Book: The Tide of Victory by Eric Flint and David Drake


The fifth book in a splendid six-book alternate-history series

Eric Flint and David Drake
The Tide of Victory
Baen, 2001
ISBN: 0-7434-3565-6
550 pages
Out of print; copies in good condition seem to command a premium over the $7.99 cover price

The Tide of Victory is the fifth book in the six-book "Belisarius" series by Eric Flint and David Drake. Belisarius is a historical figure. He was a brilliant general under the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) emperor Justinian. In this series of science-fictiony alternate history books, evil beings from the far future have sent assistance to an evil empire from India called the Malwa in the hopes that they will take over the world and produce a future more to the evil beings' liking. Some other, rather more benign beings from the far future have send a different sort of assistance to Belisarius in the hopes of avoiding that outcome.

Reviews of the previous of the previous books in the series are at: 1, 2, 3 , 4. Little needs to be said here since no one would start reading the series with the fifth book and few people who have read and enjoyed the first four books would not need a review in order to decide whether to read this one. It is probably nearly sufficient to say that the series is splendid and this book is a worthy addition to it.

Minor spoilers for the previous books follow.

In previous books, the Malwa have been bloodied and repulsed. Now Belasarius takes the fight to them. The campaign is on a larger scale than in the previous books and so it's a little more work to follow its progress. There are some maps inside the front cover that may be helpful.

Just as the individual books have a rhythm in their pacing, so does the series and, well, it's probably not a surprise that this close to the end, The Tide of Victory is a good title.

Posted: Sun - January 20, 2008 at 06:40 PM   Main   Category: 

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