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Read The Misplaced Legion (1987)

The Misplaced Legion (1987)

Online Book

Rating
3.86 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0345330676 (ISBN13: 9780345330673)
Language
English
Publisher
del rey

The Misplaced Legion (1987) - Plot & Excerpts

Before Harry Turtledove became obsessed with writing - and rewriting- alternative versions of the Second World War, he was a notable scholar of Byzantine history, which led him to write the Videssos series, and entertaining saga that turns away from the usual Northern Europeans-folklore influences of Tolkien and company towards a world based very closely on the Byzantine Empire. In fact, aside from the presence of magic and a few cosmetic changes, it could very much stand in for a straight-forward alternative history in which Constantinople never feel to the Turks. Which is in fact the subject of another book he wrote...but one thing at a time.The premise behind the series goes like this: a Roman legion led by the tribune Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, fighting during Caesar's conquest of Gaul, gets transported to an alternative world due to a mishap with a pair of swords enchanted by a powerful druid (coming along for the ride is a Gallic chieftain who was fighting on the other side...) Unable to return home, they hire on as mercenaries to the Byzantium-like Empire of Videssos. The idea of a Roman legion hiring on to serve a fantasy version of the Empire that would ultimately succeed their Empire might seem a bit ludicrous, but Turtledove makes it work with strong characters and a detailed and highly realistic setting. Religion plays a strong role here, and in this Turtledove;s historical background shows itself strongly. The primary religion is a thinly disguised version of medieval Orthodox Christianity, which like the real-world version is beset by various heresies and schisms. The primary villain is Avshar, a former Videssian priest who switches to the worship of Skotos, the Videssian version of the Devil. A generation before the Roman legions arrival, he facilitated the conquest of a neighboring Empire, leading a nomadic horde from the steppe to overthrow the previous rulers, mirroring in many respects the Mongol conquest of Persia. The series slowly builds up over the course of several books, depicting both the external battles and internal intrigues that best the real-world Byzantine Empire, leading to the expected confrontation between light and dark.The premise is somewhat outlandish, but the series is solid, a real and pleasant alternative to the the usual elf-and-orc style of fantasy. A good read all around.

Originally read this at the age of 13, but I'm not sure I completed it -- my memories beyond the halfway point are curiously blank. A fairly entertaining read some 25 years later, particularly as Turtledove employs a decent prose style -- superior, at least, to the bog-standard of late 80's fantasy.3 stars, due to various anachronisms that for some reason bothered me; a cliched resolution to the main character's sexual angst in regards to his female counterpoint; his general Gary Stu persona (of course he's a Stoic); and the underlying demonization (literally) of a steppe/muslim culture, recalling Western Lens anxiety over the Seljuk Turks. Still, the fantasy-template depictions thinly slavered over mid-period Byzantium are interesting and, in several places (like the depiction of the Hagia Sophia as translated as a heliocentric shrine), inspired.

What do You think about The Misplaced Legion (1987)?

I picked up this book because it was sitting on my shelf with it's three brothers and at the time I was looking for a long, mindless science fiction series to get me through the beginning of summer. It wasn't quite what I was looking for. I think what I really wanted was to reread Harry Potter. However, Turtledove clearly did a lot of research and planning for this series and he rewards a patient reader with a rich and (magically enhanced) historically accurate story. My only complaint so far is that it's somewhat sluggish tempo has kept me from finishing the second book, so I don't really know how it all ends.
—Paul Johnson

The Misplaced Legion is an excellent book that starts off the Videssos Cycle series. Marcus Scaurus is a Roman tribune who bears a Gaulic sword taken from a slain druid. As he leads his troops through Gaul he encounters an ambush, led by the chieftain Viridovix. The Romans are superior in their tactics but the shear numbers and ferocity of the enemy causes them to slowly lose ground. Finally, it comes to the point where Viridovix challenges Marcus to a duel. Marcus, in a futile attempt to save h
—Nicolas

This is a novel about a group of Roman soldiers mystically transported to a fantasy world; nitpicking its historical accuracy is, obviously, as pointless as it is irresistible. Here goes:1. On p. 148: "The Roman knew how easy it was to judge a man by the company he kept. Caesar himself, in his younger days, had fallen into danger through his association with Marius' defeated faction." This makes it sound like Marius was the leader of a motorcycle gang, and poor naive Caesar fell in with the wrong crowd by accident. In fact, "Marius' faction" basically meant the populist cause in Roman politics, and Caesar played up his family connections to Marius as part of a deliberate political strategy.2. On p. 173: "Coming from Rome, whose history was little more than legend even three centuries before his own time, Marcus had never quite gotten over the awe Videssos' long past raised in him." If he'd said "four centuries," I might have let this pass. But the mid-fourth century (Marcus was fighting under Caesar in Gaul) is the time of Rome's conflicts with the Latin League and the Samnites; even for us, this is solidly historical (if somewhat blurry) material, and Marcus would have had access to all sorts of literary and documentary sources that have since been lost.3. I understand that it's hard to come up with plausible-sounding words in a fictional language, and it's a perfectly acceptable choice to model that fictional language on a real one. But when most of your main characters come from ancient Rome, and one comes from Greece, the mysterious, incomprehensible language they encounter in a magical alternate universe should not, for God's sake, be obviously based on Greek. It is immensely distracting (at least to me) to have these characters acting utterly confused when the hear that the gods of light and darkness are named "Phos" and "Skotos," the chief official of a city is the "hypasteos," the emperor is called "Avtokrator," and so on.4. The choice to represent the speech of the one Gaulish character as Irish-accented English is exactly as irritating as you would imagine.
—Emlen

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