personally damage some of them.
The situations in which the young subjects of the story find themselves are made clear enough that the reader will be asking, "What would I do?", a very valuable question.

The Romans told each other the story of Horatius at The Bridge for a thousand years. Why? Should we be interested in the stories we tell each other, and our children?

That having been said, both of my favorite YA authors (Norton and Sutcliff) had far better style than Turtledove. His ROA (really old adult) novels are lively, entertaining, and the reading itself is a pleasure. This story shows signs of having been done as a self-imposed duty. I hope he can bring more of his talent to future work in this area.

Strongest installment yet in Crosstime Series.......2006-04-04

Disguised as Moslem traders from Marsailles, Khadija and her parents are actually crosstime traders--buying the stuff that lets the home timeline prosper. They're exploring a world where the black plague lasted longer and killed more people than in the home timeline--a world where Europe was so depopulated that Moslem invaders reconquered Spain, moved further into the Balkans and Southern Europe, and even defeated most of France than in our own history. In this alternate world, a holy man proclaimed himself to be Henri, God's second (and more important) son.

When Khadija and a young caravan guard, Jacques, are taken captive and enslaved, Khadija hopes that Crosstime will rescue her. A lifetime of slavery seems like a nightmare. But that nightmare pales compared to the reality she faces. She and Jacques are purchased not by locals, but by rogue elements of the home timeline--elements with illegal access to the transportation chambers that allow Crosstime to move goods and people across the multiple dimensions of history. Khadija and Jacques are slaves in an alternate reality unexplored by Crosstime--and held captive by people who get their jollies out of owning slaves--and killing anyone who gives them trouble.

Author Harry Turtledove continues his Crosstime saga with the strongest story yet in this young adult-oriented series. Although the movement between two alternate realities, and the limited access Khadija and Jacques have in the slave-world allow Turtledove to do less exploration of the differences that small changes in history might make, Turtledove deals with real moral issues and human problems.

Young readers, in particular, will enjoy seeing Khadija planning her escape--and respect her fears that Crosstime itself must be infiltrated. I found Khadija's escape plan to be a bit simplistic and unbelievable, but that didn't keep IN HIGH PLACES from offering an intriguing look at alternate history.

Good read with an excellent plot.......2006-02-26

In High Places: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic, by Harry Turtledove, is an exciting science-fiction adventure. Khadhija, the daughter of a wealthy Muslim Moorish merchant, is not all that she seems to be, and neither is the world that she is currently in. Khadhija is actually teenager Annette Klein, from the 21st century United States. She and her family are working for Crosstime Traffic, a business that trades merchandise from the alternate timeline- a world where history has taken a different path- to their modern timeline. In this alternate world, Europe is still engulfed in the medieval Dark Ages and greatly contrasts to the "home" timeline. For example, technology is basic, and the Muslims rule and occupy most of Europe, which is disunited into small states. The most significant difference is that in the alternate timeline, slavery still exists without any controversy. Annette and her family are preparing to return to the home timeline, so they travel in a caravan to locate the Crosstime Traffic portal that will send them home. However, bandits capture Annette, her local friend Jacques, and other travelers, and sell them all as slaves. Separated from her family, Annette's situation becomes even worse: her captors take her and the other slaves and transports them through an unauthorized Crosstime Traffic portal into a land ruled by Khadhija's own people. She must escape, but it seems as if she will be a slave forever.

In High Places was adventurous and page-turner. The historical analysis was very interesting and this book is perfect for any history buff. It did seem, however, that the author could have addressed the topic of slavery better. The argument made against slavery could have been more complex and powerful. All in all, a good read with an excellent plot, especially on a rainy day.

Reviewed by a reviewer for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations

Average customer rating:

A bit disappointing
Teen Angst in Rome
Working Too Hard
Beware, Turtledove fans!
Easy to read but boring

Gunpowder Empire (Crosstime Traffic)
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0765346095
Release Date: 2004-08-05

Book Description

Jeremy Solter is a teenager growing up in the late 21st century. During the school year, his family lives in Southern California-but during the summer the whole family lives and works in the city of Polisso, on the frontier of the Roman Empire. Not the Roman Empire that fell centuries ago, but a Roman Empire that never fell.For we now have the technology to move between timelines, and to exploit the untapped resources of those timelines that are hospitable to human life. So we send traders and businesspeople-but as whole-family groups, in order to keep the secret of Crosstime Traffic to ourselves.But when Jeremy ducks back home for emergency medical treatment, the gateways stop working. So do all the communication links. Jeremy and his sister are on their own, Polisso is suddenly under siege, and there's only so much you can do when cannonballs are crashing through your roof....

