What is most likely a very stern-looking Belisarius complete with cool haircut. He's standing next to the out-of-frame Emperor Justinian, whom he re-conquered a lot of fallen Roman territory for, including Italy and Rome herself.
If this even sounds remotely cool to you, check this out and you will probably be pleasantly surprised. And this is coming from a guy who found Flint's disappointing and often just dumb. Apparently Drake just provides the concepts and outlines or whatever, but it seems even that level of involvement was enough to tip the scales to me thoroughly enjoying a Flint book.
The prose is hardly anything to write home about and the characters aren't particularly vivid but the setting, plot and action are all consistently fun and well-developed. Clearly things go hilariously ahistorical pretty quick in this series but the historical setting is convincing and consistently well-researched A lot of it takes place in Persia and India as well, so you're not getting the usual Eurocentric look at stuff.
There's even a group of Axumite Ethiopian dudes hanging out with the Byzantines. There are plenty of real people populating this book, some of which I knew and others I did not. I read this on my girlfriend's Kindle, and I was surprised when I kept using that highlighting feature to look at characters and saw that they had a historical parallel.
Flint obviously knows his setting and is not just throwing out famous names like Justinian and then making up a bunch of bullshit. Or at least the bullshit he makes up is consistently credible. As far as characters go, you're definitely buying it for Belisarius. He's textbook Mary Sue with his goodguyery and unerring generalship and military brilliance as well as being an amazing swordsman, but fuck it.
It was fun to watch him do his thing. A lot of this series seems like it's gonna focus heavily on military stuff, particularly concerning concepts like grand strategy, deception, arms technology and that kind of thing The awesome title is a big indicator. Flint does seem to be somewhat of an authority on all things war.
The cover is hardly impressive, although it does make an effort to stick Belisarius in passable-looking Byzantine gear. It also makes it look very heavy on the sci-fi elements, which this book really isn't. There's no alien invasion or cataphracts shooting lasers or any truly outlandish shit. The AIs aren't just handing out AKs, it's more like they're slowly and gradually giving each side ahistorical technological advancements.
Most of the time it feels like a pretty straight alternate history in which there's a war between Byzantine and Indian empires, just with cool toys. It's not a classic piece of literature, but I also hesitate to just call it "dumb fun".
It's dumb fun, written well and cleverly and with detail. I guess what I'm trying to say is that people who are well-versed in their history will have their issues, but Flint did a great job of minimizing those through actually knowing some shit. Not sure I could read 3, pages of this series in one go but I'll certainly read the next entry at some point in the future.
Feb 16, Adriaan Brae rated it it was amazing Shelves: current-favourite , science-fiction. The mix of Drake's driving battlefield action and Flint's combination of deep philosophy and charming irreverence makes for a great read. This is very much in the heroic fantasy mode with larger-than-life characters though the underpinnings are SF. This series epitomises this ideal. Jan 03, Dan rated it it was amazing Shelves: , belisarius , series-i-reread-often , i-must-reread-soon.
Aug 26, Konstantin Samoylov rated it it was amazing. The book is so good that I probably should downgrade 5 star reviews I gave to other books earlier this year. Feb 10, Aaron Anderson rated it liked it Shelves: 6-science-fiction , , I would have given this series 4 stars except the humor was heavy handed and annoying to me.
I think I just accepted the heavy handed humor this time. It's a pretty enjoyable series if you ignore it and some of the repetition based upon it. Such as "mumble mumble mumble" and similar other things. Otherwise it was quite a fun reread. I think I like it a lot more than the General series, which is vaguely a similar series in concept, even if it's kind I would have given this series 4 stars except the humor was heavy handed and annoying to me.
I think I like it a lot more than the General series, which is vaguely a similar series in concept, even if it's kind of a reverse. Jun 12, Barbara rated it did not like it Shelves: sci-fantasy , gave-up-on. There's something wrong with you and your book if you're skilled enough to tackle such a ridiculous idea and do it well, but you still feel compelled to stuff in rape in such amounts it goes beyond shock value and into the "disturbing fetish normal people don't want to partake in" territory.
Which apparently gets confirmed by the following books. Jun 14, Ralph McEwen rated it really liked it. Read as an ebook.
May 06, Marsha Valance rated it it was amazing Shelves: espionage , action-adventure , science-fiction , alternate-history , roman-empire , humorous-science-fiction , military-fiction , asia-fiction , near-east-fiction , comfort-reads. In this alternate history series, a war between two competing societies in the future spills over to 6th century Earth. One group, the "New Gods", are building up the Malwa Empire in northern India to conquer the world and stamp out individual creativity in favor of autocracy in order to change the future.
The individualism endemic to the Roman Empire is seen by the New Gods as the root of an undesirable future that must be changed by conquest. The Malwa Empire is advised and controlled by a cal In this alternate history series, a war between two competing societies in the future spills over to 6th century Earth. The Malwa Empire is advised and controlled by a calculating cyborg named Link, who introduces gunpowder technology to conquer most of the rest of India.
To counter these efforts, opposing crystalline entities evolved from humanity in the far future contact the Stylite monk Michael of Macedonia, who brings a crystal to Byzantine General Flavius Belisarius, showing him a vision of the future where Malwa conquers the Byzantine Empire.
This puts the problem of averting the horrific future shown by the crystal in Belisarius's lap, even as emissaries from the Malwa Empire are visiting Rome to concoct a factional struggle to divide Byzantium. Belisarius sets out to build an alliance with Byzantium's historical enemy Persia with whom they are currently effectively at war , the African Kingdom of Axum a naval and trading power , and various Indian forces and individuals that remain in opposition to Malwa.
During the conflict, the Byzantines are at war with the Sassanid Persian Empire, and the general takes uncharacteristic "great risks" instead of indirection to bring that conflict to a speedy end. These events provide him time to plan out various contingencies which come to bear fruit in surprising ways, and allow the West's own gunpowder tech researchers to get started. During his journey to India via Axum, the spy mission and deception allow Belisarius to become better able to communicate and understand the crystalline emissary "Aide".
Belisarius learns of his true enemy, the mysterious entity known as Link, an artificial intelligence that uses human bodies as its interactive device. It concludes with the war between the Byzantines led by Belisarius against his Malwa enemies transforming from a cold to a hot war as Belisarius, separated from his companions by urgent circumstances born of intrigue and might—is hotly pursued fleeing half of Malwa's might, alone and unaided, some miles from the Malwa capital Modern Delhi as he makes his way back home to the west.
Nov 01, Suzannah rated it liked it Shelves: fantasy , historical-fiction , science-fiction , rating-r. I'm a little conflicted about this book. On the one hand, this was some of the best shameless tripe I've ever read. It's an alternate history in which some kind of far-future AI gets in touch with the legendary Byzantine general Beliarius, alerting him to the danger posed by a burgeoning Indian empire.
There's action, battles, way-cool technological advances, intrigue, cleverness, impassioned philosophical debate, legendary assassins and a mission to rescue a captured princess. The book swings b I'm a little conflicted about this book. The book swings between downright hilarity and way-over-the-top purple melodrama at the drop of a hat.
The history - well, there's a way to do historical inaccuracy that shows that you don't care and haven't done your homework; and there's a way to do historical inaccuracy that shows that you do care and have done all your homework, and this book fits into the latter category.
In short: this book is here to give you a good time, and unlike much of the shameless tripe on the market, it succeeds brilliantly. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll be continuing any further with this series, because as the book continued the subject matter just got more and more prurient. Flint and Drake don't cross the line into outright explicit content; but the goings-on were such that eventually I just stopped caring for the protagonists or respecting the authors.
That's a shame, because not only does this book seem otherwise tailor-made to my interests, but I thoroughly enjoyed at least the first half and took detailed notes on some of the literary techniques used. I lay the series aside with disappointment. Jul 29, Neil rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , time-travel , belisarius-series , sci-fi , finished-in , end-of-the-world , thriller , alternate-history , action , adventure.
I thought I had read this previously, but I was incorrect. This is the first book in a six-volume series about Belisarius, one of history's greatest generals, and how he saved the future [although not quite the future as we know it]. It starts off with "smallish" cast of characters, which then swells a bit before shrinking, and then the cast breaks up into disparate parts to further enhance the play. I think it has pretty decent character development in it, overall.
Obviously, in such a large no I thought I had read this previously, but I was incorrect. Obviously, in such a large novel, some characters get better development than others. That is okay. It covers a wide area, from Byzantium Rome eastwards to India. It is quite ambitious in its scope, in my opinion. Belisarius apparently preferred to choose the placed of battle by creating fortified positions or further enhancing natural fortifications and forcing his opponents to come to him in order to attack him.
This would help ensure his opponent's forces would be more tired, more exhausted, prior to the battle than his forces would be. It also helped ensure his opponent might be more apt to make mistakes from which he could take advantage and definitely turn the battle's tide in his favor. Stirling he admits this in the preface. So, in a sense, it is pretty easy to see how the first two books are comparable to each other in each series.
Both involve a leader an emperor of some sort who becomes "insanely" jealous of successful generals commanding officers who become popular with the civilian population. The wife of each emperor was once a whore of some sort. The wife of each commanding officer was also a whore of some sort. Each commanding officer has his own personal cadre of officers who are close friends that the commanding officer trusts implicitly. Both men have a "piece" of technology that helps them become "more than human" and help ensure the survival of the human race.
Raj has a global supercomputer that communicates with him and helps him fight his battles; Belisarius has a jewel from the future that helps enhance Belisarius' already-superior abilities even further. There are some differences, too, though. In the General series, Raj's wife sleeps with every male in a position of power in order to acquire whatever Raj needs to win the battle and to survive.
Raj is aware of this and fully supports his wife's infidelities because it helps protect and save his men even while it is tearing him apart on the inside. Raj's wife also has regular abortions because she only wants to bear Raj's children and she refuses to give birth to a child she is not certain is her husband's child. Antonina promises Belisarius she will never cheat on him or sleep with another man; Belisarius promises the same to her. Antonina cannot have children due to an injury she suffered.
