The Peshawar Lancers

by S.M. Stirling

On an alternate Earth irrevocably transformed by a violent spray of comets in the 1870s, the planet is controlled by two superpowers--the British Empire and Russia--who appear to be heading for a deadly showdown, unless superspy Captain Alfred King can stop it. By the author of On the Oceans of Eternity.

Genres: Alternate History, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Steampunk, Historical Fiction, Adventure

420 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have realized when the blurb on the back of the book praised its "world-building" and "action" that that meant there would be no:

-Remotely sympathetic or even interesting characters
-Dialogue that was consistent from page to page
-Plot that made even a lick of sense

I respect the steampunky British Raj atmosphere that Stirling created, but the clunky writing, as well as the other issues listed above, just killed this for me.

For example: Stirling is so concerned with not saying "he" or naming a character by name more than once in a paragraph that he comes up with all sorts of ridiculous synonyms: "the landowner" was the most ridiculous.

And I think you're only allowed to use the phrase "unmusical skrrrng" once in a book. Perhaps once in your lifetime. Not twice.

The cast of characters is like Minoriteam all over again--you've got your white dude, your Afghan, your Sikh, your Jew, your Frenchman, and a couple (but only a couple) ladies thrown in.

Skip this one. Trust me.

[Vartika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise to this book is rather near five-star: a major chunk of the northern hemisphere is destroyed by a series of meteors in the 1870s, causing a collapse of civilisation in the West and a massive shift in geopolitics as the British Empire shifts its base to India.

With the resources and innovation of Europe and North America lost, technology still runs behind 250 years later and the new world powers are the Angrezi Raj with power over India, Australia and South Africa; the Dai-Nippon in China and East Asia; the Caliphate run from Damascus; France-outre-mer centered in Algiers; and the Czarist Empire in Russia, which is in fact controlled by the satanic cult of Malik Nous and is preparing for global conquest. Add to that the slow efforts to recolonise the now-savage West, and you have the exciting promise of a steampunky adventure in alternative history simply begging to be read.

Sadly, the story does no justice to the premise—A bulk of The Peshawar Lancers consists of meaningless plot, unidimensional characters, and clunky writing. The world-building, too, which most readers admire despite all the other flaws in the book, suffers greatly from poor research in many places.

Western readers tend to think Stirling's grasp on Indian culture and history in this book is commendable, but it's barely credible: for instance, the protagonist listens to 'Keralan' music but can't understand its Kannada lyrics (it's Carnatic music, and Kannada is spoken in a different state altogether), and the festival of Diwali is described with such erroneousness that it's laughable. Stirling can't even get historical figures right—who the fuck is Mahmud of Ghanza? Still, these aren't the greatest of errors (although they're nothing a good editor couldn't have fixed, which leads me to think this book had none).

What catapults this book into definite ridiculousness is the way the British settler-colonisers are portrayed. Stirling does the absolutely implausible—alternative history be damned—by indianising the British and making them adopt Hinduism and its cultural customs. Anyone familiar with the basics of colonialism would know this couldn't happen—the three tenets of colonialism are Christianity, civilisation, and commerce—and not least in a scenario where the original homeland is lost. It would be one thing for the settlers to appropriate some facets of Indian dress, but to see them exclaim to Ganesha and 'Pravati' while deriding the customs of the 'Old' Empire is something else altogether (Want to hear a joke? The Imperial Princess is named Sita Mary Elizabeth Jandeen Victoria Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).

In conclusion: The Peshawar Lancers is definitely pulpy. But is it good pulp? That I found the appendices more engrossing than the actual novel, much of which I skimmed over, should tell you enough, as should the fact that I figured out the plot and its biggest twists within the first 70 pages. I found this book perfectly wasteful of my time (not to mention a promising concept), and could've easily passed on it altogether without missing much. As should you.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say, that was a pretty rollicking alternate-history adventure!

A meteor or some such falling heavenly body strikes the earth at the end of the 1800's. All technological progress halts, and the world is thrown screaming back into the Middle Ages as nuclear winter makes coastal locations uninhabitable. So the British Empire moves itself to India, and becomes the leading world-governor.

This is perhaps the best explanation for a world existing in a quasi-steampunk situation, dontcha think? Yeah, me too.

The characters are awesome, if you can get your head around the "every main character is a bad-ass mofo" mentality. I had no problem getting around that personally. It reminds me of my own life, in which the main character is, coincidentally, a bad-ass mo-fo. (That's me.)

So, for all y'all steampunk-erites and alt-Britain-ophiles, give this book a read, sahibs and memsahibs!

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book highlights both Stirling's strengths and weaknesses. His main strength is the power of his underlying ideas, and the depth with which he has thought them out. The premise is that the entire northern hemisphere basically got wiped out by meteors in the 19th century, but Britain managed to relocate some of its population and retain its power base -- in India, Australia, and South Africa. Flash forward 250 years, but with technology lagging behind, and resources much different than they otherwise would be. So the land still has Empires, steam engines, etc...

His main weakness is in characterization. Even his best characters tend to be very thin, and this book doesn't have anything approaching his best characters. Everyone here seems to have come straight out of central casting. His other weakness is in doing fantasy. This becomes a problem in the latter half of the Emberverse. Here, it rears its head in the form of the Sisters of True Dreaming. These people have a genetic trait that allows them to see parallel, possible worlds. It's a neat advantage, because it can let them know precisely what will happen next, and thereafter. The problem with this, for me, is that these woman are kept brutally oppressed by their Russian masters, and have been for a couple of centuries. But the book itself shows what an enormous advantage they would have in any tactical or strategic encounter. So how did they not overcome their oppression? It makes little sense to me.

But that's not why the book fell flat for me. Instead, it fell flat because I thought the entire thing was a rather unimaginative story hitched onto a very cool idea. The surprises were more like winks, because everything happened just as one would expect in this sort of tale. In other words, there was no need for a Sister of True Dreaming, because everything proceeded as if it were on rails. While diverting, and easy to read, this was not nearly his best.