Customer Reviews:

A bit disappointing.......2007-09-07

If you've read and loved Turtledove's other series as I have, you will probably be disappointed with this take on alternate reality. There is none of the gritty tooth and nail conflicts that made his other works, The Worldwar Saga and The Great War books just to name a few, totally immerse you in their plots. I got the distinct feeling that I was being talked down to and perhaps this is the crux of the issue.
Not far into the book I came to realize that this was written for a juvenile audience. Looking at it from that point of view, the characters which were not fleshed out as they usually are and the more simplistic storyline became far more palatable to me. I believe that this would be a great book for young people who are just exploring the genre. Two teens trapped in an alien environment with no adults for support. It is unquestionably written with great talent, just don't expect the raw, real world environs so predominant his other books.

Teen Angst in Rome.......2006-04-27

Jeremy and Amanda Solter live and go to school in L.A., but they spend their summers working with their parents in an alternate timeline, one where the Roman Empire never fell. When a medical emergency calls their parents away, the teens are suddenly on their own. Then the transmissions from home stop and an invading army is at the city gates.

Predictable plot aimed at teens, only interesting aspect is the look at how Romans lived day-to-day compared to modern society.

Working Too Hard.......2006-04-01

Being a lover of H. Beam. Piper's Paratime Patrol-related books (especially Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen) I hoped for something similar from Turtledove. Alas, I found I just didn't care enough about the characters to look forward to reading what was coming up next in their story. Turtledove seems to try to make them interesting but there are plot eccentricities that jar. Why would anyone sell gaudy wrist-watches and Swiss Army knives in a Roman time line that also has developed a hyper-bureaucracy that keeps track of every little thing that stands out from the bland norm? Or take payment only in grain when buyers offer gold? Or "go for a walk" when there's a Lithuanian army coming to invest the town?
Turtledove could stand a refresher re-reading Piper, or, for authors whose characters I care about: Connie Willis whose plague-year story "Doomsday Book" is searing and wonderful; and Lois Bujold whose Miles Vorkosigan stories are, well, great.

Beware, Turtledove fans!.......2005-10-09

An alternate history where the Roman Empire survives into and past our own time would make for a fascinating read if researched and written well, and Harry Turtledove would be one author who could probably do it. If so, he needs to try again, and a little harder.

Nowhere on the book jacket or cover blurbs or inside this $25 book is there are warning/indication that this is a book for children and maybe (very) young teenagers, but what is what it is. Since it is sold as standard science fiction/alternative history, and the author is well-known for that kind of standard fare for adults, it strikes me as a little cynical to just let the adult reader find this out for himself after buying the book.

Unfortunately, even as a youth-oriented adventure story that happens to be set in another "timeline," it falls short. JK Rowling need not fear this entry into her market.

It seems a little churlish to quibble about details in a kids' story, but kids are smart enough to pick up on this stuff, and Turtledove is smart enough to know better. So here are some of my personal quibbles.

The thing is set in the 2090s, and science has made interdimensional travel possible. Here, it seems to be used primarily for plundering oil and foodstuffs from the other worlds and bringing the goods back home, in exchange for slum trinkets like Swiss army knives and gaudy Japanese watches. Despite the "current" year being some 80 to 90 years ahead of us, very little besides this inter-dimensional trick has changed. Kids are still obsessed with TV and CDs, they shop at WalMart and Home Depot, use a PowerBook computer, and all of the gadgets in common use were in use in our time, 2005. They also speak English. Given the speed at which current fashions and customs have changed in the last 100 years, this is ridiculous. Only one SERIOUS change has occurred, and that is implied by the comment, "Guys in Los Angeles usually weren't so crude." Now that would signify massive change!

Sadly, the kids are too perfect by half, being politically correct to a mind-numbing and eye-rolling extent. Their physical revulsion at the concept of slavery is mentioned dozens and dozens of times, they abhor the idea of personal valor and even question the morality of self-defense, and they also seem to have a very strange aversion, again regularly bringing them to the verge (and beyond) of vomiting, when confronted with the custom of people wearing furs. Most odd, coming from kids wearing and using leather all the time, and craving a good burger and lamb vindaloo. Their precious and unwavering moral rectitude almost had me reaching for the airsickness bag myself at times.

