Book: Fortune's Stroke by Eric Flint and David Drake


Very good; fourth book in a six-book series

Eric Flint and David Drake
Fortune's Stroke
Baen, 2000
ISBN: 0-671-57871-5
402 pages
$24.00; also available online for free

Fortune's Stroke is the fourth book in a six-book series. The starting-point of the series is a clash between the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire and the Malwa, an empire from central India. The Malwa have been sent assistance by evil creatures in the far future. The Byzantine general Belisarius (a historical figure) has received a different sort of assistance from the future in the hopes that he will prevent their victory. Reviews of the previous books are at: 1, 2, 3.

Relatively little needs to be said about this book because it would be silly to start with it. People who have read and liked the previous books will like this one as well. People new to the series should start with the first book. Minor spoilers for the earlier books follow.

Early in the book, Bellasarius plays cat-and-mouse with a Malwa army in the Zagros Mountains (in what is new Iran) trying to keep them out of Mesopotamia (approximately modern-day Iraq). The rebellion in southern India needs some help and the Malwa strike against Byzantium's Auxumite allies. The battles are stirring and the characters are as entertaining and vivid as in the previous books.

The book is a lot of fun and a grand adventure. It's probably the weakest in the series so far, but one of them has to be and it's still very good indeed. This series does not drag in the middle.

Posted: Mon - October 15, 2007 at 08:02 PM   Main   Category: 

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