The Alexander Inheritance (1)

Alexander Inheritance #1

by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, Paula Goodlett

NEW TIME TRAVEL ALT. HISTORY FROM A MASTER: Flint's Ring of Fire and Boundary series have proved him to be a master of time travel alternate history. Here then, a new tale of persons displaced in time, fighting for their lives.
Twice before, mysterious cosmic catastrophes have sent portions of the Earth across space and back in time first, with the Grantville Disaster in West Virginia, and then again with a maximum security prison in southern Illinois.
Now, the planet is struck with yet another such cataclysm, whose direct impact falls upon the Queen of the Sea, a cruise ship in the Caribbean. When the convulsions subside, the crew and passengers of the ship discover that they have arrived in a new and frightening world.
They are in the Mediterranean now, not the Caribbean. Still worse, they discover that the disaster has sent them more than two thousand years back in time. Following the advice of an historian among the passengers, Marie Easley, they sail to Egypt or, at least, where they hope Egypt will be.
Sure enough, Egypt is there ruled over by Ptolemy, the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty and one of Alexander the Great s chief generals.
Alexander the Great, it turns outs, died just two years ago. The western world has just entered what would become known as the Hellenistic Period of history, during which time Greek civilization would spread around the Mediterranean and beyond. But the first fifty years of the Hellenistic Period was the Age of Diadochi the Time of the Successors when Alexander s empire would collapse into chaos. By the time the Successors finished their strife, every single member of Alexander s dynasty would be murdered and only three of the generals who began that civil war would still be alive.
That is the new world in which the Queen of the Sea finds itself. Can Marie Easley and Captain Lars Flodden guide the crew and passengers through this cataclysm? Fortunately, they have some help: a young Norwegian ship s officer who forms an attachment to Alexander s widow; a French officer who is a champion pistol marksman; a canny Congressman from Utah and, most of all, many people of the time who are drawn to a vision of the better world of the future.
About Eric Flint s Ring of Fire series:
This alternate history series is a landmark Booklist
[Eric] Flint's1632universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians. Booklist
reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis Publishers Weekly"

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

400 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2017

About the author

Eric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.

Reviews

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall interesting and good book about a huge 21st century cruise ship that gets, for the lack better explanation, magically transported from said 21st century to the 4th. Some dates would make things easier to understand, especially since I didn't do things like include A.D. and B.C.

I'm not actually sure what date it left 'our' time, but somewhere around 2016 (or, at least, some time after 2011 since there is a comment made about an event that had occurred in that year) A.D. is the origin date of the cruise ship, and something like 323 B.C. is the arrival date (an exact year was mentioned, I don't recall what that exact year was, give or take a few years, the boat of 5000 passengers (and however many crew) arrived a few years after the death of Alexander the Great.

I kind of had the impression that the wife, Roxane, and baby Alexander had been more or less killed immediately (in the real world history), but she's still alive when the cruise ship arrives. Though she's in something like 'protective custody', a playing piece for the generals fighting over the empire Alexander had made. Also alive are a bunch of Alexanders former Generals, plus his half-brother Philip (who falls somewhere in the Autism spectrum) - and Philip's 17 year old wife (with Philip being somewhere in his mid-thirties I believe). Cleopatra also plays a part, though no I'm not referring to the one who ruled Egypt and 'did things' with Caesar. I'm referring to Alexander's last remaining full-blood sibling, his sister.

And a cruise ship full of other people.

While enjoyable I did have a few problems with the book. Mention of health came up, including a couple of references, I'm sure to reassure people, about how the people aboard the 21st century cruise ship weren't carrying anything that would endanger 'the natives'. But, part of the mentioning of the health involved noting that the ship arrived back in time and then used up a good significant portion of their medication treating passengers and the like. And seriously? 5000+ 21st century AD humans and not a one has anything that would adversely impact 'the natives' of the 4th century BC? Heck, one of the crew members was shown basically humping every native he could find - unless this was a new development in his life, he likely was doing that in the 'modern' world - and he had no types of illness or the like? Really?

One of the interesting things that occurs during the course of the book is the cruise ship appearing off Trindad. The ship is observed as it approaches. By a trader. And I'm immediately reminded of a nonfiction book I read recently. About a lost city found in, if I recall correctly, Guatemala (or Honduras?). A city from a civilization that doesn't even have a name of its own because they had been overshadowed by the others, the Mayans and the like - a city that died and was 'lost' because of the Europeans arrival. And the speculation that the reason that it died - even in it's remote location - is because the various city-states and the like weren't cut off from each other. And it's known that Columbus, with ill crew members on board, had visited the coast of Central America - and that there were native traders there at the time - who spread the disease that helped wipe out a good many natives. And here we have this book showing a 21st century cruise ship coming in and a native trader watching it.

The kind of flippant - 'they didn't have anything bad health wise, unlike Columbus' - was annoying.