Turtledove presents the Roman Empire roughly as it was in AD 150, adds the invention though not perfection of early gunpowder weapons, and at that point stops all progress. This seems way overly simplistic (and way too easy on an ambitious author). The Byzantine (East Roman) Empire outlasted the Western Empire by 1000 years, and there was significant progress made in that time in every field of knowledge. Why nothing new in 2000 years in this timeline? Why use time-dates at all; it would have been easier to say that the children went back in time itself. They don't need an alternate world for this.

Finally, every sf and alt/hist reader will be familiar with various logical and time-honored conventions concerning the genre. These are either absent or unevenly applied in this case. For example, they are prevented from interfering with the civilization as they find it...but are permitted (and encouraged) to trade goods technologically far advanced. And ultimately they negotiate with an enemy's king, free a slave, etc. This is non-interference? Better to allow them to actively interfere and deal imaginatively with the fall-out. Even the idea of essentially looting all the available food from a culture only slightly above subsistence level is pretty questionable for people who consider themselves moral paragons.

I can't recommend this book to either juvenile adventure readers (it is fairly dull and overly simply plotted) nor to Turtledove fans (way below his form).

Easy to read but boring.......2005-05-29

I like juvenile sci fi. This was poorly done. It reminded me of watching a Magic School Bus episode on tv, except without any plot. Turtledove seems to have wanted to talk about the Roman Empire. He stuck a couple kids in his discussion of an alternate Roman Empire. Hmmmn -- here's a better comparison. Remember those kids books where a kid would go back in time to watch Paul Revere's ride, or some other historic event? Well, this is kind of like that, except without the event.

These kids are in a siege where it is only luck that they haven't been killed and where there is every chance that they will wind up conquered and turned into slaves. In a normal kids book, the kids would use the knowledge they have from their home world to aid the city, thus saving them from this fate. That's what most fun fiction is about -- there's a hero and the hero accomplishes things. The hero doesn't sit around selling trinkets while his world is falling apart -- especially not when we know very well the hero might be able to prevent the world from falling apart. Instead they contemplate how horrible it will be if they have to stay forever in this world and consider how they might become slaves or die. And do nothing.

I also think Turtledove must have done this all in one draft -- how many times did he start a section with something along the lines of "She liked to visit the town fountain from time to time, even though they didn't need the water. But that was where the women gossiped about what was going on in town -- women of all stations coming together to gossip. Now that I think of it -- why was that banker's wife picking up her own water, when surely that kind of heavy lifting should have been the work of her slave? And with all the complaining about grinding the flour, I found myself wondering why one couldn't simply pay someone to do it. Or buy some bread at a bakery with all that money they were getting selling beads to the natives...

Average customer rating:

Better, but...
Where Do They Come From?
Turtledove doesn't give good value
Great Turtledove imagining of alternate histories with some problems
curious notions

Curious Notions (Crosstime Traffic)
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Alternate History | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0765346109
Release Date: 2005-11-29

Book Description

In a parallel-world 21st-century San Francisco where the Kaiser's Germany won World War One and went on to dominate the world, Paul Gomes and his father Lawrence are secret agents for our timeline, posing as traders from a foreign land. They run a storefront shop called Curious Notions, selling what is in our world routine consumer technology-record players, radios, cassette decks--all of which is better than anything in this world, but only by a bit. Their real job is to obtain raw materials for our timeline. Just as importantly, they must guard the secret of Crosstime Traffic--for of the millions of parallel timelines, this is one of the few advanced enough to use that secret against us.Now, however, the German occupation police are harassing them. They want to know where they're getting their mysterious goods. Under pressure, Paul and Lawrence hint that their supplies comes from San Francisco's Chinese....setting in motion a chain of intrigues that will put the entire enterprise of Crosstime Traffic at deadly risk.

Customer Reviews:

Better, but..........2007-09-07

I started reading this with a bit of trepidation, having been somewhat disappointed with the earlier book in this series, Gunpowder Empires. I was pleasantly surprised that the characters were fleshed out a bit more and the plot had more twists than the first book. Still not up to what I've come to expect from Harry Turtledove, but definitely a step in the right direction. I still feel that this should be classified as juvenile fiction. It was not a disappointing read, just not a satisfying one.

