E se... un uomo del Novecento, uno storico, per un motivo inspiegabile si trovasse catapultato nell'Italia del sesto secolo? Cosa potrebbe fare, sfruttando le sue conoscenze di storia e di scienza?
In questo bel romanzo di Lyon Sprague Le Camp, che ha ispirato la vita e le opere di Harry Turtledove, l'ucronia è innescata da un imprevisto viaggio nel tempo, ma le sorti del mondo saranno molto diverse da quello che noi conosciamo. ( )

E se... un uomo del Novecento, uno storico, per un motivo inspiegabile si trovasse catapultato nell'Italia del sesto secolo? Cosa potrebbe fare, sfruttando le sue conoscenze di storia e di scienza?
In questo bel romanzo di Lyon Sprague Le Camp, che ha ispirato la vita e le opere di Harry Turtledove, l'ucronia è innescata da un imprevisto viaggio nel tempo, ma le sorti del mondo saranno molto diverse da quello che noi conosciamo. ( )

I read this because I generally like time travel literature, and I have read that this is one of the foundational works in the genre. Specifically, this is one of (if not the) first books to explore the theme of time traveler using his future technology to change history. Martin Padway suddenly finds himself in 6th-century Rome. He realizes that he has the opportunity to prevent the Byzantine Emperor Justinian from conquering Rome, and that he might be able to prevent the Dark Ages from ever happening. (As a medieval historian, the whole idea that the so-called "Dark Ages" were dark and that the world would have been better of without them is objectionable, but that's neither here nor there.)

So Martin goes about making a printing press, semaphore towers, brandy, and other modern contraptions. He interferes in political events and becomes the de facto ruler of Rome.

Unfortunately, the book is only about a third as long as it needs to be to thoroughly describe all of the events it covers. I feel like the author was in a big hurry, and there were some scenes he felt like describing in detail, and some that he just didn't want to bother with. The beginning of the book tends to have a lot more detail, and by the end of the book months of complicated activities are covered in a few sentences. The characters are all one-dimensional, and the storyline is rather undeveloped.

In some ways, the book is a fun "what if" exercise, but it's all a little too preposterous for my tastes. It's a lucky thing that Padway just so happens to remember a murky period in history in a lot of detail. It is way to easy for him to make major technological developments, and the people around him are way too accepting of his technology.

So ultimately, the whole book was a fun idea, but I wish it had all been given a bit more thought and developed in more detail. ( )

This books includes two stories of a person displaced in time. The first, Lest Darkness Fall, is a classic and influential alternate history novel by L. Sprague de Camp that I never heard of before but found very enjoyable. The second shorter story by David Drake I don't remember having the most satisfying ending. ( )