Another issue: sex. I was perfectly happy to just watch everything unfold as events unfolded, content to let relationships not be delved into. But then the authors decided to start having people circle each other, then engage in 'relations' behind. Not graphically. No, that's not the issue. And even one relationship wasn't the issue. It's how there kept being these couplings pop up and . . . every single bloody one of them was heterosexual in nature. Every bloody one of them. There was a joke tossed out about the time period and the people, something like 'well, they are Greeks and you know what they are like in sexual matters' but . . . that's the only non-heterosexual thing in the book. The joke. As I said, I'd have been content but for the fact that many different couplings suddenly started popping up late-ish in the book. Some of them kind of 'well, we are both here, and I assume you'll go with me because we are close in age' (thinking here specifically of that smug Captain assuming that that woman near his own age . . well, let's just move on).

Last problem? My understanding is that this, along with the one where a prison got sent back in time to the dinosaur era, were just stand-alone's. Related, but stand-alones. And this book? Doesn't really have an ending. Hell, it ends with almost a break in action (a ship that might cause 'issues', due to who is on the ship, approaches the cruise ship and . . . book over). (That ending, by the way, was after about 30 names got mentioned "this person from x; that person form y; Q from xx" etc. - in a way that's 'okay' in that a convention occurred, but . . . none of the people named really mattered beyond giving more glimpses of the period and the convention itself was kind of overlooked).

Right, so. It's funny, in its way, but I felt 'closer' to the people of the ancient world than those being held up as being from the 21st. Quite frankly I preferred those sections that dealt directly with the 'ancient people's and less with the 'modern people'.

Rating: 4.35

June 10 2017

[Margaret Ball · Rating 2 out of 5]

For somebody who is seriously interested in the political maneuverings after the death of Alexander the Great, this would doubtless be a fascinating book. For me, I'd rather have read more about how the people on the cruise ship adapted to being stranded in this time and how they affected the cultures around them, and less about the plots and counterplots of Alexander's successors. I guess I was hoping for another "1632." This isn't it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, I read it in less than 1 day, nearly non-stop.

[Tobias · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally like the 1632 series and related books. They are generally a wonderful read and sometimes thought provoking. This is not a favorite. Certain aspects largely ruined it for me. First, it is clear that the authors are much less familiar with the Hellenistic era than Flint is with the 30 Years War. The culture of the era is never made relevant and there is not much evidence that the authors are that well read on it. Minor annoying details include the names of people and places. The book generally follows the English-speaking habit of using anglicized Greek and Roman names, which is okay, but then some of the Greeks have names that are clearly not Greek, but e.g. Russian. Russian names in the 300's BC is not good. The authors also appear to have the habit of referring to everything east of the Atlantic as Europe. There is constant talk of "returning to Europe" while they are in America. Never mind that they have mostly been to Alexandria and Tyros (a.k.a. Tyre, which I think is in present day Lebanon), while the closest they had been to Europe was a short visit in the harbor in Rhodes.

Secondly, this book - much more than the 1632 books suffers from an American bias. Not to give out too many spoilers, but I would sum up much of what happens as both people from the present and people from days of Alexander the Great quickly realizing that the American way of doing politics is far superior, and thus everything is solved (okay, it takes the ancients a little bit longer to realize that slavery is bad, but that only means that that problem will take a little bit longer to solve). Captain Floden brings a ship full of Americans to the Middle East and than there is peace.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea. The book was a little lackluster.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I ever read a book faster--about 400 pages within two days. I like these alternate history stories and Eric Flint is one of the best writing in this sub-genre these days. This one is a spin-off from his Ring of Fire series. In that series, a community of Americans finds itself teleported to 17th Century Germany. From day one, they begin changing the history of their new world. Similarly, in this book, a group of contemporary people are thrown back into the past. But in this case, it's a giant cruise ship and they go back to the 4th Century BCE. I find this situation to be even more interesting. Fortunately, one of the passengers is a professor of ancient history and her advice is to go to Alexandria, Egypt,the most advanced city of the time, to trade and build relationships with the locals there. They find out they are getting involved in a world in increasing conflict, as it's just a few years after the death of Alexander the Great. His generals have divided Alexander's empire and are fighting over it. As interesting as it is to see the "moderns" learning about their new world, it's also just as fascinating to get the ancients' perspective on the giant ship that has appeared so suddenly in their midst. An ambitious general like Ptolemy in Egypt realizes that if he can capture the ship with all its advanced technology that that will give him supreme power in the Med--and even the world. One thing is for certain, the cruise ship changes history from the moment it's spotted off the harbor of Alexandria. I hope this book is the beginning of a series.