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book on top of one of the many shelves of my father's library. Read the synopsis on the back and knew my Dad to be a reader with great taste. I found my Dad's bookmark in the book, checked the publication date and realized he got this book when he was getting sick, and never finished it. As an act of fealty to him, I vowed to read it. That was 4 years ago. Having just finished it I think 1 of two things happened. 1. He read to where he was and knowingly stopped because he was bored out of his mind and disappointing with how Stirling thought he was Rudyard f-ing Kipling at a fashion show and not an interesting author. Or 2. It was so boring that it actually killed him. Too soon? I don't think so, so serious am I about how much I did not like this book.
How can you screw up such an AMAZING premise? Stirling clearly understands his subject matter and writes about British-Raj India like the master historian he is. But my god is it ever horrendously boring. The action is stale and comical in its predictability. The Peshawar Lancers get all of 2 pages to do their thing. It is just page after page of intense description and exposition, and frankly it is so thick you might want to have a MA to understand some of it. Stirling has a vast knowledge of language, sadly I do not. He writes so dryly that I committed the sin, ABSOLUTE SIN, of skipping pages of descriptions just to get to dialogue and move things on.
The characters are one dimensional and cartoonish. The good guys are damned good, the bad guys are f-ing evil, and the ladies are not totally in distress all the time but almost there. No one has any real depth, no motivations are clear aside from the mere fact that the good do good and the bad do bad.
An army of fortune telling ladies are enslaved by the Russians, sad, right? Not really, when you see just one of them on their own is one of the most tactically deadly weapons on a battlefield. How on EARTH did the entire race of these chicks get captured? No idea. Maybe I skipped it.
Either way. I read it, I communed with my Dad, and I thought, he must have HATED this one and I would have loved to joke about it with him.
I heartily suggest skipping it.

[Tom Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Peshawar Lancers is a rip-roaring, swashbuckling tale of Alternate History rooted firmly in the tradition of Rudyard Kipling and other 19th Century 'adventure' writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Set in a world where the planet was devastated by a spray of comets in the mid-1870s, the world of The Peshawar Lancers is a far different one from ours today. Empires still rule the world, with the British Empire, now centered in Delhi being the major power. Our hero, Captain Athelstane King is drawn into a far-reaching conspiracy that threatens the survival of his family, his country and the very planet itself. Against him, are the agents of the now Satan worshipping, human eating Czar of All the Russias and our protagonists and antagonists collide in an adventure that echoes back to the spy-games and derring-do that characterized the rivalry between Britain and Russia at the end of the 19th Century, a period known as 'The Great Game.'

As a genre, alternate history can be pretty tricky to master. Everyone always mentions the guru of alternate history, the man himself, Harry Turtledove- and for sure, Turtledove has pulled off some brilliant speculative fiction in his time. He's also disappointed me greatly as he's transplanted contemporary history and changed some times, places and names in other cases, which to me, smacks of laziness. Phillip K. Dick of 'Blade Runner' and 'Total Recall' fame probably owns the title of best around with his masterpiece 'The Man in High Castle' which depicts a truly creep-tastic vision of a history where the Axis won World War II.

So how does Stirling measure up? Extremely well, as a matter of fact. It's obvious that he's done his research on the colonial and imperial periods of British history and his scenario of civilization desperately trying to piece itself back together after a catastrophe is plausible enough. The British Empire and French Empires would have had the resources to evacuate themselves and their governments to their overseas possessions and with civilization collapsing all around humanity, it's hard not to imagine that some crazy, Satan worshiping cannibalism could spring up.

Even more impressive is that the political structure of this new British Empire is plausible as well. Surviving a Second Mutiny after the comets impact throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the ruling British elites survive by relying on the loyalty of the aristocracy already in place and out of necessity, surrendering a lot of imperial arrogance and recognizing whom exactly they were now ruling. This 'partnership' instead of 'overlordship' hearkens back to the very earliest days of the East India Company, where British officers and soldiers won the respect of indigenous allies and soldiers by leading from the front and not directing from the back.

Overall: Stirling has produced a fascinating vision of what might have been that is plausible, interesting and easy for the reader to buy into. Taking that vision and adding an adventure worthy of the very best of Rudyard Kipling or H. Rider Haggard produces a readable, exciting book that's the perfect beach book for science fiction fans heading out for their summer vacation.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially rather off-put by the incredibly James Bond-i-ness of the protagonist. Athelstane King, home on leave after a wound to the designated hero area aka shoulder, has sex with his sexy sexy concubine who promptly gets fridged by assasins so he can appropriately swear revenge. I rolled my eyes.

It picks up, though. Oh, he never gets any less Marty-Stu. But it turns out that it's just that Stirling doesn't do deep characters, really at all. But at least Athelstane is not the only one. His sister Cassandra is just as ludicrously badass. As are the prince, and the princess, and the French ambassador, and King's two retainers, and the mysterious seeress, and the chief of intelligence. Even the Emperor turns out to be pretty badass. They're arranged against a mustache-twirler of the first degree, who literally worships Satan and eats babies and wants to end all life on earth, and pretty much can't be considered dead until you've seen the body and maybe not even then.

So this is high pulp. If you can accept that and run with it, it's actually pretty fun high pulp.

The characters are wildly entertaining. The action sequences are very well paced and often fairly creative. There are camel chases and ambushes on trains and exploding airships, basically across the width of India and into Afghanistan. There are several fairly unbelievable and yet still satisfying romances. There are tricksy plotting and can't-trust-anyone paranoia and ancient family obligations stretching back multiple generations.

Also impressive is the world-building. There's a very complicated setup--in the 1870s, a comet killed off most of the northern hemisphere, which is why civilization is now pretty much centered on India with a handful of rivals. The actual sequence of events, both climatological and political, is very well-thought-out. There are a series of appendices at the end that detail everything, but they're exactly what appendices should be--interesting but not necessary. The world-building is done well enough in the text that you have an excellent idea of how it all works, fast enough to not get frustrated, and then if you're still curious, there's some additional details at the end.

I did find the ending slightly unsatisfying, in that while the heroes all totally kick ass and take names, at the very end they're kind of saved by deus-ex-machinas. Well, the groundwork is laid and the events are foreshadowed, but I still would have liked to see them solve their own problems rather than be rescued by circumstances beyond their control.

So. Great literature, this is not. But it's really good pulp.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

S.M. Stirling is a master of alternate worlds. In his Nantucket trilogy, the island of Nantucket and all its inhabitants get mysteriously transposed with the island’s bronze-age counterpart and must figure out how to live in this strange new–or old–world. In his Emberverse series, Stirling explores what happens to the world left behind by the disappearance of Nantucket, a world where the laws of physics–specifically, energy reactions–are now completely changed. No more gunpowder, no more internal combustion, no more electricity….even steam engines no longer work. Welcome to the Dark Ages, take II. The Sky People and its sequel In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings introduces an alternate solar system where our early space probes to Mars and Venus found civilizations there in the vein of tales told by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And in The Peshawar Lancers we are treated to an alternate version of our world, eerily changed.