Where Do They Come From?.......2006-07-11

Curious Notions (2004) is the second novel in the Crosstime Traffic series, following Gunpowder Empire. Lawrence Gomes is a CT employee living in San Francisco in an alternate timeline where Germany has won the Great War. Paul Gomes is his son. They are storekeepers in the Curious Notions shop where electronic gadgets are sold to get money to buy foodstuffs for the home timeline.

In this novel, Lucy Woo is a Chinese girl who works in a shoe factory in this alternate San Francisco. Charlie Woo, her father, is a radio repairman who knows a lot about the current electronic industry. He has been puzzled over the gadgets sold by Curious Notions for some years.

One morning shortly after Paul and his father took over the store, Inspector Weidenreich dropped in to inspect their identification and business permit. He finds nothing out of order, but questions Paul about their source of supply. Paul denies any knowledge of the buying side of the business and refers the Inspector to his father, who is not in the store at the moment. The Inspector leaves, but promises to come back to see Paul's father.

When Lawrence comes in a few minutes later, he is less than pleased to learn of the Inspector's visit. Paul's Dad pulls several names out of the phone book and, when the Inspector returns, gives him the names as suppliers of the gadgets sold in the shop. Charlie Woo is included in this list. The Germans promptly take in Charlie for questioning.

Lucy Woo is rather angry about the situation and visits Curious Notions to express her opinion. Paul passes on her complaints to his Dad and arrangements are made to release Charlie Woo. Paul continues to see Lucy after that and they have several conversations. However, Paul underestimates Lucy's intelligence and gives her some significant hints about his origins.

In this novel, the Germans continue their investigation of Curious Notions, leading to the apprehension of Paul's Dad. Now Paul is on the run with the entire German empire on this tail (at least it feels this way). Lucy thinks about the clues and comes up with the Crosstime Secret. Everything is really going well . . . Not.

This novel shows another aspect of being an agent for Crosstime Traffic: a sufficiently advanced society is more difficult to fool. Even worse, such a society is probably capable of developing crosstime travel if the secret comes out. Crosstime Traffic has made a major mistake in opening Curious Notions.

Of course, flooding the alternate timeline with perfect counterfeits would be even more disastrous to the Crosstime Secret. Such an operation would require large quantities of small bills, thus making the juxtaposition of two identical bills very likely. Moreover, the transposition device would be fixed in place since the foodstuffs would have to delivered to the homeline. Thus, the Germans probably would soon learn of the counterfeits and would quickly follow the trail back to the device itself. Voila tout, no more Crosstime Secret!

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else for enjoys tales of alternate history and travel thereto.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Turtledove doesn't give good value.......2006-06-25

I read this book, and I'm unhappy with it. There are gaping logic holes in it. For one thing, the crosstime trading company is supposed to have been in business for some decades now, and have policies set in place. However, they send a teenage boy (just out of high school) and his father on a very critical assignment. Father and son do not work together well, even beyond the normal teen/parent squabbles. True, Turtledove is writing for teenagers, but he should not assume that they are all brainless and senseless (even though some of them are, quite a few are not). The company is portrayed as very efficient, and quite inflexible. It surely would have had protocols in place that would require a junior agent to work in less sensitive areas at first. The father is also borderline incompetent, again, not someone who should be sent on a dangerous and critical assignment. What's more, the reader is told several times that a certain thing cannot be done under any circumstances...but at the end of the book, whoops, it seems that this thing CAN be done after filling out a lot of paperwork.

I was very disappointed in this book. The world/time setting is interesting, and I believe that the plot and character problems could have been avoided quite easily, while still having a very tense atmosphere. It's quite readable, which is why I gave it two stars, but the reader would probably have a much better experience with a Heinlein juvenile, even as dated as they are. Heinlein always put as much thought into his juveniles/YA books as he did in his books intended for adults.

Great Turtledove imagining of alternate histories with some problems.......2006-04-02

In a world where Russia reacted just a little more slowly to the outbreak of war, Germany was able to pump its entire army into France, avoiding the Battle of the Marne and defeating France, England, and Russia in detail to end World War I. Years later, it discovered the atom bomb and defeated and occupied the United States. Now the Crosstime Traffic corporation watches the Germans carefully, and does everything it can to be sure the Germans don't learn the secret of the ability to pass across alternate planes of earth. While it watches, Crosstime trades with this plane, dumping archaic VCRs and other electronic equipment that is completely outdated in the home plane, but fully up-to-date in a world where science has moved a little more slowly (in the absense of cold-war competition).