[Liviu · Rating 3 out of 5]

fast and ok'ish but no 1633/34, more like some of the mediocre sequels in the sprawling 163* multi-author series; the narrative fragmentation and lack of interesting characters beyond a few like Alexander's wife and Ptolemy are balanced here by the newness of the series and the world building set in another turbulent and interesting historical period; will take a look at the inevitable sequel (nothing is settled by the end not even at the level of 1633 which had a closure of some sort) but needs considerable improvement for me to keep reading the series

[Daniel Shellenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Alexander Inheritance is technically a part of Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series begun with 1632. In the multiverse of the Ring of Fire (or Assiti Shards as it is sometimes called, though that name has kind of fallen out of use), an advanced alien species, the Assiti, practice an art-form of sorts involving quantum strings in deep space. By Providence or dumb-luck the detritus of one of their art displays impacted Earth in the year 2000, sending the environs of Grantville, West Virginia back to Germany in the midst of the Thirty Years War and spinning off an alternate universe in the process, leading to the events that are described in the 1632 series, as the Americans kick-start the rise of democracy 150 years early. Later, a second shard impacts a prison in Alexandria, Illinois (which is confusing given the title of this book), sending the inmates and guards back to prehistoric times, which was the subject of the book Time Spike, which was probably supposed to be the start of a second series, but it didn't really draw in the RoF fandom (also, amusingly, I seem to remember that early on in the Ring of Fire series, Flint was apparently working on a story where George Washington and Frederick the Great ended up getting thrown back to Greco-Roman times). Full disclosure, I haven't read Time Spike (reviews aren't that positive and I don't remember that my library ever had a copy (UPDATE (4/23/18): okay, so now I actually have read it, not that it's anything to boast about, but there it is). Anyway, the Alexander Inheritance begins in pretty much the modern day. A third shard impacts in the Bahamas and conveys a cruise ship, its tender-tug and a bit of dock back to the late 4th century B.C. (I refuse to use the ridiculous C.E./B.C.E. notation, so there), right after the death of Alexander the Great. The international crew and (mostly American) passengers of the Norwegian cruise ship Queen of the Seas are thereafter confronted by a world that's tearing itself to pieces as without Alexander's charisma and military acumen to hold everyone together, his generals and family are all out to carve themselves a slice of his Empire.

What I liked: I thought the authors did an excellent job of contemplating how a cruise ship and its crew/passengers would impact the world of 320(ish) B.C., the ship is pretty much invulnerable at sea due to its speed, construction, and sheer bulk, but it is in constant need of things it can't get on its own, forcing them to trade and seek good relations with anybody they can. In turn, the knowledge the ship and its people (I refer to them as the New Americans, since that's what the majority end up calling themselves, but ship-people would be more accurate) provide can transform the Hellistic world, but there is a crazy-wide culture gap that makes the up-timer/down-timer differences in the 1632 series seem like nothing. As a long-time 1632 fan, I also loved the juxtaposition between the two series. Some of the things that have been such a pain for Grantville to acquire are really easy for the New Americans to get because they have a cruise ship that can take them anywhere, they have the (admittedly tainted) fount of all human knowledge that is Wikipedia, and they have the advantages of "smart" technology (like translator tablets) and modern computer-assisted machining, allowing them to (for instance) build powerful weapons from scratch in a believable but surprisingly short time. That said, whereas Grantville was a living breathing city full of families, the New Americans have a disproportionately old population and must assimilate others into their society if they have any hope of surviving, much less passing on their traditions. In an interesting side-note, the characters of the Alexander Inheritance are aware of the Grantville/Alexandria disappearances and thanks to that knowledge they are much quicker to figure out what's happened to them. In another major difference, the 1632 series has been driven by the unity of the vision of the main protagonist, Mike Stearns and his friends, family, and allies. In the Alexander Inheritance, the New Americans are divided (and somewhat bitterly at that) between the views of a U.S. Congressman, the ship's captain, and a historian on holiday. Each of them has different priorities after "The Event" (as they call the Ring of Fire), the captain is worried almost exclusively with the day-to-day survival of the ship (the narrow perspective), the historian sees a chance to nudge history down a different path and she is rather forward in testing her thesis (the broad perspective), while the congressman sees his duty as being finding a place for the people of this ship to survive and rebuild in this strange old world (somewhere in the middle). The difference between these POV's (and the inherent lack of bonds among the crew/passengers given the utter happenstance of their coexistence) makes relations among the New Americans quite tense in the early chapters of the book. Another key difference is that whereas 1632 is driven primarily by the actions of the up-time characters (at least in the early books) and spends most of its time developing those characters, the Alexander Inheritance is much more interested in the locals rather than the New Americans, and the book does a good job of developing the personalities of the many key players among Alexander's generals and family.