Stirling’s vision for The Peshawar Lancers is of an Earth that was struck a devastating blow by a series of meteors in the 1870s, completely rearranging the development of society in the subsequent years. In the face of effects similar to the nuclear winter we lived in fear of for forty years, British PM Benjamin Disraeli moved the seat of the British Government–and as much of the British infrastructure as he could manage–to India. The French are now centered in Algiers, the Japanese and Chinese have merged their empires (or the Japanese took over China–its unclear which), and Russia is now a theocratic state ruled by the Czar but controled by the priests of Chernobog–understood by most of the formerly-western world as well as the Ottomans to be Satan–and their cult of cannibalism. Now it is 2025, and society in the Angrezi-Raj (British India) has progressed in many ways to paralell our early 1900s in terms of technology and social change.

Another area Stirling shines is his ability to handle an ensemble cast. We are herein treated to the story of Athelstane King and his sworn companion/servant (because this is India and that’s how it works) Narayan Singh trying to survive long enough to figure out why assassins keep popping out of the woodwork. And we have King’s sister Cassandra, a prominent astronomer working on a project to guard against another Fall, whose person and project are both coming under mysterious attack as well. The Imperial Prince Charles III thinks he has issues keeping his sister Sita from getting into (serious) trouble now, dealing with tantrums about being forced to marry the French prince. When the $#!^ hits the fan, he’ll wish for such simple problems….Why is the sinister Russian Okhrana agent Count Ignatieff targetting the King family for his evil schemes? And what is the deal with Yasmini, his elf-like slave girl? Without giving away plot points, all these characters’ disparate plotlines will be drawn together into a grand adventure such as might have been written by H. Rider Haggard or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Stirling is one of those rare authors who is able to write from the perspective of his characters without his own beliefs influencing them unduly. As a result, I have little to no idea of his personal beliefs in almost anything. But that’s okay. The characterization of his worlds and their people are all the better for this skill. This is a man who writes not for any political or social aim but for sheer adventure. It makes perfect sense that a British Empire based in India would eventually syncretize Hinduism and Christianity to some degree. It makes sense that eating beef would become taboo, even for the British-descended folks. (Keep in mind that this differs from the real British Raj in one very important way–in our past, the British were there as an outpost. In this story, India is the seat of the Empire.) This allows him to treat all his characters and their belief systems with respect, only offering criticism through other characters and even then sparingly. Here Stirling writes Hindu, Christian(ish) and Muslim characters, in the Emberverse novels a major character is a devoted Wiccan. Stirling? I suspect he’s an atheist or agnostic, based on his seeming lack of opinion, but that doesn’t put me off reading his works.

Now to content: language, sex, violence….its all here. Not in copious amounts, but its here. There’s even a tiny dose of the occult mixed in with the addition of the Satan-worshipping Chernobog cult. I don’t recall much language in this book, but I do in other Stirling books so that may just be my memory playing tricks again. Also, a good deal of it is non-American swearing (British or Russian, primarily….at one point a character yells “Bugger sportsmanship and sod you!” to his opponent.) There is a healthy amount of violence all through the book, usually not too gory, but occasionally a little disturbing depending on different circumstances. Also, Athelstane King is a British hero in the James Bond tradition. There is sex. Not really explicit, but not shied away from either. And as used here, it is (at least usually) an important element in either plot or character development, so there’s really no getting away from it.

I cannot stress enough how much fun this book is. I seriously recommend it to all of you.

[Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, the best part was the appendix. Interesting world, somewhat flat plot.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The British India steampunk context makes for a very pulp-ish vibe. Fun to read but not mind blowing.

[liirogue · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been an amazing book. The premise is a little unusual - the earth is struck by a series of meteors, causing a miniature ice age. Western civilization essentially collapses, and British society relocates to India. Against this backdrop of severe cultural/social upheaval, there is a mysterious assassination plot afoot.

But the author, I felt, really lets you down. The characters tended to be flat and stereotypical. The basic plot was very simplistic (I foresaw every "twist" by the time I was halfway through the book), though the author tries to distract from that by adding in all of this extraneous detail. And there is just too much extraneous detail in general. A lot of research obviously went into this book. And the author really wants to make sure the reader knows just how much research was done.

That being said, I did enjoy the novelty of the situation the author proposes. He also has several societies devolve into cannibalism. For me, the most interesting parts of the book were those dealing with how these cannibalistic (or formerly cannibalistic) tribes were dealing with the trauma of these acts, and how the rest of the world viewed these societies.

[Ashish · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Peshawar Lancers is... extraordinary.
It started like any old historical, very familiar ground to anyone coming across Flashman or the Kipling-Corbett path... then you realize it's not a history adventure at all, but a fantasy world steeped in cannibal horror, futurecasting, and forced eugenics. Then it flips over into a faux-Victorian, inventor-scientist (complete with plucky heroine!) steampunk world with dirigibles, transistors and babbage engines... and if this is sound like a horrific mishmash, that's because I'm not SM Stirling. He ties it together in one of the finest, most masterful displays of fictional cohesiveness and integration I've rarely seen, putting vastly incogruous technologies, values, worlds, science and sci-fi, fantasy and reality, and an extraordinary, loving attention to detail that remains familiar and internally plausible while leaping through massive chasms of suspension of disbelief, and carrying with it a vast, strange but hauntingly familiar world, a huge cast of empathetic, easily identifiable and memorable characters and locales, and through it all, remains... fun.
It's hard to classify this book; but whatever shelf it might come from, once it's in your hands, it's unputdownable.

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite excited to read this when it was selected as a Bookclub pick, the only alternative history that I've read so far mainly focused on events altering during the Second World War.

The set up is that a huge meteor shower hit the northern hemisphere during 1878.
The book is set in 2025 where the worlds climate has recovered and the majority of the population now live in the South Pacific.

What I practically loved about this book was the clash of cultures, you had placed such as Oxford and Delhi being two of the main settings.

So why the low score? I really struggled to connect with the characters, I'm not sure if Sterling's fantastic world building just made them seem bland. But I just couldn't identify with any of them.
About halfway through I realized that I had no investment with them, even though I didn't find the book a chore as the prose was well written I didn't see the point in carrying on.
Which is a shame really as felt it had such huge potential to be fantastic read.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love most of Stirling's alternate universe books, but this one fell a little flat for me. In the 1800s, a meteor strike in the Atlantic causes tsunamis and climatic changes that basically depopulates Europe and most of North America. However, the British Empire lives on from India, South America, and Australia.

