Fortune's Stroke

Belisarius #4

by Eric Flint, David Drake

Aide, a human soul embodied in a jewel, journeys back in time to join forces with Belisarius, the greatest general of the sixth century, to stop Link, an evil supercomputer that is using its vast powers to rewrite history to create the powerful, technologically advance Malwa Empire. Reprint.

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

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Belasarius series is a six-volume alternate history that pits the legions of Rome against the Malwa empire of northern India within a science fiction infrastructure of time travel and artificial intelligence. It's a vast, sprawling fantasy with many characters and enough manly derring-do to satisfy any fan of Conan. The story was devised and outlined by David Drake, a master of both military science fiction and an expert on Roman history, and the books were written by Eric Flint, who was a relatively new writer when he began the work. Drake plotted it as a trilogy, but Flint added depth and details that caused the doubled expansion. Trying to keep the historical details straight from the time-changed anachronisms became challenging, but I found the plots captivating throughout. I enjoyed checking to see which characters were fictional and which were taken from history. Flint diverged a bit from Drake's plot in the first book which caused some problems later on in the series, but it recovered quite satisfactorily. There's adventure and romance and philosophy and gritty military action and good (if occasionally rough) humor and I enjoyed it all immensely. I read the first five books back-to-back in 2001 (and the details have merged in my memory, which is why I'm using the same comments for all the book listings here), but I remember how impatient I was for the final volume and how much I enjoyed it after a five year wait. Good stuff!

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was finally the epic of asskickery I was waiting for from this series. We’re finally past all the spying and intrigue and setting up and just straight into hardcore campaigning, which is really the whole reason for this series. If the idea of a coalition of 6th-century peoples like the Byzantines, Persians and even Axumites (a very neat dark ages Ethiopian country that I had never heard about before starting this series) battling a gigantic multi-national Indian juggernaut across several theaters--but armed with totally anachronistic technology like primitive rockets, muskets and cannons--sounds cool to you, then you should check this series out. It’s just super fluffy fun that I only keep from calling dumb because of how much real history is packed into it. Special shoutout to Antonina in this one, who arguably kicked more ass than the legendary Belisarius.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det är väldigt befriande med bra skräplitteratur, och det är vad denna serie är i ett nötskal. Det som gör den till just bra skräplitteratur, är dess kreativitet. Författaren använder Qanater på ett sätt jag aldrig tänkt på - jag har föreställt mig dem som smalare, ungefär som de i bergen inhuggna vattenrännorna i Arabia Felix, eftersom jag någon gång läste att det var barn som högg dem. Om de är så stora som författaren gör gällande, är det en briljant idé, annars en konstnärlig frihet som åtminstone är förlåten. På samma sätt är idén om att göra Charax till ett tidigt Stalingrad en utmärkt idé.

[YouKneeK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the four books in this series that I’ve read so far, I enjoyed this one the most. I enjoyed the previous three books a lot also, but this one stood out more for me because Belisarius’ enemies finally presented him with some real challenges. This added more tension to the story and it caused some anxious page turns. As with the previous books, this book still told a fun story with humor and interesting characters.

In this series, there are usually several chapters throughout each book with alternate points of view to give us a chance to keep up with what’s happening in different parts of the world as related to the over-all story. (There may not have been much of that in the first book, from what I remember, but there definitely has been in the others.) In the previous books, I enjoyed those stories but I was also usually anxious to get back to the Belisarius chapters. In this fourth book, I found the non-Belisarius chapters to be almost as enjoyable as the Belisarius chapters.

I’m looking forward to book five.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, and probably the best of the 4 books so far. I honestly think that some of the events in this book could have been expanded on greatly, but it keeps building up to conclude well. I need to track down the next book asap.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

2018 reread: So very good, from two of my favorite authors.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first time I read this book, I found it cheap at a book sale and was surprised to learn it was the fourth book in the series. I would go on to read the fifth and sixth books before trying to find the first three books in the series. Funny how that works out, sometimes. I did enjoy reading it more this second time around; I think it might have to do with my reading it in order and having already finished the first three books in the series. it does move at a choppy pace - there are action sequences and some battle sequences; there is a lot of talking and plotting and scheming. The areas where the book slows down are still necessary for the overall plot and narrative, so it did not bother me a much.