What I didn't like: I'm going to go on a bit here about one thing that REALLY bugged me, and from the big picture of the story it was minor, but it rubbed me all sorts of the wrong way due to the shear pointless idiocy of it. Namely, what I'm talking about is the "Baptist" pastor who wants to pave the way for Christ's arrival (reasonable, I guess) and declares (later in the book) that he wants to prevent his crucifixion, which is one of the most ludicrous statements a fake-Christian in a book has ever made since any halfway knowledgeable Christian would know that the death of Christ is an essential underpinning of the doctrine of salvation. It is lazy characterization by the authors and either reflects a frankly shallow understanding of Christian theology (unlikely given how important it is in the 1632 books) or an intent to make the only identifiably Christian character in the book into a laughingstock, which is sad, because there's some good potential in the crisis of faith of a man who must deal with the fact that he is in a universe where the crucial event underpinning his beliefs has not yet happened and where he must decide if its happening in this universe matters or if the fact that it happened in another universe is enough. THAT would've been an interesting character arc, and given the frankly horrific nature of the local customs the New Americans encounter, there's far better use for a Bible-thumping Baptist than running around Canaan like an idiot, but the authors either chose not to see this or were too blinded by their own preconceptions to see this possibility. This character arc, while secondary to the story grated me whenever it came up, especially since all the other religious figures are given far more credibility, even the societies who literally MURDER CHILDREN as sacrifices to their gods (think about that statement for a bit because that perfectly encapsulates just how lazy and stupid this characterization is). Another thing that bothered me is that the personalities and backgrounds of the New Americans are given surprisingly short-shift as is their plot arc. While I understand that (as with the 1632 series, which has shifted its focus to down-timers over the course of the series) the most important figures are always going to be the people with the power in the then-now and that's Roxane and Eurydice and Ptolemy, etc., but it's hard to really connect with them as people, particularly given just how, hmmm... extreme some of the differences in cultural mores are. Even worse, it feels like the authors cut out big sections that would've been focused on the New Americans (particularly, the siege of Fort Plymouth, the Orinoco Expedition, and the aftermath of the Tupky War, all of which occur for the most part off-page despite how important they are to the future of the New Americans in this world) as they basically drop out of the story in the second half and everything we learn about them is via info-dumps, which is disappointing. Finally, the ending of the book is rather abrupt and brings little closure to any of the major plot points

All in all, I loved the story, I liked most of the characters, I enjoyed how this series acts as a counterpoint and sort-of reboot/spin-off of the 1632 series (though obviously, we're still getting 1632 books, it's a reboot in the video game/movie sense, in that it's been long enough since the original came out that you can do the same basic idea but with changes in tech and culture, you get a very different sort of story). I was annoyed by the religion element as Flint and company seem far too willing to trash monotheism even while making it perfectly clear that the pagan religions of the Mediterranean were blood-thirsty and provided pretty much no moral guidance, encouraging their followers to do whatever they liked so long as they made the right sacrifices to the right gods. Their unwillingness to put any serious thought into the collision of modern day religions and ancient religions is frankly an embarrassing misstep (especially given that just four centuries on, Christianity would be spreading like wildfire among the still mostly-Hellenistic world of the eastern Mediterranean) in an otherwise fascinating book that takes its premise seriously while also having a lot of fun and is fully deserving of a sequel (and possibly its own series as I would be very interested to see what this world would look like 10 or so years down the road).

[Alexandru Pănoiu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Minimum effort remake of 1632

So Eric Flint wanted to remake 1632, don't know why, and decided on a collaboration with two others, Georg Huff and Paula Goodlett. This time the book is set in the ancient Mediterranean world a short time after the death of Alexander the Great, and instead of an American town it's a cruise ship which gets sent back in time. Good idea. What could be more engaging than the adventures of a diverse group of modern people in the age of the Wars of Diadochi?

The book is a mess.

The first problem is that the beginning of the Hellenistic period is much less well known by a modern audience than the Thirty Years' War. And not only by a modern audience: it's not that well known by modern authors too. And not only by modern audiences and authors: it's actually poorly known by modern historians; we know the names of Important People such as Kings, Queens, Consuls, and some Generals; we know the outline of Important Events such as great battles and peace treaties; and not much more. This is critical for a book made in the shape and structure of 1632, because the basic idea is to follow the intricate interactions between the modern characters and the down-time characters, and unfortunately we simply don't know that much about the lives of ordinary people in the 4th century before the common era.

So what? The authors would simply have to imagine the details of a plausible 4th century BCE. Well, here is the second problem: they didn't. The book concentrates on Kings and Queens and Generals, with a minimal cast of merchants and soldiers, plus a number surprisingly broad-minded tribes of South American Indians. The actual 4th century BCE Mediterranean world is represented by minimalist scenery, as in a play staged by a post-modernist director. And those few details which are given are themselves problematic.

And here comes the third problem. The authors are simply not interested in creating a plausible 4th century BCE. The up-timers communicate with the down-timers in an idiom consistently called "Macedonian Greek". What on Earth is Macedonian Greek? Google has not heard of such a language. It cannot be the Macedonian language, because that is unkown. Could it be that it is what everybody except Eric Flint and his co-authors calls Koine (or Common) Greek? Maybe, but then why does a historian specializing in Ptolemaic Egypt say that she doesn't speak it well? After all, Common Greek is the language of the Ptolemaic Egypt and of all the Hellenistic civilization, the language of the New Testament, of Ptolemy the astronomer, of Archimedes and Euclides, ... And anyway, in the 4th century BCE she could use Attic Greek with no fear of being misunderstood.