A hundred years later, Russia, which has turned to ritualistic cannibalism, has targeted a family based on the visions of young women with the ability to see the future. A member of the family can *prevent* a second cataclysm that would wipe out the human race. It merges into a plot by racist South Africans to murder the Emperor.

There's plot, there's intrigue, there's action, and then it ends. We never find out what the family is supposed to stop (or even when). All the romantic subplots end in happy marriage, and I was left feeling a little let down after the build up.

I would probably have given the book a higher rating if there were any sign of a sequel.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This singleton is set in the year 2025, but not in our future. The premise is that a shower of comets hit Earth in the 1860′s, pushing civilization to the brink of extinction both by the impacts themselves and related general cooling. The British Empire relocated its seat to Delhi, and the story takes place in what is India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in our timeline. The Empire is ruled by the Angrezi Raj, or King-Emperor.

This is classic swords and horses adventure. Very gripping, with some great characters. The middle of the book was a little “unfocused”, and Stirling could have added dates to the section headings, since there is a bit of jumping backwards and forwards. The end is one long drawn-out cliffhanger after another. As usual, Stirling proves that he knows his history, weapons and tactics. A real page turner and recommended for for high adventure buffs.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1374

[Sam McDonald]

This review originally appeared on my blog The Audiophile: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot....

There are plenty of books I want to listen to, but they just aren't available in audio form. It frustrating, but it is what it is. Sometimes, however, my patience is rewarded in a big way. Case in point, the book we're reviewing today. We're reviewing the alternate history novel The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling.

The Peshawar Lancers takes place in a world where, in 1878, the Earth was bombarded by a series of asteroids. This event would later become known as The Fall. In addition to the chaos of the impacts, there were massive tsunamis and five years of endless of winter. The European powers fled south to their colonies in warmer climates. The novel takes place in the year 2025. The climate has long since stabilized, but the world has been forever changed. The British Empire, now known as The Angrezi Raj, is centered India and has its capital in Delhi. They've rather thoroughly gone native and the extended exile has produced a unique Anglo-Indian hybrid culture.

The novel follows several characters from across the Angrezi Raj, and their plots do intertwine and intersect. First, we have Athelstan King, and his right-hand man Narayan Singh, of the Peshawar Lancers; an elite military team who guard the frontier of the Viceroyalty of India. We also follow Athelstan's twin sister Cassandra, a highly respected astronomer who is reaching a way to prevent a second Fall. We also follow Prince Charles and Princess Sita of the British Royal Family. Finally, there is Yasmini, a psychic girl on the run from the sworn enemy of the Angrezi Raj, the Russian Empire. Oh, did I mention that Russia is ruled by satanic cannibals?

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this novel was worth the wait. This is one of the best alternate history novels I've read in quite some time. S.M. Stirling has long been hailed as a master of worldbuilding, and those skills are on full display here. The world of The Peshawar Lancers is rich, vibrant and detailed. I could practically smell the spices on the streets of Delhi, feel the rush the wind on a soaring airship, and overall just really felt like I was going on a swashbuckling alternate history British-Indian adventure.

Let's delve into the specifics of the worldbuilding. The Angrezi Raj is divided into three primary parts: the viceroyalties of India, Australia and the Cape. The Viceroyalty of India comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia and a bit of Thailand. It is the one we get to see the most of, and it appears to be where the Anglo-Indian hybrid culture is strongest. It is the cultural and political heart of the empire. Each of the viceroyalties operates its own colonies across the globe, and India is in-charge of managing the British home isles. Oh, how the tables have turned indeed. For extra irony, the British of the home isles closely follow Indian standards of fashion and the India's spin on English.

I suppose I should elaborate on that bit. English has gone through a few changes since The Fall. Several lone-words from a smattering of Indian languages have crept in. Thus, the Angrezi are prone to say things such as "The Kunwar must fulfill his rajadharma for the good of the Angrezi Raj". Also, the "Th" sound has been replaced by "Dee" and W has been supplanted by V. Despite all of this, the Angrezi insist that they are speaking the exact same English as Queen Victoria I.

The Church of England has pretty much become Hinduism in all but name; though it is mentioned a more conservative version, closer to the original thing, exists as well. Characters frequently swear in the name of various Hindu deities. Though it was also mentioned that Benjamin Disraeli, who lead the evacuation efforts during The Fall, has become a saint. Perhaps in the biggest bit of irony, the Angrezi consider beef-eating to be extremely taboo, and Angrezi cuisine has fully embraced Indian ingredients. Charles and Sita shudder at the thought that their ancestors ate cows. There's a particularly amusing scene where Henri de Vascogne, a visiting French diplomat, is amazed at how flavorful and tasty Angrezi cuisine is; noting the old stories about British cuisine being bland must have false. In fact, he finds Angrezi breakfast foods to be a bit over spiced for his taste.

Most of Britain's colonies in Southern Africa, plus a few Portuguese and would-have-been German colonies, have become the Viceroyalty of the Cape. They're pretty much Apartheid Era South Africa, but bigger and with a steampunk-lite level of technology. There's talk of them breaking away from the Raj, but they're still loyal...for the moment. Afrikaans has become a dead language, but it, along with Bantu, still managed to contribute several words to the Kapenaar dialect.

Australia and New Zealand form the Viceroyalty of Australia. Out of all of the viceroyalties it is probably closest to the version from our world. Fiercely loyal to the Raj, but culturally more conservative, meaning closer to what we'd recognize as Victorian culture. Their English is the closest to our own, to the point that Athelstan can't understand an Australian member of the Peshawar Lancers. Australia has a colony in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Speaking of which, what happened to America? It got hit hard by The Fall, and the resulting tsunamis. The less effected region couldn't handle the influx of refugees, and America collapsed into Neo-Barbarism and tribalism. There are a few civilized places; Texas has a semi-civilized tribal confederation, California is home to a series of theocratic city-states, and the Mormons are doing pretty well in Utah. The Angrezi have a few outposts at the major rivers, but no serious settlements.

Now let's talk about the rest of the world. France, which is now known as France-outre-mer, evacuated to its North African colonies. They've held onto Marseilles and a few other places in Southern France, and have retained most of their original culture. They've also begun resettling Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, though that's being slightly complicated by the Caliphate of Damascus, the successor to the Ottoman Empire. Egypt has managed to become independent, and acts as a buffer state between France and the Caliphate. It's also mentioned that Brazil is doing fairly well for itself, albeit they also happen to be members of the caudillo of the month club. The Dutch evacuated to Indonesia and exist as a client state of the Raj as the Republic of Batavia. They've got a hybrid culture with Indonesia like the British do with India.

