Belisaurius I: Thunder At Dawn [Hardcover]

Fighting a Future

Thunder At Dawn (2008) is an omnibus edition of the Belisarius series, including An Oblique Approach and In the Heart of Darkness. In this series, Emperor Justinian ruled Byzantium, the Empire of Rome in the East. 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.

An Oblique Approach (1998) is the first novel in this series. Belisarius has just assumed command of the Army at Daras when the monk Michael of Macedonia and Anthony Cassian -- the local bishop -- come to his new house in Aleppo. They bring a strange object -- a faceted crystal that seems to form and reform -- found by Michael within his cave in the desert. They say that it has brought visions to their minds while holding it and they urge Belisarius to take it into his own hands. When it is passed to him, the crystal flares into light and floods his mind with visions.

The crystal can induce visions and feelings, but is mostly unable to communicate directly. The visions shows a future in which the Malwa empire of northern India conquers all the known world. These visions induce feelings of dread and despair, but all who hold the crystal also feel certain that the future shown and felt is not necessarily the only possible future. The crystal has 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 regains its strength, the human party forms a conspiracy to counter the evil plans of the Malwa. Deciding to keep the secret among themselves for a time, they arrange for a location to build an arsenal and weapons project on property controlled by Anthony. They also agree that Anthony will arrange for the services of John of Rhodes -- a clever ex-naval officer -- as the head of the project.

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 can only be done in India by Belisarius himself.

In the Heart of Darkness (1998) is the second novel in this series. Belisarius is allowed to observe the siege of Ranapur from a distance, but the Rajput guards are under orders to restrict the viewing times and the viewpoint. Then Lord Harsha decrees that the siege will end on a certain date and Belisarius is taken to the Imperial Pavilion on the eastern side of the city to observe the assault.

Belisarius has already learned that the city seems to have a large amount of gunpowder, but no cannon. Now he learns that the defenders include a number of miners. He considers the possibilities and decides to inform the Malwa that the attack probably will cross tunnels packed with explosives.

First he commands his men to dismount and tells Rana Sanga -- the Rajput escort commander -- to dismount his own troops. Then the world disappears in a white flash and things start to impact his vicinity. When he crawls out from under his shield, Belisarius notices bodies, parts of bodies, and parts of parts of bodies all around him, along with various other objects.

The Ranapur defenders pour over of the destroyed walls and push their way through the dazed attackers toward the Imperial Pavilion. Belisarius shows Rana Sanga the counterattack and the Rajputs hurry toward the pavilion to protect the Malwa emperor. But Belisarius and his three bucellarii approach the befuddled survivors and direct their attention to the attacking forces.

This story introduces Belisarius to the Malwa emperor and takes him to the Malwa capital, where he meets Link, the penultimate enemy. He takes Aide -- his crystaline ally -- with him into enemy territory. Aide is still learning the limitations of the humans in this timeframe and sometimes becomes impatient with Belisarius. Yet Aide does furnish some uptime concepts that might be adapted to the current technology.

Highly recommended for Drake & Flint fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alternate history, military tactics, and epic drama.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I was very fascinated by the Belesarius series and have all the 5 books. When this series of 3 books came out I thought they were new books to the same series. Unfortunately only after I bought them I found out that they are the same books repackages into 3 instead of the original 5 books . In the meantime I noticed that apparently this is common for David Weber and Eric Flint to repackage same contents again and again. It's unfortunate as they are so good writers. So please check the contents of all their books before you buy them to save you some disappointment.

This series is a grand sci-fi of the best sort with wonderful characters and a terrific plot. It's original premise is the typical sort of military-geek thought experiment, "what if Belisarius was aided by a being from the future and fought against an evil being from the future," and a series designed for reveling in strategem. But it has a number of scenes of high drama with many of the classic tropes that go back thousands of years and still have not worn themselves out. In many ways the series exploded it's own original intent and became far more then what it was designed to be; it might almost be considered a competitor with Dune or Babylon 5(with which it does share some vague resmblances such as the idea of humans being used as proxies by superbeings and the convoluted intrigue).

There are great characters. Besides Belisarius himself my favorites were the noble worthy enemy Rana Sanga, and the beautiful and formidable princess Shakantula. Even the Vile One gets an encore for being a fine experiment in trying to see just how evil a character one can create.

It is unfortunately an R-rated production. Aside from the occasional intimate moments between spouses(which are in fact not distasteful), there is plenty of "soldierly" coarseness, not all of it necessary plot-wise, and some rather repulsive details. As always in this sort of thing one must draw ones own judgements.

With that caveat aside, one must say that this was quite simply a great series. I can become so fascinated as to read a whole volume of it in one day.

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