Seven Cities Of Gold David Moles

For Alternate History this is really far out. I've read a lot of this genre and usually the deviations from "real" history are relatively minor - and recent. Moles's split is big time. He breaks from our timeline in the middle of the eighth century when a group containing seven Catholic bishops escape the Muslim invasion of Spain, sail across the Atlantic to found a Christian Empire in the New World six centuries early.

The Americas here are not even close to being recognisable. And this is the book's main flaw. The joy of Alternate History is spotting the differences. Things are changed, but the analogues of our world are at least supposed to be recognisable. This story could just as easily been set on a colony world in mankind's future for the lack of familiar reference points.

But it does have a strong story - or at least set-up. Doctor-Lieutenant Chie Nakada is a doctor in the Japanese military - a neutral power in the war between the Islam and Christian worlds. She is also a disgraced drug addict. She has been tasked with heading deep into the Americas to locate Sister Clara Dos Orsos (a nun accused of terrorism) and when found assassinating her.

The second problem the book has is scope. Simply put there's too much of it for such a short book. It's well written, entertaining, and impressive to see what the author has managed to achieve in just 66 pages. But I was left with a desire to see what he could have done with another 400 or so.

Page updated 28 January, 2011