This book felt like a "mid-point" or "turning point" in the series for me. It is the "end" of the First Act, so to speak, as the Malwa have been dealt a devastating blow in Mesopotamia and have been forced to retreat back to India. Link's first "avatar" has been brutally killed by Antonina at the end of this novel. There have been plenty of "hints" throughout the book in reference to "future" historical battles in which the aggressor has been forced onto the defensive and never again regains the momentum that they originally had had. That is what happens by the end of this book. The Malwa advance has been stopped, and from this point on, they will always be on the defensive (in the remaining two books). The last two books in the series are the Second Act (in my opinion).

It jumps around quite a bit over the course of the novel. The scene (viewpoint ?) changes from Antonina in Axum to Belisarius in the Zagros Mountains in Mesopotamia to Irene in India to Sanga (also in the Zagros Mountains in Mesopotamia). References are made to other characters previously introduced in the earlier books, but the focus of the novel is almost exclusively on these four major characters and their various supporting cast members. For as much as that happens in the book, though, it "only" covers spring of 532 AD to fall of 532 AD.

I know this series is kinduva "sidewise" story of Drake's The General series AND that Drake based both series on the story of Belisarius' life as record by Procopius, but it is still funny to me how similar the two storylines are. He really did not stray too far from the "core story" in either series, that is for sure!

While it is still "gritty" it does not have quite the violent battles that as described in the earlier books of the series. I would say the "violence quotient" was really toned down for this book; not that it matters, but it really is "less violent" than the first three books in the series. It felt like there was a lot more character development and/or exploration through dialogue than through action or physical discovery. Also, the print seemed quite a bit larger in this book, which may have helped account for why there were so many pages in the novel when it actually seemed (or "felt") shorter than the first three books in the series (and is definitely shorter than the final two books).

I thought there was "more" to the battle between Valentinian and Rana Sanga. It is describes as being "a battle for the ages", something to be remembered for all time, that songs would be written about and sung across history. Despite it being described as lasting all day, it really only takes up a very small portion of the book. It is more Rana Sanga speaking with Valentinian and then a 'brief, quick' "knife fight" at the end where Valentinian's blade is shattered by Sanga's sword and Valentinian is struck in the head. I still remember the first time I read this, I was shocked because I thought Valentinian had been killed. And quite a shock it was! I was even more shocked and elated to find out that Valentinian had survived and was slowly recovering while a captive of the Rajputs. Still, though, what I remembered did not match up with the "reality" of this historical bout of personal combat the second time around. It was kind of anti-climatic and a bit of a let down, unfortunately. But I was still glad that Rana Sanga did not feel the need to kill Valentinian.

I thought Belisarius' comment to Narses (the Roman ex-master spy and traitor) to be interesting. I do not remember how it resolves itself, or if Belisarius has set Narses up for a painful death, so it will be "fun" to find out what happens in this bubbling pot that Belisarius has brought to a boil with his comment(s) about vows and how vows tend to be very specific in nature in terms of what is being promised. This definitely bears watching, indeed, in the next two books.

I did enjoy reading this book a second time around. I would have been done sooner, except I had to put it down to finish a report for a class. It is a bit "jarring" in that it does not start exactly after the third book ends, but a few months or so later in the story's historical narrative. It was fun to revisit this story and to read the plots, schemes, and counterplots (especially as the Indian general and his second-in-command, Rana Sanga, attempt to figure out what Belisarius is up to) as the story moves along. I am looking forward to finishing up the final two books of the series.

[Nate Thern · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series gets better with every book. I reserve 5 stars for books that truly blow me away, and I seriously considered 5 stars for this one. In the end I decided it was just a little too predictable to be 5-star worthy; but it's still an excellent book and I'm really looking forward to the last 2 in the series.

[Max]

A fourth entry in a 6 book series that manages to avoid the middle-saga drag. I’m sure the military tactics and strategy are exhaustively researched, and the combat scenes ARE extremely entertaining, but it’s the surplus of likable characters and surprising amount of humor that keeps me coming back to this series.

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has even more action with several battles, intrigues, reversals of fortunes on both sides, and two royal weddings. There were some heartfelt losses as well. It was well-paced, making it hard to put the book down.

[Paul Close · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Many touching moments. The enemies are given more attention in this book, drawing you even more into this world.

Now there are four couples to follow: Belisarius and Antonina, Shakuntala and Rao, Eon and Rukaiya, and Irene and Kungas."

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The saga continues. I will read the sequels as soon as I can get to it. Just so much fun to read. The writing is better then expected. Although you could, I don’t recommend picking up this book in the middle of the epic story.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I basically devoured this series.

[Antoine Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent!
Nice development in the plot, lots of great characters, top action!

[Karsten Stiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great continuation of an already great story. Enjoy!

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good entry in a quite good alternate history saga.