In the conception of the authors, all the people living the Mediterranean world in the 4th century are either Important People, or merchants, or soldiers, or slaves. The slaves don't count, so we don't get to have an actual slave as a character; soldiers make minimal appearances, and when they appear they show an exceedingly modern mindset; merchants have a laser-like focus of profit and loss; so it's only the Important People who get to have a shadow of personality. You couldn't guess that in the actual Egypt in the 4th century BCE most people were just ordinary free people; and the complex relationships between masters and slaves in the Hellenistic world are completely ignored. They just don't exist.

Most jarring is the complete lack of protocol. Advisers and generals talk to satraps and queens as a modern employee would talk to their boss. Queens write letters as casually as a modern office worker would write an e-mail. Even more jarring is the complete lack of detail; we don't get any description of the actual physical world: cities, rooms, chairs, cups, rings, almost all the objects in an actual world are just Platonic forms, with no physical attributes. Not to mention the complete lack of detail of the spiritual world of the down-timer characters; why the Important People act the way they act is explained in the most mechanistic way possible; merchants are entirely motivated by profit; soldiers are soldiers and as such have only the bare minimum of a mind; and slaves, being slaves, don't count.

On the preposterous side, we have a slave woman named Octavia, and Macedonian military men named Trajan and Nedelko. Octavius is a Roman family name, and the family name of a free-born Roman to boot; any daughter of a Roman named Octavius would be called Octavia -- free-born Roman women did not have given names; in the most improbable case that a free-born Roman woman would be enslaved in Greece of all places, she would be given a Greek name. Nedelko is a Slavic name, corresponding to the Western European name Dominic; probably the authors looked up Nedelko on Google, found out that it was a Macedonian name, Macedonian as in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and forgot that modern Macedonians and ancient Macedonians are completely different peoples.

All right, enough criticisms. On the good side, there is enough action to keep the reader's interest; there is a romance between a down-timer Queen and an up-timer man; the authors do not make geographical mistakes; and they get the names of Kings, Queens and Generals right.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made to about page 80 something before I decided I had enough. Page 80 something felt like 180 something, it seemed like I'd been reading for ages. It just seemed so slow going to me. I'd rather go on and try another book I might like better.

The concept of a cruise ship going back in time to 300 BC had potential but... it was lackluster, all but maybe one or two characters were even vaguely interesting. The book was all about the politics of the age and I don't even like the politics of the age I live in.

Might be worth it if the authors wrote something else you liked or you like time travel fiction or historical fiction but I'm sure there's better stuff out there. Maybe by Bernard Cornwell or Colleen McCullough. I haven't read them yet but I've heard they are good. I'm sure there are others.

[Hilari Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the Ring of Fire books that are actually BY Eric Flint--and some of the others are great too, but that depends on which of multiple authors wrote them. This one is actually by several authors. but it's a pretty good book. The bad news is that it has too many POV characters for my taste, as does most of this series now--and it doesn't do much in terms of developing any of those characters in depth. The good news is that I found the situation interesting enough, and the characters engaging enough to make it a good, fun read.

[Leons1701 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being smack dab in one of my favorite genres and the main author being Flint, one of the stronger practitioners of said sub-genre, this ended up bordering dangerous close to meh. Some definite potential for the sequel(s) but nowhere near as strong as 1632. Perhaps it's the lack of real connection to most of the characters, with viewpoints being far too scattered to really fix on more than one or two strong characters (and with none of those being entirely memorable). Perhaps it's the rush of events, with little time spent on explaining how people are dealing with them. Most likely, its a combination of the two, a cast of thousands and a relatively modest tome covering a very eventful year mean there is little to no depth to this book, and that is sad.

There's some nice stuff about the resources of a modern cruise ship and some fair evidence the writers have done their research, but I can't help but feel a lot of things just get glossed over. This could easily have been a four or maybe even five star book, instead I find myself wondering if just maybe three stars wasn't generous.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new world created by those aliens who's art keep moving parts of earth between different time periods. This time it is a cruise ship that goes from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. But they don't just change locations they change time periods and this time it is just after the death of Alexander the Great. I did find this one a little harder to swallow. This was a ship with 5000 people on board and having been on a cruise ship for 4 months at a time the lack of information about most of those was not very realistic. It was however fun. There are the historical characters and the fictional ones all interacting as they try to get a different result from the one that is written in the cruise ships history. I do recommend it just take it with a grain of salt. I found it the least believable book of the series.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to stop reading at the halfway mark. I found myself skipping more and more of the book until I was barely reading anything.