The Raj's main rival for power is Dai-Nippon. They're a union of China and Japan, and by that I mean Japan invaded China during The Fall. They control the Japanese home isles, China, a good chunk of Eastern Asia and they have a colony on the west coast of North America. They are ruled by a Mikado who, these days, spends just as much time, if not more, in Peking as he does in Edo. And yeah, Beijing and Tokyo are still called Peking and Edo. From what we glimpse it appears the Westernization has slightly reversed, with the Nippiness favoring traditional clothing, and samurai still play a role in society.

By are the most notable resident of the post-Fall world, other than the Angrezi themselves, is the Russian Empire. The Fall has a massive impact on the Russian psyche. As a result, they turned their backs on Christianity and embraced Satanism. Nobody know how exactly this happened, but it is speculated that it might be a very corrupted version the Yazidi belief in Melek Taus, the peacock angel. Indeed, the Russians often refer to Satan as Melek Taus; though they also associate him with the Slavic god Chernobog.

Russia retreated to their Central Asian territories, and their capital is Samarkand. Russia makes a point of keeping its Kazakh and Uzbek subjects terrified and in-line by, among other things, eating them. At one point Count Ignatieff, the main villain of the book, looks forward to getting home to Samarkand to enjoy a delicious suckling Uzbek. So yeah, the Russians literally eat babies.

The most notable feature of Russian Empire are the Sisters of the True Dreamer. They're descended from a nun who had psychic powers, which they all inherited. Boys go mad around puberty, but girls keep for several years before their madness sets in. The madness can be averted with sex, but that also removes their powers, so the Russians make a point of ensuring that doesn't happen. You might wonder why they never try to run away, but there could be several reason for this. If the girls never see themselves getting away in their dream, they won't try, and thus you get a self-fulfilling prophecy. Alternatively, they do try, but their sisters rat them out. The Sisters are the one true fantasy element in an otherwise mostly steampunk-lite sort of novel. There is one particularly amusing scene where Yasmini gets a glimpse of several alternate worlds, including our world.

So, how is this story for realism? Well, perhaps not the most realistic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was about the size of Mount Everest, so I'm not sure if humanity could have realistically survived The Fall. Of course, that depends on how much total mass those asteroids amounted to. Stirling has said that he wrote The Peshawar Lancers because he want to write something that like the adventures stories of Rudyard Kipling, which you can't really do in the modern explored world; but he also wanted to avoid the disappointment of historical fiction.

He knew what he wanted to happen, built the story around that, and the book is all the better for that. As you may have guess, I adore the worldbuilding Sterling put into this book. This book is often described as being steampunk, but I'm not sure if I entirely sure if I agree with that label. It is certainly true that the book includes several things often found in steampunk works, such as airships and Babbage Engines, but for the most part the technology is typical Victorian and Edwardian stuff. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the exact labeling is fairly inconsequential. At the end of the book there is a very large appendix that really fleshes out the details of the history of this alternate world.

It was kind of amazing to think that Athelstan and Cassandra, both in their mid-twenties, were about the same age as me when I was reading this book. I felt the same way about Jazz Bashara when I read Artemis, which I will get around to reviewing at some point. Prince Charles was, I would say, probably different from the Prince Charles of our world. He certainly sounds younger and more handsome than the Prince Charles of our world. Well, that and he's the son of King-Emperor John II, who has no analogue in our world that I can think of. One touch I liked is that the British Royal Family is still called Saxe-Coburg Gotha. Germany was destroyed during The Fall, and thus World War I never happened, so they never changed their name to Windsor.

Cassandra's romantic struggles give us insight into the society of the Raj. It's mentioned that women have made considerable strides and advances, but they still lack the vote. Cassandra is attracted to Charles, but if she marries him, she'll have to give up her hard-won position at the university. So it seems that, beneath the adventure and exoticism, the Raj still has its share of issues to sort out. Of course, for me personally, the lack of air conditioning would be a real killer.

I haven't really been talking about the characters. That not because I thought they were bad, or that I didn't enjoy them. I did, very much so, but when I think of The Peshawar Lancers I always think first and foremost about the amazing worldbuilding. Hey, if nothing else, it gives you something to discover when you read this book.



I would also like to take a moment to plug the awesome audiobook version. The audiobook version is, of course, the whole reason we're having this review. It is narrated by Shaun Grindell, who perfectly captures the story. I'm very happy that this amazing work of alternate history is available in audiobook form at long last.

Well, there you have it. I've been waiting for The Peshawar Lancers to come out in audio for quite some time, and it was well worth the wait. Easily one of the best alternate history novels I've read in a while.

[Tim Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

_The Peshawar Lancers_ by S. M. Stirling is an interesting alternate history by one of the most prominent authors of this sub-genre of science fiction. The setting is very unusual, one that I have never encountered before. In 1878, either a series of comets or one large comet that broke up impacted the Earth over a space of twelve hours, devastating Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, and North America, with millions dying from blast damage and tsunamis and later many more from starvation, disease, social breakdown, and banditry, all of which resulted not only from the immediate aftermath of the impacts but also as a result of greatly altered weather, as for decades afterward the weather was a good deal cooler due to dust in the atmosphere and temporarily altered ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream. While much of the world reverted to preindustrial if not prehistoric levels, the British Empire survived the impact to a degree. Facing tremendous problems due to devastated infrastructure, food shortages, and horrible weather, over the course of three years the upper classes, most of the middle classes, and many soldiers and skilled workers relocated to three main destinations. While half a million went to South Africa and a million went to Australia/New Zealand, a million and a half - along with Queen Victoria and the government - went to India. After enduring the continuing aftermath of the comet impacts on India as well as a decades-long Second Mutiny, eventually these new settlers and their local allies forged a new nation, Angrezi Raj. While the subcontinent's majority is still Hindu, Christians and those of European ancestry form a significant - and powerful and wealthy - minority. By the time of the events of the novel, the year 2025 (148 years after the Fall), Angrezi Raj has successfully become the dominant power in the world, governing 40% of the Earth's habitable surface and nearly 50% of its population, its domain including India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, half of Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, most of southern Africa, and had begun to resettle the British Isles and parts of North America. Though other states existed, notably Japan (known as Dai-Nippon), the Caliphate, a France in exile (known as France-outre-mer and located in North Africa and on various Mediterranean islands), and a Russia in exile (largely restricted to Central Asia and based around Samarakand), Angrezi Raj is the dominant country in the world.

The book's main characters are the heroic Captain Athelstane King of the Peshawar Lancers, a soldier who was forced by the course of events in the book to become a secret agent, his scientist sister Cassandra, who works on a steampunk-esque clockwork-like computer, his trusted Sikh companion Narayan Singh, a Muslim companion known as Ibrahim Khan, and Yasmini, a Russian seer who can see alternate timelines and possible futures (an interesting ability that really felt more like magic than science fiction). Together they became embroiled in a plot that would have threatened not only the future of Angrezi Raj but also the future existence of the King family, as Yasmini and other seers who worked for the Russians discovered that one or more members of their family were going to be very vital in the future and that their deaths would please the god that the Russians worshipped (the Russians apparently worshipped the Devil, whom they called the Peacock Angel or Tchernobog or the Black God and whose chief representative in the book was the almost over the top evil Count Vladimir Ignatieff).

The book had some interesting parallels to another work of Stirling's, _Conquistador_ (which to my mind was the better book); both books had sections that were pretty much tours of their alternate worlds, both had main characters who had large, lovingly described family estates, both books went into great detail describing the often lavish meals the characters ate, finales that involved lots of native raiders attacking in the desert, and of course both dealt with very different Earths and were set in the early 21st century. However, I thought the characters in _Peshawar Lancers_ seemed too 19th century to me; that while some obvious merging of Western and Indian culture had occurred, at their heart they still seemed too Victorian to me with regards to views on duty, honor, gender relations, etc. though for the most part without the racist overtones.

It is an interesting question as to what degree millions of European refugees would have adapted Indo-Islamic culture, though from my limited understanding of the subject, at the time of the Fall, British culture was becoming or had become rather racist and condescending much of the time towards the natives of the subcontinent, so I don't know that they would have absorbed even the amount of Indian culture that they did. On the other hand though I can't imagine a few million immigrants failing to absorb large amounts of local culture, religion, etc. from a region that today in our world has a population of a billion people.

I also thought to an extent that many of the characters, while quite distinct, were somewhat stereotypical, though maybe that is reaction on my part to Stirling using such obviously Kipling-esque character types.

Another complaint was that technology didn't seem to have advanced terribly much since the Fall. In 2025 people are using steam engines for the most part, cars are very rare, airships are pretty common (and all of them apparently use hydrogen), I don't recall any mention of heavier-than-air aircraft, and the first computers have been built, immense, warehouse sized punch-card and clockwork like machines that seem to be a favorite (like airships) of alternate history writers.

Having said that, the book certainly wasn't bad and was a pretty good adventure story that was epic in its scope; while I would not place this book in the top tier of alternate history stories, it certainly wasn't a bad read. I did appreciate the work Stirling lavished on his world, detailed in several appendices.

[Cilla Savary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story, characters, and setting. This is an alternate history. What if something happened that made most of the coastal cities uninhabitable. (Hmm... like what we might face with global warming?). Every time I had to put the book down, because, well, real life does get in the way, I did not want to. And every time I picked it up again I was immediately right back in the story. Most books I have to back up a few pages and get reacclimated to what was happening where I left off.

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The points fell in a rippling wave, and the Peshawar Lancers passed through the loose formation of their foes like a plow coulter through soft earth."

If you're looking for a plausible Alternate History, this ain't it. If you're looking for a madcap Orientalist Steampunk Adventure with air pirates, evil cults and lots of sword play you've come to the right place.

[Martin Empson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Prolix bobbins.

[Chris Danger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated but overall a fun romp

[suberakashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty mediocre, but it gets an additional star for how utterly insane the alternate history setting is

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/set-in-2025-11-the-peshawar-lancers-by-s-m-stirling-and-pedantry-regarding-languages-and-cuisine/

In this timeline, Europe and North America were devastated by meteorites in 1878, and the British Empire has resettled in India, with the royal family adopting a syncretic version of Anglicanism and Hinduism (Islam is a religion of the provinces and fringes) and ruling a polity anchored by South Africa at one end and Australia at the other. They are on friendly terms with France/Algeria, where the Napoleonic dynasty has resumed power, and threatened by the Russians, who have become devil-worshippers and cannibals based in Central Asia. China and Japan have united and are distantly threatening. Technology has developed to roughly steampunk level rather than anything more sophisticated.

Our heroes, a happy band of protagonists including the heirs to both the British and French empires (the latter is meant to be a surprise but it’s signalled pretty much from the start), with a diverse crew of warriors and a magically talented Russian defector, are battling to prevent the Russians taking over which would obviously be a Bad Thing. Starts with a fridging, then lots of steampunky combat and action, finishing with several perilous passages on an airship over Afghanistan, in the spirit of Kipling and Flashman. It’s an alternate world where the ruling classes happily bicker about who gets to rule, and where men are real men and allow women to be intellectuals too if they want. The obvious three couples all get together at the end. (Also, the Peshawar Lancers of the title are barely in the story at all.)

It’s all meant to be great fun, but several things really annoyed me about this novel. Stirling is determined to show off to us how much research he has done; but a little learning can be a dangerous thing. In Chapter 2, we have the following passage:

'The younger man whispered to his companion in Bengali: “How can we trust this cow-murdering winebibber, my teacher? Even for a Muslim and outcaste, he is vile.”'

The older man flicked a look at Ignatieff’s face to make sure he hadn’t understood—Bengali and Hindi were closely related—and the Okhrana agent beamed uncomprehending friendship.

He spoke both languages perfectly, of course.

Bengali and Hindi are not closely related. They are from different branches of the Indo-Aryan language group, Hindi from the Central subgroup and Bengali from the Eastern. In these enlightened days, you can actually ask an online translation engine to give you Bengali and Hindi versions of the phrase “How can we trust this cow-murdering winebibber, my teacher? Even for a Muslim and outcaste, he is vile.” The results are completely different:

Bengali
আমরা কিভাবে এই গো-হত্যাকারী ওয়াইনবিবারকে বিশ্বাস করব, আমার শিক্ষক? এমনকি একজন মুসলিম ও বহিরাগতদের জন্যও সে জঘন্য।
Āmarā kibhābē ē’i gō-hatyākārī ōẏā’inabibārakē biśbāsa karaba, āmāra śikṣaka? Ēmanaki ēkajana musalima ō bahirāgatadēra jan’ya’ō sē jaghan’ya.

Hindi
इस गौ-हत्यारे शराबी पर हम कैसे भरोसा कर सकते हैं, मेरे गुरु? एक मुसलमान और बहिष्कृत व्यक्ति के लिए भी वह नीच है।
Is gau-hatyaare sharaabee par ham kaise bharosa kar sakate hain, mere guru? Ek musalamaan aur bahishkrt vyakti ke lie bhee vah neech hai.