Teen Paul Gomes and his father take up operation of the San Francisco branch of Crosstime Traffic, buying produce from California's central valley and selling electronics. Although Crosstime hasn't realized it, both the Germans and the Chinese Tongs have noticed that the shop, Curious Notions, sells equipment that is ahead of what even the Germans produce for themselves. They may not guess the crosstime secret, but they certainly suspect something. Paul's father's clumsy attempt to divert German attention to the Chinese gets Lucy Woo's father arrested--and Lucy goes to Paul to complain.

Author Harry Turtledove is at his best realizing alternate history worlds and a world where the Germans prevailed in WWI is certainly not a stretch. A less vibrant, less developed, and less electronically capable San Francisco is a believable outcome of such a war--and the war that followed and allowed Germany to occupy the United States. The economic notion of selling electronic devices retail and buying truckloads of produce is harder to swallow. Why, for example, wouldn't Crosstime have introduced a single product design (say a VCR) and manufactured it locally, selling through distribution (the way VCRs are sold in America today?). Selling through a single retail shop and buying single truckloads of produce seems incredibly inefficient--and exactly the type of thing that would call for attention from curious police.

CURIOUS NOTIONS (and indeed the entire CROSSTIME TRAFFIC series) is targeted largely to the young adult market with its teenage protagonists and the innocent romance between them. Turtledove's strong ability to create and describe alternate worlds, however, will help the series appeal to adult readers as well. A bit more work on the economics and Turtledove will have a definite winner in this series. Even without that, it's an enjoyable story.

curious notions.......2006-03-20

This will be short but not so sweet. Every once in a while I see a book by Turtledove, pick it up, read the cover and buy it.
When will I learn? Great ideas, poorly concieved story. H.Beam Piper is spinning in his grave. What do you people at TOR have hanging in your closets that you continue to publish Turtledoves garbage.

Average customer rating:

Great stuff!
Excellent time-travel/alternate-universe short stories.

Crosstime Traffic
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Manufacturer: Foxacre Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0967178363

Customer Reviews:

Great stuff!.......2002-02-20

I'm not a big sci-fi buff. I mean I LOVE sci-fi, but not the HEAVY stuff. I may get there one day, but for now, the "Ender series" is more or less the most "hardcore" science-fiction books I've read.
Now, this said, it maybe explains why my most favorite theme is time-travel/parallel universes.
Too bad it's one of those less written-about sub-genres in science-fiction.

Anyhow, I think it was almost 10 years ago (I think I was about 16) when I picked an issue of "Amazing Stories", and fell in love with a certain short story there. It was called "The Drifter", written by Lawrence Watt-Evans; A beautiful, parallel-universe short story. It was the best short sci-fi story I ever read. (Again, I never read those "heavy" Asimov stories and the likes..). I liked it a lot, put the magazine away someplace, and didn't give it much thought for a few years.

A few months ago, I found the magazine and read the story. And it rekindled my love for it. But now - I've got Amazon. I logged in and searched for Lawrence Watt-Evans items.

And among various novels he's written, I've found this book - a collection of short stories. One of which is the Drifter!!! Wow... Moreover, there are a couple of stories here that actually won the Hugo award!
I had to have this book!

I got it, I read it, and I enjoyed. All the stories were just right for my love of "soft core" science-fiction and fantasy. Twenty of them.

I enjoyed most of the stories very much. There were a couple of very bad stories as well (Luckily they were very short), that the author himself describe as his early, premature, work.

In short, I can recommend this book. If you want to remember the stories that got you hooked on it as a kid. If you love short, science fiction and fantasy stories, dealing with different aspects not always touched by other writers, time-travel, parallel-worlds, and other cool stuff - buy this book!

Excellent time-travel/alternate-universe short stories........1998-05-13

This is perhaps the best collection I've ever read of short stories on time travel and alternate universes -- all by the same author. In my opinion, some of the tales are as good as anything written by Ray Bradbury.

Average customer rating:

Gunpowder Empire :Crosstime Traffic 1
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: TOR BOOKS ST MARTINS MASS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000Q1HW04

Average customer rating:

Crosstime Traffic
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVVKFE

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