If you're going to write a story of such broad scope, covering what seems like hundreds of characters over several countries, at least anchor the reader to a central character first. Flint's 1362 is in my top five favourite books and yet this novel, with ostensibly the same concept, left me cold. Where was the Mike Stearns or Rebecca Abrabanel? I found Marie Easley and Dag Jakobsen interesting, but even combined, they constituted less than ten percent of the story.

If you love reading history text books, then this book might be for you. For me though, there's only so far my loyalty to an author will stretch.

[Andy Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where do I begin? Eric Flint and co-authors Gorg Huff and Amanda Goodlett have opened a new front in the already vast 1632 universe. Now, a giant cruise ship and its fueling tender have transported through time and space to 321 BCE in the Mediterranean.

This opens a whole realm of alternate history to explore. Like 1632, the authors provide the history through interesting characters and amusing scenarios as the 21st century meets the 4th BCE. Cleopatra, Alexander the Great's wife Roxanne and his son are just a few of the historical luminaries dragged into the cruise ships massive historical impact.

I've read the whole 1632 series so far, and this book is as good as any of them. I highly recommend it!

[Randy Pursley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was not a good as many of the 1632 novels, but it had its moments. The uniqueness of having a cruise ship go back in time is interesting, but the implementation is a little hard to believe. Having the knowledge is one thing, but having to ability to use that knowledge is more difficult than the book describes. But it was an enjoyable read.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good - a little helter skelter in terms of the number of characters and settings introduced with little depth. I presume the author is thinking to initiate another world/universe similar to the original ring of fire franchise.

That being stated - I enjoyed the book and exploring a new time and place.

[Michael Hatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A massive cruise liner is unexplainably transported back in time to the days immediately following the death of Alexander the Great. As impressive as the great ship is to the populace inhabiting the Mediterranean basin, the intrigue being practiced by Alexander's generals and his family completely dominate the story. A few action sequences do take place aboard the ship, but the Queen of the Sea takes a back seat to the machinations involved in Alexander's world. Kind of expected more from the appearance of the dominating ship in the ancient world. Still, once past learning to be comfortable with Greek and Macedonian names, the story remained entertaining. Worth three stars to me.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed a lot of the 1632 universe books, but this didn't hold my attention. There were too many characters and very little focus on character development so I found it difficult to keep track. The passengers were hardly described except for Marie Easley and Al Whittley. Near the beginning there were some scenes introducing characters who were never seen again.
I don't know much about the time period where the ship was dropped (circa 321 BCE following the death of Alexander the Great) and it took a while to understand who was on who's side. The penultimate chapter had a battle where I still didn't follow which generals were supporting which leaders. (In contrast, in 1632 the politics were introduced to the reader at the same time as to the up-timers so it didn't matter that I didn't know about the history before reading the book.)
In a big contrast to 1632 when an election was held the person elected as President of the New United States was a politician who had served as a Congressman. I didn't get a feeling for what leadership criteria he had. This was very different from Eric Flint's portrayals in 1632 of workers as being capable of taking on leadership and not depending on the "suits" .

[Matthieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this book is for the fans of the sub genre "time travel with a group". It had many good sides and some highly ridiculous ones...

Good:
the author knows the time
writing is not bad (but not excellent either)
Accurately describes how pathetic are religious fanatics
complicated plot (but to be honest diadoques were complicated too)

Bad:
One day writers should learn that the world does exist outside the USA. There are numerous cultural references that are completely out of place.... (Ex: they open a convention... You know, the thing that does exist only in the USA and that 99% of the world (and the crew) never heard about. They say "I second" in a meeting (for those who don't know, it's used in the USA and the USA and only in the USA).
Faulty research ("we can leave late because of the tide... in the MEDITERRANEAN!")
The author was interested about the story in the mad and didn't care about the one in America
Not a single true development on the the economic system, the "police mission" upriver (where you know people basically behaved like conquistadors).
The Dan guy... ok after 2 sentences you already know that he's going to end in Roxane's bed.

So if you're looking for a detailed story with the usual development (where you gather resources, the actual exchange rate, practical problems...) this book is not for you.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternate history in Eric Flint's Ring of Fire universe - a contemporary luxury cruise ship finds itself suddenly in the time shortly after Alexander the Great's death. Well-written and very thought-provoking!

What impressed me was how violent normal life was in that earlier era. Why has my experience been so different, so non-violent? What makes the difference between a violent culture and a peaceful culture? Each side in this story considers their own people civilized and the other uncivilized! The violent consider the peaceable "weak"; those used to the rule of law consider the violent to be barbarians. Apparently, life in urban gangs, drug cartels, mafias, and war zones is more typical of human history than Leave it to Beaver, the Andy Griffith Show, and Happy Days.

I feel like I'm watching my culture piss away something unimaginably precious, just because we don't recognize what we have in the protest over what we don't have. I wish we could extend "privilege" to everyone who doesn't currently have it, rather that taking it away from those who do.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern cruise liner is transported back to the beginning of the "Time of the Diadochi", after the death of Alexander the Great, when his successors fought over his splintering empire.