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite series. Alternative history of conquest.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazon.com Review

Getting to follow big, bad Byzantine Belisarius around the alt-history battlefield--courtesy of Eric Flint and David Drake--comes in a close second to having your own personal unit of cataphracts. (Although, of course, those cataphracts would be nice to have in traffic.) Following on the heels of Destiny's Shield, the fourth installment in this popular series follows the superhuman general as he harries Malwa troops in the mountains leading into Mesopotamia. He's still got the across-time assistance of the crystal Aide to help him deal with the threat, augmenting his senses and keeping him briefed on the tactics of everyone from Wellington to Turenne. But Link, the Supreme Commander of the Universe, still calls the shots for the evil empire, and Belisarius has to double-time to keep up (especially facing such shrewd field commanders as Damodara).

Fortune's Stroke downshifts the series a notch in terms of sheer Belisarius-meted carnage, because Damodara's Ye-tai barbarians and Rajput cavalry aren't the only show in town. Flint and Drake spend a good deal of time with other characters in the series in other locales, like Kungas and Irene in south India and Antonina in Axum (for a start). But this investment will surely pay off as the series continues, as Belisarius and his cohort close in on the Malwa for good. (And if you're new to the battle, start with An Oblique Approach, the first title in the series.) --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

This exuberant romp of an alternate-history novel is the fourth volume of a series (Destiny's Shield, etc.) in which two contending super-beings from the far future try to determine humanity's fate through changing the 6th century A.D. The villain, Link, uses the Indian Malwa Empire as his tool; the benefactor, Aide, chooses the Byzantine Empire and particularly the famous Count Belisarius, its most formidable general. Belisarius's formidable wife, Antonina, plays matchmaker for the emperor of Ethiopia, thus giving the forces of good a fighting navy in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The delightful diplomatic noblewoman Irene Macrembolitissa also plays matchmaker, securing the marriage of the Maratha leader Ragunath Rao to his beloved Princess Shakuntala (a South Asian Princess Leia figure). Finally, Belisarius himself brings the Malwans' invasion of Persia to an end. However, Link has managed to find another human host and is as ruthless as ever, while Aide has developed a raunchy sense of humor from too much association with biological humans. Readers shouldn't take all this too seriously (and those new to the series would do well to read the earlier volumes before tackling this one), but should sit back and chortle while admiring the authors' alternate-technological ingenuity. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Military SciFi/Alternate history in which an evil empire appears in India in the fifth century. Famous historical general Belisarius receives a warning from the future and must counter the threat. This series goes deeper into philosophical and poetical tangents than similar works. Eric Flint’s classic wry humour pervades the prose. The books can almost be read as historical novels and contain quite a few interesting tidbits about the period. The series consist of:

An Oblique Approach
In The Heart of Darkness
Destiny’s shield
Fortune’s Stroke
The Tide of Victory
The Dance of Time

The sixth and final book, The Dance of Time came out over two years late and seems a bit of a late addition. It tied up all the loose ends neatly, even though the actual conclusion to the conflict was foregone by this time. However, the habit of the authors to show off their characters’s cleverness, while only a minor annoyance in the first five volumes, really grated on my nerves in the sixth book. Endless uses of “Why not?” and equally endless enumerations of “how cool are we” items both in the exposition and the dialogue are just plain bad style. Still and all, a satisfying conclusion.

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[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The offensive kicks off with more sneakiness by Belisarius. The Romans need to hit the Malwa where it hurts: its huge supply base. Meanwhile, the Axumites have to deal with their own internal problems before they are able to help the Romans. Moreover, the Persians also have their internal problems, such as Khusrau's half-brother.

The war has just kicked into high gear.

As usual, Flint and Drake have come up with a cast of compelling and contrasting characters on both sides of the war. You want to know more about them. Perhaps there are only 3 characters that are 2-D. One is Link, the supercomputer from the future. Perhaps this is by design because supercomputers in any age can only calculate all the angles and even reason and learn, but never "feel" and never understand the value of mercy. The other two are the Malwa Emperor and Venandakatra, the emperor's first cousin who is in charge of putting down a rebellion. Venandakatra's nickname is the Vile One - a brutal, sadistic, and militarily incompetent. He feels almost like the classic trope of all Middle Eastern despots. He is "brave" against peasants and the weak but when someone stands up to him and beats him hard, he is at a loss.

