Napoleon Disentimed

The MacNair of MacNair #1

by Hayford Peirce

THE MacNAIR of MacNAIR, CONMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE, PULLED INTO A PARALLEL UNIVERSE BY DESPERATE REVOLUTIONARIES Finds his life endangered by madmen of every stripe The Earl sighed deeply. "What is there to say other than that the sixth Napoleon is now upon the throne in Paris and the entire world must suffer the whims of the French tyranny." "And England herself is ruled by Bonapartes?" "They call themselves Bonaparte-Hanover, but it comes to quite the same thing: the darkest tyranny prevails." "Hard to fully comprehend," muttered the MacNair. "What a remarkable man the first Napoleon must have been. Wicked, to be sure, but still: to have conquered all of Europe -- remarkable!" "Perhaps. To me the fact of his wickedness far exceeds his remarkableness." The Earl of Kensington scowled. "But then again, what should one expect from a man whose sole contribution to Western civilization is the invention of the flush toilet?" "And who is that?" asked the MacNair, bewildered by the strange turn this conversation had suddenly taken. "Why Napoleon Bonaparte, of course. You mean you don't go to the bonny in your own world?" Desperately jumping from universe to universe and century to century, on the run from berserk Emperors, secret policemen, vengeful wives, and maddened doppelgangers, the supremely unruffled MacNair still finds time to save an empire, marry an heiress, and invent the two hallmarks of modern civilization, the indoor flush toilet and French Champagne!

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Time Travel, Fantasy

306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Hayford Peirce was a writer of science fiction, mysteries, and a spy thrillers, and was known for his light, well-writted stories. His short science fiction stories appeared in Analog, Galaxy, and Omni, and his short mystery stories appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 2005, my booklog says: Parallel-universe farce, silly & well-written. First novel. 3 stars, not a keeper.

Peirce's masterwork was "The 13th Majestral" aka "Dinosaur Park". So that's where to start. Very entertaining book. If you are a Jack Vance fan, you'll like that one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Once you've read that one, and if you like it, you may want to look at other people's reviews of "Napoleon Disentimed."

[Michael Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hayford Peirce actually might be one of the best-kept secrets of science fiction. I discovered him through his wonderful Jack Vance homage 'The Thirteenth Majestral', and felt compelled to seek out other works by him. These are sadly lacking, as there seem to be only a few Tor paperbacks out there, and then some independent publishers that have issued a few other volumes of his stories, but these, alas are somewhat difficult to track down.

All the wit and colorful prose of 'Majestral' is present in this story as well, and though the plot gets somewhat too convoluted towards the end, Peirce manages to keep everything moving along quite nicely, and his writing is a joy to read, even if sometimes I was confused about some of the details.

[David Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic read! A really enjoyable diversion from heavier and more serious works.

The story is full of cliché characters, fairly predictable twists, and a completely unsurprising ending, as well as a fair bit of racial stereotyping. The narrative is quite fast paced and engaging, but it lacks substance in places.

That's the bad.

The good is that this book is incredibly FUN. It's lighthearted, the roguish protagonist is hilarious, and his motivations, justifications, and thought processes are thoroughly entertaining.
The world created is great, intricate in its detail and it's history, and utterly fascinating in terms of functionality.

I enjoyed this immensely

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An American con man thinks he has gone back in time--but discovers that, instead, he has entered an alternate universe. It is 1991, just not his 1991. In the universe he finds himself in, Napoleon has conquered much of Europe. There was no Waterloo. Instead, Napoleon conquered England and then created a "United States of Europe." The American finds himself involved in a plot to use a time machine to go back into the past to kidnap Emperor Napoleon I himself.
But I don't understand how the alternate universe did not invent champagne. A France without champagne even if Napoleon had won his wars....incroyable!

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read and enjoyed other books by this author, and I was looking foward to this one based on the synopsis, but it just didn't work for me. Admittedly, I couldn't find an ebook of this, so I was reading the physical book in bits and pieces at home. I've been reading it for a long time now, just forgot to mark when I started, so I can't say exactly how long. I don't know if it never grabbed me because I was never reading very much at one time or if I was never reading much at one time because it wasn't grabbing me. Some of both probably. Not an awful book, but disappointing.

[Allen McDonnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fun Read

I first read this novel as a paperback when it was published decades ago and recently purchased the eBook to enjoy it again.
The characters come from two separate universes neither of which are exactly like our. One is a very talented confidence man while his doppelgänger is less talented but more wiley.
After an exciting series of near disaster the universe finally smiles upon our main character but not quite the way he was hoping for.
This is a fun read and goes pretty quickly, highly recommended for twisty plotted adventure story fans.

[Aladino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il romanzo procede a ritmo frenetico senza sosta con continui capovolgimenti di scena e personaggi che vengono sbalzati da un capo all'altro del mondo. Il taglio è decisamente comico e le situazioni e i dialoghi sono surreali.
E' divertente e si legge in fretta.
Unica pecca il finale che si intuisce abbastanza facilmente con largo anticipo.