The premise is a fine idea, but unfortunately the story suffers from being set in a very messy historical time. Dozens of players are rapidly introduced, leading to just as rapid confusion. While the story does gel somewhat around the characters of Roxane and Euridyce, it is hard for the reader to get to grips with the wider political situation. Where the book shines is when dealing with the culture shock of people from ancient civilisations being suddenly introduced to things like steam engines, refrigeration and modern views on gender equality. There is a wide ranging discussion of slavery which manages to be quite interesting.

This book is part of the wider Assiti Shards Universe, though it can be treated as a singleton.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=2072

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Alexander Inheritance" is a spinoff from the '1632' franchise. If a modern town can be transported to 17th-century Germany and change history, why shouldn't a modern cruise ship be transported to the Mediterranean, shortly after Alexander's death, when his empire was starting to disintegrate?

The book has the flaws of the weaker books of the 1632 franchise. They are exposition heavy: The authors spent a lot of time and effort researching the era, and they want to share. The characters are two-dimensional and hard to care about. (These are not general weaknesses in Flint's writing, but this book isn't really "by Eric Flint", but by other writers playing in Flint's literary back yard.) And there isn't much story supporting the authors' competent technical what-if exercise.

[C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much wanted to like this; I'm fond of the authors, and the concept is cool. But it just felt like it badly needed another pass of editing and revision. Too many dropped narrative threads that didn't go anywhere yet, too many conversations where people reached conclusions without any apparent means of getting there... it felt a little too much like the characters had already read the forum discussion about the planning of the series.

Also, while the one point where a couple of the uptime characters make a homophobic joke didn't really bother me overmuch, it was clearly not meant maliciously and was in character for their friendly banter, but it did make it all too obvious that somehow this ship of 5,000 people had no visible queer characters.

[Luci · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book. The premise seemed so good. However, with the move forward in time (I.e. the internet and cell phones) the story just got more convoluted. Some of the technology references were just too unbelievable (as in cell phones working without towers) and the turn of many of the people of that time was just unrealistic as well.

The thing that gets me is that they mention the 1632 Ring of Fire event but no one seemed to have done any research about it within the context of the story. It’s as if they mentioned it but no one did any historical research on the event itself (like Mike Stearns disappeared entirely from the historical record, even though the Grantville event would have obviously changed history?)

[Strona po stronie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Time travel novel, Nantucket style. Less violent than "Island in the Sea of Time".

I did not find it compelling, mostly due to many characters' unbelievable lack of common sense in relation to security risks. Seriously! Showing weakness to hostile locals left and right, giving out key information to the point of guided tours of places that should be protected! Even giving out maps of the ship and discussing defence IN DETAIL! And more, all in times of danger...

Also, the plot was all about local faction's power struggles after Alexander's death and the ending was rather... ridiculous.

[Xerxes]

This book has a giant 21st century cruiser transported to the era of the Diadochi. The epic conflict that makes Game of Thrones pale in comparison. This is the era of what happens after Alexander’s the Great death. This has been an awesome book, but the reason why I read this novel as a standalone (I believe it should be treated as one as it is part of the Ring of Fire Universe) was more for the setting than anything else.

I have been wanting alternate history to at least have less mainstream history. Sure, the Man in the High Castle was unique to an extent, but a book series needed 7-8 volumes. Always I’m browsing through youtube and I find videos of Alternate history that just do the same old stuff. Why not have an alternate history where Ancient Egypt did travel to the Americas? Why not have an alternate history where the Vikings surived and they actually besieged the Byzantine Empire’s capital? There should be more way more unique alternate history situations. And this novel has satisfied it to an extent.

You will find people of all races, people of all colours interacting in such unique ways I can’t tell you. Imagine Ancient Greeks interacting with modern day 21st century people? There are very humorous scenes if you spot this. I note that this book is more for the setting. It’s something very unique and I think hasn’t been done much, the only ones I can remember is the Nantucket triology by S.M Stirling which takes Nantucket and puts it right into the Bronze Age era. For me, an alternate history novel where Rome never converted to Christanity, employed Vikings and sailed to the New World would be an awesome novel. Imagine Rome colonising America. Or imagine the Persians conquering Greece and the endless possibilties.

One of my criticisms with this book is that the characters aren’t given enough attention, since there are a degree of competing historical figures as well. You’ll also find weird and unique situations like a constitution etc. You’ll figure it out. The other problem which accounts for this is the scene to chapter transitions. This book has more scenes than chapters, but it’s done for a very obvious reason. This novel has a wide array of characters that needs to be fufilled, and needs to be shown. And then there is the scientific explanations which is explored a lot. I am no expert, so take what I say about the scientific explanations as assumption more or less.