[Jeremy Preacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fortune's Stroke is the chewy middle of the series. It's nearly all military campaigns, with a few subplots that are slightly less action-oriented. The campaigns are pure military porn, with references to historical figures and famous battles, loving discussions of weapons, and clever schemes that never fail. There's only one meaningful casualty, and it's a tertiary character (and one whose death was discussed two books ago in one of the occasional "Years after the war..." digressions that pepper the series.)

The non-military bits are actually more interesting to me, because their outcomes aren't nearly so obvious. The questions of Shakuntala's marriage, Holkar's missing family, and Eon's ascension to the throne are the best parts of the book. Not to mention Irene and Kungas's romance, which manages to delight me despite my general disdain for romantic subplots. But all the bits work well enough, and the book ends at a nice breakpoint. (In the foreword to the omnibus edition, David Drake mentions that the original plan was for three books, not six. I wouldn't have guessed it necessarily, but knowing that, it becomes clear why some of the endings are more natural than others.)

[Nathan Balyeat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review applies to all of the books in the Belisarius series by Eric Flint and David Drake. I read them all quickly, in a row, and there’s honestly not a whole lot of difference in the elements that make them good books. You get the best mix of David Drake’s detailed outlines, sense of pacing, action sequences, and depth of historical knowledge with Eric Flint’s ability to manage description and nuances of character that Drake isn’t quite as good at. The series is an interesting twist on historical fiction, though not unique. It’s one of those “what if this technology was available at this time” sort of deals, and an interesting compare and contrast between several different cultures and their values, and how those values would affect how they interact.
If you like action and science-fiction with an historical twist, you’ll love this series. If you like exploration of cultures as part of examining the human condition, you’ll find something to like here as well.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fourth in the historical, military, sci-fi series, Belisarius, the general fights a mountain campaign against the best the Malwas have---Rana Sanga, a Rajput king, and Lord Damodara. Brilliant as he is, even Belisairus discovers he has a lot to learn although he does ccreate a whole new fighting force simply through honor.

Sneaky tactics and some scary losses will keep you on the edge of your seat. I'm just dying for the next in the series, Tide of Victory

Unexpectedly funny, Belisarius is an intriguing mix of the past and the future with strongly-written characters ranging from truly good to truly evil with all the shades of gray in between. The histories raised tempt me to read more in-depth of the non-fiction of the Indian kingdoms as well as the Byzantine court of Theodora and Justinian.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the second part of the Persian campaign. With the defeat of the main Malwa army at Babylon, Belisarius must lead his men to the east to do something the Persians have been unable to do: defeat the army led by Rana Sanga, India's greatest warrior. The best moment in the book (spoiler!) is when Belisarius, having no choice but to fight Sanga's army in order for his master stroke to move forward, gets struck down and nearly killed by the Indian, only to be saved by his bodyguard Valentinian, the master swordsman. The duel that follows between Sanga and Valentinian is a real moment in the series, as it punctuates the developing character of Sanga, and breathes real life into Valentinian, who until now had been portrayed as a simple killing machine.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another rousing episode in Belisarius' alternate history. Great fun. Flint and Drake finally have their characters aware that they are changing the future as they act.

Also the authors continue development of their philosophic musings, through their characters, of the nature of war, history and just about everything else. Appropriate and adds depth. This series rises above the usual space opera or technological grab bag of many alternate histories.

Technical quibble: Men in metal armor don't float for a minute or even a second; they plunge directly to the bottom of whatever water they have the ill fortune to fall into. Another swimmer is just pulled down until he lets go. Otherwise, they both die.

A very good read.

[Gunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually an improvement on the first 3 in the Belisarian series. While all of the previous books in this series are chock full of military maneuvering that David Drake is known for, this particular volume in the series actually spends more time developing the characters than the other tomes. This isn't "literary SF" by any stretch of the imagination but the flaws do not detract from the story that Flint and Drake are telling.

I'm looking forward to finishing this series.
-g

[Amy N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flint comes out well in this alternate history. As usual, he delights & excels in the tactics used during a period of emergent gun-powder/hand-held technology. The story abounds with satisfying twists & characters, male & female.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

#4 down. They are definitely getting better. Belisarius has defeated the bad guys, kicked them out of Persia, even "killed" the evil overlord from the future (in one incarnation). Two more books to go.

[Barbara Ghylin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this one last night. What a story! The more I read, the more I am enjoying this series. However, I dedicded to take a break and read a nora roberts trilagy. Something that is fun to read. You can only read so much of the type of book before you go brain dead.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do enjoy this series. The plot is pretty simple and transparent and the characters don't have a ton of depth, but the writing is fast paced and highly amusing and the historical-ish setting gives it an extra edge for me. Very fun.