There is some similarity between the words for “cow-killer”, “gō-hatyākārī” in Bengali and “gau-hatyaare” in Hindi, and also between the words for “Muslim”, “musalima” in Bengali and “musalamaan” in Hindi, which perhaps is an indication that you shouldn’t mutter insults in a language that you’re not sure your interlocutor doesn’t understand. But otherwise, you’re probably safe using Bengali in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which is where this scene is set.

Stirling may have got confused between Bengali and Urdu, the languages of the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now just Pakistan) respectively. Urdu is very similar to Hindi, to the point that ‘closely related’ may not convey the relationship strongly enough. However his fictional Angrezi Raj seems to have lost most of its Urdu speakers.

And these languages are not obscure – Hindi and Bengali have the fourth and fifth most native speakers in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English. I can’t imagine anyone writing, for instance, “The older man flicked a look at Sanchez’s face to make sure he hadn’t understood—Spanish and English are closely related.”

One can make the excuse for Stirling that online translation services were not available when he was writing the book. But encyclopedias certainly were, and you will find no encyclopedia that gives you reason to think that Bengali and Hindi are mutually intelligible. It’s fairly clear that he did not offer the draft for review to anyone with actual first-hand knowledge of Indian languages.

On another point, my eyebrows rose sharply in Chapter 23, when “Cassandra started wolfing down a fiery chicken Marsala”. No she didn’t. Marsala sauce, with an ‘r’, is made with the sweet wine of the same name and is not ‘fiery’. Masala, with no ‘r’, is a general term for an Indian spice mix, but usually not an especially hot one. If it is hot, its name is usually qualified with a particular set of ingredients, a ‘vindaloo masala‘ for instance.

And another thing: it’s a pet peeve of mine with other writers too, but the treatment of Russian is very inconsistent. Пожалуйста, “please”, is given as “pajalsta”, and Спасибо, “thank you” as “spacebo”; if I were being phonetic, I’d use “pazhal’sta” and “spasiba” to convey how they are actually pronounced by real Russian speakers, but usually in English writers use the standard transliterations, “pozhaluysta” and “spasibo”, even though they are a bit misleading. Yet at other points Stirling does use the standard transliteration, for example in Chapter 10 where we have the exchange “Govorite-li vy po-russki?” / “Da, govoryu. Kto vy takoy?” – “Do you speak Russian?” / “Yes, I do. And who are you?” If we were being phonetic, the first two vowels in говорите and говорю sound much more like short ‘a’ than short ‘o’, and the exchange is rather stilted anyway – “Vy govorite po-russki?” / “Da, a vy kto?” would be much more idiomatic. Though we are told it is the “High Formal mode” of Russian, for what that’s worth.

Incidentally the Russian-speaker is wearing a burqua rather than a burqa, and the military caste of India are the Kyashtria rather than the Kshatriya. Again, anyone who actually knows anything about Asian cultures will pick these up immediately.

These things do matter. If you are writing about other cultures, especially if you are writing in English about formerly colonised cultures in an alternate history where they have stayed colonised, it is important to show respect by getting at least basic language and cookery facts right.

Sorry to whine. Other readers, better informed on India than I am, have commented on other mistakes in the book, but those were the ones that jumped out at me.

I know that this book is beloved by many readers, but I’m afraid that I am not among them.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

S.M. Stirling’s *The Peshawar Lancers* is a richly imagined, vividly detailed alternate history that plunges the reader into a world reshaped by catastrophe, ambition, and cultural adaptation. Published in 2002, the novel posits a global disaster in the 19th century—an asteroid impact that decimates Europe and reshapes political and cultural power across the globe, allowing the British Empire to shift its centre of gravity to India.

Stirling’s narrative is ambitious, blending adventure, political intrigue, and sociocultural speculation, while probing the resilience of human societies under extreme duress and the ways in which civilisations adapt to environmental, technological, and geopolitical upheaval.

At the heart of the novel is a vividly realised alternative British Empire, headquartered in Peshawar and projecting power across a world both familiar and transformed. Stirling’s imaginative prowess is evident in his meticulous world-building: landscapes, cities, political institutions, and social hierarchies are rendered with precision, creating a believable yet speculative world.

The relocation of imperial power to India is not treated superficially; Stirling explores the complex cultural, political, and logistical ramifications of such a shift, illustrating how institutions, technologies, and customs evolve under new pressures while reflecting on the persistence of human ambition and ingenuity.

The novel’s protagonists are richly developed and morally compelling. Captain Athelstan King, a heroic yet thoughtful figure, anchors the narrative, providing a lens through which the reader navigates the transformed world.

King is both strategist and moral actor, embodying the tension between duty, personal conscience, and the unpredictable consequences of political action. Stirling extends similar attention to supporting characters, whose loyalties, ambitions, and ethical choices reflect the broader dynamics of a society responding to catastrophe. The interplay of these figures illuminates themes of leadership, adaptation, and moral responsibility, showing that survival and success demand not only courage but ethical discernment.

Stirling’s exploration of geopolitics is intricate and plausible. The novel depicts a world in which traditional European powers are weakened or displaced, allowing Asian and Middle Eastern states to rise in prominence. Political intrigue, diplomacy, and strategic calculation are central to the narrative, and Stirling demonstrates a keen awareness of the interplay between geography, resource distribution, and human ambition. These considerations are never abstract; they manifest in the lives of individuals and the fates of nations, emphasising the human dimension of historical divergence.

Thematically, *The Peshawar Lancers* interrogates resilience, cultural adaptation, and ethical leadership. Stirling emphasises that societies are not static; they evolve in response to catastrophe, opportunity, and the decisions of those in power.

The novel examines the moral complexities of governance and imperial ambition, questioning the costs of order, the ethics of conquest, and the responsibilities of those who wield power over both people and institutions. Characters grapple with dilemmas that resonate across time and place, demonstrating that ethical reasoning and human courage are indispensable even in worlds radically altered by disaster.

Stylistically, Stirling’s prose is energetic, descriptive, and immersive. Action sequences pulse with kinetic intensity, whether in military engagements, political confrontations, or personal duels, yet are balanced by contemplative passages that explore ethical, cultural, and psychological dimensions. Dialogue is functional and revealing, advancing plot while providing insight into character, cultural norms, and philosophical reflection.

Stirling maintains a rhythm that oscillates between suspense, strategy, and reflection, creating a reading experience that is simultaneously thrilling and intellectually engaging.