But…there’s something about this novel that makes me think: Why hasn’t this been done into a TV show or something? It has a good and original unique premise. I don’t want mainstream history I’m bored of it. Give me interesting situations like this. I still go back and read this novel. It has a very unique broadpoint, and there’s a lot of characters to juggle with. The writing is however superb, and the dialogue becomes very interesting especially with some VERY interesting historical FIGURES. Note that in mind.

So what do I think? Go buy it. It’s def worth a read. For such a premise and man I wished we had more UNIQUE COVERS like this. Really wished we had more of this. I think this is one novel that you should be reading. Read it more for the setting as this is a set up, and the sequel will go into more detail. I know nothing about the science stuff either!

A great novel, fun and interesting. I love it, and it’s one of those books where you get conflicted on, but you keep coming back to it.

[Leigh Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel 1632 was Eric Flint's breakout novel, which catapulted him from firmly midlist to bestseller and enabled an ever-growing series of novels about Grantville, the West Virginia mining town castaway in time to the Thirty Years' War. However, the setup that underlay it allowed for many other series. The first, Time Spike, ended up being a standalone novel. This one looks like it's going to be the beginning of another long-running series, especially given that the co-authors are writers who've done a fair amount of Ring of Fire writing already.

It's the story of a cruise ship that is thrown back to a time not long after the death of Alexander the Great. Unlike the original Ring of Fire that transpositioned Grantville with an equivalent chunk of Europe, this one looks very much like a deliberate action on the part of the mysterious Assiti, given its peculiar shape that seems specifically designed to grab the Queen of the Seas and its tender, right while they're transferring fuel.

Like all Robinson Crusoe In Time stories, there's that initial moment of shock as they realize what has happened. Then they set to work sorting things out and determine where and when they are -- a process that is easier because they have some knowledge of the Grantville event.

The rest of the novel is the crew and passengers struggling to make new lives for themselves in the ancient world, where slavery is so normal and normative that there's even a word that roughly means "human-footed livestock." The sheer size and power of the cruise ship, along with its industrial capacity (usually used for maintenance, but now put to work on production) ensures an overwhelming superiority to pretty much any armed force, but not infinitely so. It is necessary to have allies among the downtimers -- but at the same time, there's a need for them to have their own land to call home, so they're simultaneously building an industrial civilization on the island of Trinidad and jumpstarting the Industrial Revolution in what was Alexander's empire. This involves some political maneuvering that may enable the creation of a modern federation in the Med and introduce the indigenous peoples of South America and the Caribbean to state-level governance and the stability it can offer to what had been a collection of warring tribes.

[John Love IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another time slip sends a cruise ship and her refeuling ship to the BC era not long after the death of Alexander. The wheels haven't fallen off Alexander's Empire but they're mighty loose and could go any second.

The crew and voyagers on the Queen of the Seas have to do more than survive in a new world. They need to develop relations and bring stability to world that would rapidly destroy them and take what they have if they could. Considering the ships passengers are generally older and, along with the crew, of a large number of nationalities and religions, unity isn't even sure onboard.

Many interesting characters, as usual, in these types of books. From the fictional captain to Ptolemy, satrap of Egypt, Roxanne (wife of Alexander), and all the generals, the cast of characters have to be well developed and generally are. What happens when history is interfered with and what happens when these characters learn what was supposed to happen to them makes these books interesting.

They keep talking about the butterfly effect, one small thing happening creating more and more changes over time. Problem is, this isn't a butterfly. It's more like a asteroid dropping in the med. Everything changes from day one and more so once a brief history is spread around Alexander's Empire.

I really enjoy these types of books. How the time travel is achieved doesn't matter so much as who goes where and what happens then. Yes, it affects the plot and motivation of characters but I'm more interested in what happens and a lot does here. I'll be happy to read another of these in this series.

I should say that I was able to read this book for free as I work for a bookstore. I received no compensation for my review, or even a free copy, just the chance to read for free. Hopefully, you like my review and consider reading it.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like the genre and know what to expect this is quite an interesting text. For those who complain of the overlarge amount of characters and disjointed plotlines, remember the time of the Diadochi is a time period where the entirety of the mediterranean ruling class spent most of its time and resources in plotting and warring against each other and which in turn completely transformed the balance of power and political structures of what we laughingly refer to as the civilized world. Whoever expects a story taking this social, political and cultural mess as its basis to be neatly contained in tidily delineated and structured tidbits of easily digestible plot menus is clearly deluded. If anything, Flint underestimates the chaos and upheaval dropping a culturally and socially heterogenous group of twentyfirst-century refugees with their offensive sensibilities and uncertain loyalties into this mess.
Once again Flint provides an interesting panoply of historical trivia and offers some entertaining if not always convincing historical explanations. I enjoyed this aspect of the book well enough to be satisfied with my expenditure, even if I am convinced that I will have to be more than patient in waiting for the sequel the ending of the book leads its readers to expect.