Raj undergoes a process by which he is transformed immediately so that "his" supercomputer can better communicate with him whereas it takes the entire first novel before Belisarius is able to clearly communicate with his source of futuristic information. Belisarius wins a battle against the Medes and then heads into "enemy territory" with a small group of infiltrators whereas Raj wins a series of engagements before losing the major battle at the end of the first book in his series.
I found myself smiling, chuckling, and laughing over the course of the book. It was just "little" things, where close friends were making comments back and forth to each other. There were plenty of ripostes flying back and forth which I found pretty hilarious.
Belisarius convinces a Persian survivor of a skirmish that some treasure convoy is on its way to the Persian Army so the Army can be paid. There were two Thracian brothers who were also generals and shared control of an army that was significantly larger than Belisarius' army. Belisarius knew the brothers would not acquiesce to his request to be put in charge of both armies.
So he contrived to create a situation where the two brothers would be captured by the Persians prior to the upcoming battle; he also knew the brothers would be kept safe behind the lines as a prisoners until the Roman army arrived to rescue them. It was pretty amusing to me, in the end, especially considering how it all worked out and how the brothers were described in the book before and after the battle.
I also found myself laughing over how the Axumites were mocking the Indians about the size of the Asian elephants. They alternated between comparing the pachyderms to mice and tapirs with delusions of grandeur. It was pretty hilarious to me. Obviously, the Asian elephants were quite a bit smaller than their African cousins.
It was equally amusing that the Indians gave the Axumites the "worst" of the Asian pachyderms, only to be shocked at how quickly the Axumites especially Ousanas brought the large mammals to heel. The bests line, though, had to be comparing the Asian elephants to tapirs with delusions of grandeur! It helped keep the story moving along, and also provided periodic moments of humor.
Ousanas was pretty hilarious, too, especially how he related to Prince Eon over the course of the novel. It was a good minor story in the middle of a bigger tapestry.
It was a fast read, and I realized after finishing it that it was the first time I had read it. It starts off a bit slow, but I felt that, once it got moving, it kept up a steady pace that held my interesting throughout the entire reading.
I am glad that I decided to read this series fully and start over with the first book as opposed to starting with the fourth book and finishing, then apparently reading the third book after finishing the series. It will be interesting to learn about what I missed by not reading the first three books the first time around.
Feb 14, Rachel rated it it was ok. Fictionalized history, especially with military intrigue, can be fun. But this book has an awful lot of rape. Discussed or just "off camera" but a lot. Gang rape by conquering armies too. The good guys don't rape, they whore. Except the extra good main character who is totally faithful to his hot older wife a former whore.
It's accurate to the time but still. Several mentions of pedophilia as well. The sci fi aspects of the series don't get fleshed out in this book. There's a magic sent Fictionalized history, especially with military intrigue, can be fun.
There's a magic sentient rock that tells the future. The author goes off on so many tangents. Often we hear all about a character's life long-term, then go back to the present when none of that has happened. I guess it's the precognisent rock effect but it gets tedious.
My husband really likes this series, it's just not my cup of tea. May 29, Filip rated it really liked it Shelves: 4-stars , sf , historical-fiction. This one was really good! The whole concept is amazing, the combination of SF with historical accuracy was really, really good. And the humour! It isn't something I've expected in this book, but I have absolutely loved it. I liked the characters but some of them were a bit too-perfect and sported morals that were a bit too modern.
Also the changes of narration sometimes got confusing but that is only a minor gripe. Jan 24, Howard Brazee rated it liked it. There is a series of books started by Eric Flint where the good guys Belisarius and the bad guys the Malawi empire in India are assisted in warfare with help from far future information. We are seeing the historical situation Belisarius lived from AD , and see what happens when they learn more modern technology and needs.
This book is about something mentioned in other books, where they rescue an Indian princess from the bad guys - they will need her later. I like history, I like historical fiction, I like science-fiction, and sometimes I even like alternative histories - but I could not get into this book at all.
The entry here says this is written by David Drake, who I have read a number of sf books by, but the cover I have says David Drake and Eric Flint and Flint's writing style just doesn't work for me. There are some sources that say the series was plotted by Drake and written by Flint, which I find very plausible.
Not recommended. This novel starts out scary with a vision of the future. A future of a failed war. Then things are set in motion to avert that horror, and there is intrigue and battles and it's oh, so fun! I really don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just read it. Jan 10, Lori rated it liked it. Military fantasy. Not a lot of action, but still kept me interested. Not sure I'll continue the series. May 25, Emma rated it really liked it. Read this several years ago. Really enjoyed it and immediately checked the next book in the series out of the library.
Aug 08, Moscovici rated it it was amazing. Amazing series, a must. Aug 11, Abu Dhabi rated it really liked it Shelves: scifi , alt-history. Buy Ebooks. All Books. Baen Community. Baen's Bar. About Baen. Free Library. Monthly Bundles. Please login or sign up for a new account.
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