The novel’s depiction of violence is thoughtful and consequential. Military engagements, assassinations, and political machinations carry moral and human weight, emphasising that conflict leaves both immediate and long-term repercussions for individuals and societies. Stirling’s attention to consequence underscores a broader thematic concern: the ethical imperatives inherent in power, strategy, and leadership. Readers are reminded that survival and success are inseparable from moral choice, and that triumph is rarely uncomplicated.

Cultural texture is a significant strength. Stirling explores the hybridised society of the Peshawar-centred empire, integrating elements of Indian, Persian, and British traditions, technologies, and political systems. This fusion is portrayed not merely as background colour but as an active driver of narrative and thematic complexity. The novel examines how traditions evolve, how societies negotiate continuity and change, and how cultural synthesis shapes ethical and political decision-making. Through these portrayals, Stirling highlights the resilience, creativity, and adaptability of human civilisations.

The episodic and multi-layered narrative allows Stirling to explore both personal and global consequences of historical divergence. The intertwining of individual lives with geopolitical developments emphasises that history is neither deterministic nor impersonal; it is shaped by choice, circumstance, and moral reasoning.

Characters’ decisions carry consequences that ripple outward, affecting not only their immediate surroundings but the broader arc of society, reflecting Stirling’s interest in the ethical dimensions of action and consequence.

Ultimately, *The Peshawar Lancers* is an immersive study of human resilience, moral responsibility, and the adaptability of civilisations. Stirling demonstrates that catastrophe can catalyse both innovation and ethical reckoning, and that leadership, courage, and moral clarity are as essential in a transformed world as in our own. The novel probes the relationship between individual agency and societal evolution, illustrating how choices made under pressure shape not only immediate outcomes but the broader trajectory of human history.

In conclusion, S.M. Stirling’s *The Peshawar Lancers* is a masterful work of alternate history that combines meticulous world-building, compelling characterisation, and thematic depth. It immerses readers in a world both dramatically altered and convincingly realised, exploring questions of leadership, ethical responsibility, cultural adaptation, and the human capacity for resilience.

Through a richly detailed narrative and reflective prose, Stirling creates a story that is thrilling, intellectually stimulating, and morally resonant, leaving the reader with a profound sense of the stakes of history, the consequences of ambition, and the enduring challenges of human agency in a transformed world.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful Steampunk Romp In An Alternate Future of India

S. M. Sterling evokes Rudyard Kipling, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling in this delightful alternate history view of a revived British Empire in the aftermath of a series of devestating cometary impacts on late 19th Century Earth. Comparing Stirling to Rudyard Kipling and other writers of Imperial Raj fiction seems most apt, since this novel is essentially an early 21st Century recounting of the "Great Game" played between the Russian and British empires over Afghanistan and much of Central Asia in the 19th century. I find Stirling's alternative future quite plausible, if I overlook his comet impact scenario for destroying most of Western European and North American civilization.
Sure, some of Stirling's characters do come across occasionally as wooden or stilted, but the main protagonist, Captain Athelstane King, is a memorable character who could have been created by Kipling too. And yet to Stirling's credit, he engages the reader with ample doses of riveting action and fine dialogue that you tend to overlook some of the book's disappointments.

Stirling's alternate history is yet another fine example of the steampunk genre created by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling in their novel "The Difference Engine". However, it lacks the graceful, almost lyrical, prose found in that novel; yet another of this book's disappointments. Still, Stirling has created a riveting future history that I hope will be the source of future novels.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been fascinated with India under the Raj since I read M.M. Kaye's _The Far Pavilions_ when I was 14. I am also a huge fan of alternate-universe histories and fantasy. Well-written steampunk is an absolute plus.

Needless to say, _The Peshawar Lancers_ (pronounced peh-SHOWER, not PESH-a-war) fulfilled all of this and more.

This is my first Stirling novel, so I can't compare it with any others, but I can tell you that it reminded me, at various times, a great deal of both Kaye and Kipling. I loved the strong female characters--and the fact that they were strong within the logical confines of their respective cultures. I loved the relationships between the sahib-log and those who had eaten their salt. (Such a great, and very accurate, phrase!) And perhaps most of all, I loved the basic premise behind why the world changed in the mid-Victorian Era--which I won't spoil here--and why the British are still in India in 2025. Characters to both love and hate; description that puts me there without overwhelming me; steampunk that fits the time and place, rather than feeling like an author asking himself, "How can I fit steampunk in here? I know! Someone can have a clockwork leg that has a wheel instead of a foot!" or some such distracting idiocy. The logic of the world, and the story within the world, is my favorite part. This is a book I'll return to.

(I am a tiny bit disappointed that none of the sahib-log had a pet mongoose, though. Just a tiny bit.)

[Hideoijj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just discovered this author, though he's apparently been around for a long time. He seems to write primarily in the alternate history subgenre, and he's very good at it. I have some problems with some of his premises (in this one, a psychic bred by a fallen Russian empire figures prominently and important plot points revolve around her; this takes it into the realm of fantasy, which I think was unnecessary), but once you choke them down, the rest of it is well-written, fully realized and very entertaining. Even the appendixes at the back are worth reading. Ok, some of the dialogue is strained as well, but if you're looking for some good action and an interesting what-if, Stirling's you're guy.

[Michael Pryor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, really. Magnificent, absorbing world building. Imagine if a giant comet storm hit the earth in Victorian times, necessitating a wholesale exodus to India. A hundred and fifty years later, the Raj endures. SM Stirling builds a fascinating, consistent imaginary society, full of detail - and this may be my hesitation about the book. The narrative, and the characters, buckle a little under the overwhelming wealth of detail which does add to the texture of the story, but slows down the unfolding plot. I've rarely been as convinced by an imaginary world, though. Outstanding, in that respect.

[Jeffrey Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Swashbuckling alternate history about the jewel in the crown -- India -- serving as the home of the British empire. Good page-turner adventure, with little character development but lots of evocative scenery and implausible coincidences. The mix of Hindi and English is particularly fun to read, for anyone familiar with both languages.
I read this years ago, before I moved to India. It was just a sort of pulp fiction novel. But since I returned from India, it is a lot more fun to read and imagine how I would write a similar alternate history.

[Maura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't do it. Just don't. Not bad enough to put down (in fact it was oddly compelling) but not good enough to actually enjoy. The feeling of release as i finished the last page was overwhelming. This book needed an editor in the worst way -- it was a 500 page book that was about 200 pages too long. Which makes me think that maybe one of Stirling's earlier books, back when he was probably forced to listen to an editor, might be enjoyable. but i'm not going to test that theory anytime soon.