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Time of Troubles #3
The Thousand Cities
A dazzling new fantasy for all the fans of the Videssos Cycle!
As the sun gleamed off the gilded domes of Videssos the city, Abivard, marshal of Makuran and son of Godarz, pondered the impossible. How could he carry out the command of Sharbaraz, King of Kings, to destroy the invincible Empire of Videssos?
Then, against all expectations, the Emperor of Videssos invaded Makuran itself. Abivard was thrust on the defensive, forced homeward to drive the invaders from the fabled land of the thousand cities.
Abivard needed not only his greatest battle skills but his most powerful magicians, for no one doubted that Videssian military strategy would be accompanied by the finest sorcery. Yet even as reality reversed itself and renegades plotted Abivard's ruin, the undaunted warrior vowed never to surrender . . .
As the sun gleamed off the gilded domes of Videssos the city, Abivard, marshal of Makuran and son of Godarz, pondered the impossible. How could he carry out the command of Sharbaraz, King of Kings, to destroy the invincible Empire of Videssos?
Then, against all expectations, the Emperor of Videssos invaded Makuran itself. Abivard was thrust on the defensive, forced homeward to drive the invaders from the fabled land of the thousand cities.
Abivard needed not only his greatest battle skills but his most powerful magicians, for no one doubted that Videssian military strategy would be accompanied by the finest sorcery. Yet even as reality reversed itself and renegades plotted Abivard's ruin, the undaunted warrior vowed never to surrender . . .
404 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 28, 1997
3 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
About the author
Harry Turtledove
566 books1,977 followersDr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 8, 2023
“The Thousand Cities” continues the saga of the “Time of Troubles” as the empires of Makuran and Videssos battle for survival in each others’ borderlands, the “between the rivers” part of Makuran (which corresponds to the Fertile Crescent) and the Westlands of Videssos (corresponding to Byzantium’s Asia Minor). This alternate reality parallels the long war between the Byzantine and Persian empires in the early Seventh Century. As with the first book in the series, “The Stolen Throne” and the second, “Hammer and Anvil”, this story is told from only one viewpoint; again that of Abivard, Marshal of Makuran, as in the first book.
As much a fan as I am of all Turtledove’s Videssos books, I feel this one suffers from a fundamental weakness which made completing it a rather tedious task. One of the author’s goals is apparently to illustrate many of the intricacies and pitfalls of political life and in the conducting of military campaigns in the two empires; he does it through long introspective and speculative conversations between both major and minor characters—Abivard and his spouse and other relatives (who are also officers in his army), palace functionaries (especially eunuchs), clerics, common soldiers, merchants and peasants, etc. While this is indeed illustrative of all the competing and conflicting interests (each with its own agenda) and intrigues with which a ruler had to contend and the often perilous and tortured path the ruler had to tread while attempting to satisfy them all, it does make the story seem somewhat padded and overly long. The same scenario is repeated over and over again—the army of Makuran pursues the Videssian forces as they ransack various of the Thousand Cities in an attempt to weaken the empire; Abivard tries to anticipate the next move by the Videssians; he is summoned to Mashiz to explain to Sharbaraz why he has not made greater progress and has to determine what next move will both make progress against the enemy and preserve his own command (and possibly life!). It is as though Abivard is playing two games of chess at the same time—one against emperor Sharbaraz, and one against the Videssians—and both of them end in a stalemate. Only at the end of the book is a real breakthrough made which seems to hint at a possible end to the Makuran-Videssos war. (Not to be revealed here!)
Another weakness is the telling of the story from only one viewpoint—that of Abivard. The Videssians are seen only from a distance most of the time except for the various instances of actual combat—and the Avtokrator, Maniakes, is a distant and rather nebulous figure. While the reader is kept guessing as to what the Videssians’ next move might be, switching from one viewpoint to the other would have been a way to maintain a greater degree of interest on the part of the readers, rather than forcing them to wait interminably for the next plot advancement at some distant point in the future after yet more of the Thousand Cities have been sacked.
This book and “Hammer and Anvil” tell essentially the same story, each from a different point of view. It probably would have been better to combine them into one, but for readers who are willing to persevere, be assured that the final volume, “Videssos Besieged”, will bring about a resolution and a strong finish to the series.
***** review by Chuck Graham *****
As much a fan as I am of all Turtledove’s Videssos books, I feel this one suffers from a fundamental weakness which made completing it a rather tedious task. One of the author’s goals is apparently to illustrate many of the intricacies and pitfalls of political life and in the conducting of military campaigns in the two empires; he does it through long introspective and speculative conversations between both major and minor characters—Abivard and his spouse and other relatives (who are also officers in his army), palace functionaries (especially eunuchs), clerics, common soldiers, merchants and peasants, etc. While this is indeed illustrative of all the competing and conflicting interests (each with its own agenda) and intrigues with which a ruler had to contend and the often perilous and tortured path the ruler had to tread while attempting to satisfy them all, it does make the story seem somewhat padded and overly long. The same scenario is repeated over and over again—the army of Makuran pursues the Videssian forces as they ransack various of the Thousand Cities in an attempt to weaken the empire; Abivard tries to anticipate the next move by the Videssians; he is summoned to Mashiz to explain to Sharbaraz why he has not made greater progress and has to determine what next move will both make progress against the enemy and preserve his own command (and possibly life!). It is as though Abivard is playing two games of chess at the same time—one against emperor Sharbaraz, and one against the Videssians—and both of them end in a stalemate. Only at the end of the book is a real breakthrough made which seems to hint at a possible end to the Makuran-Videssos war. (Not to be revealed here!)
Another weakness is the telling of the story from only one viewpoint—that of Abivard. The Videssians are seen only from a distance most of the time except for the various instances of actual combat—and the Avtokrator, Maniakes, is a distant and rather nebulous figure. While the reader is kept guessing as to what the Videssians’ next move might be, switching from one viewpoint to the other would have been a way to maintain a greater degree of interest on the part of the readers, rather than forcing them to wait interminably for the next plot advancement at some distant point in the future after yet more of the Thousand Cities have been sacked.
This book and “Hammer and Anvil” tell essentially the same story, each from a different point of view. It probably would have been better to combine them into one, but for readers who are willing to persevere, be assured that the final volume, “Videssos Besieged”, will bring about a resolution and a strong finish to the series.
***** review by Chuck Graham *****
August 25, 2025
The war continues. This series does this in an interesting way. This book focuses on the point of view of the main character Abivard from the first book, while number two of the series focused on his enemy Maniakes. Each one is the evil enemy of the other and of course neither is evil as they both are fighting for their own people. The character growth and development of these two and the other characters is well done in each book. Each character is sympathetic in their own book. The book events are logical and well done. This is actually a good study of what happens when two sides are well matched and each side has its own weaknesses of differing sorts. This is a fun fictional reading based on real Byzantine history set in an alternate world that is not our own. Recommended.
June 15, 2007
Boring. I finished it, not sure why. Interminable, repetitive battle scenes with no furtherance of the plot. There must be at least a 4th in the series, but why bother.
December 7, 2013
This is another one of Turtledove's series that I really enjoyed. He develops the characters so well that you want to follow along to see what happenes to them. This was a really fun series.
August 14, 2014
One of Turtledove's better series , good read
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews