Flag of the Pueblo Sultanate

This is the flag of the Pueblo Sultanate. It comes from a world where the Ottoman Empire established colonies in the New World. The Ottomans began in the Caribbean, and soon went on to conquer Mexico. Eventually, the Ottomans made their way to the American Southwest, and subjugated the Pueblo peoples. Life was harsh for the Pueblo people under Ottoman colonialism. Pueblo people were forced to toil away in silver mines to feed the Ottomans’ hunger for precious metals. Several madrasas were established with the intent to convert the Pueblo peoples to Islam. In theory, the madrasas would provide aid, education, and social services to the Pueblo people. In practice, however, the imams often subjected their charges to horrific abuse. Despite this, Islam did manage to spread among the Pueblo peoples. The Pueblo peoples begged for a savior. But where could he be? 

The Pueblo people received their answer in the form of a charismatic preacher named Po’Pay. Despite the similar name, he is a separate individual from the Po’Pay of our world. This Po’Pay preached the highly syncretic religion that combined indigenous Pueblo beliefs with Islamic liberation theology. This was in sharp contrast to the Islam of the Ottomans, which frowned upon syncretism, and suppressed indigenous beliefs. Po’Pay teachings began to spread, and soon Po’Pay a revolt against the Ottomans. Though the fight was hard, at last the Pueblo peoples were free from the Ottoman yoke. The Pueblo peoples began to think of themselves not as a collection of disparate tribes, but as a united people sharing in a common destiny. 

 Po’Pay organized the tribes into a sultanate, with himself as the first sultan. However, the sultan would not rule alone. An assembly of tribes was created. Representatives of each tribe could voice the opinions and concerns of the tribe to the assembly. Thus, the Pueblo Sultanate became the first representative monarchy in the New World. The Pueblo Sultanate stretches over much of what would be he American Southwest.

The Pueblo Sultanate is famous for begin very tolerant, open-minded, and accepting of peoples with different beliefs. Most citizens practice Pueblo Islam, but don’t try to push it on other people. Most women do not veil, and most Pueblo citizen wear traditional indigenous-style clothing. to Po’Pay developed a written script based upon Arabic, and the Pueblo Sultanate is home to several libraries and other centers of learning. In fact, the Great Pueblo Library is world renown for its expansive collection of books. Qurans are written in the Pueblo script, and the call to prayer to announced in the various Pueblo languages. The Pueblo Sultanate is also quite famous for its cooking. Pueblo cuisine combines cooking techniques from the Eastern Mediterranean with spices and ingredients of the American Southwest. The Pueblo Sultanate has a noticeable minority of Greeks, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Amazighs. They are mostly descended from slaves brought over during the days of Ottoman colonialism. 

Also, the Pueblo Sultanate isn’t actually called the Pueblo Sultanate in-universe, but I couldn’t think of a better name.

The flag includes the sun symbol of the Zia people, and the crescent moon of Islam. This is a reference to the Sultanate’s mixed indigenous and Islamic heritage. The blue band represents turquoise, an important stone to many Pueblo peoples. The green band represents prosperity, and green is a color associated with Islam. The yellow band is there because it goes well with everything else.

Flag of the Cherokee Confederacy

This is the flag of the Cherokee Confederacy. It comes from a world where the Spanish Armada successfully conquered England in 1588. While England did eventually regain its independence, the Spanish conquest severely stunted England’s growth as a world power, and lead to greater political instability. As a result, England never became a demographic juggernaut during the colonization of North America. The lands that would have become the Thirteen Colonies are a patchwork of nations and colonies founded by numerous European nations. There are also several independent indigenous nations, such as the Cherokee Confederacy.

The Cherokee Confederacy also includes the Muskogee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes. The Cherokee, as reflected by the name, were the founding tribe of the confederacy. The Cherokee Confederacy was one of the first indigenous nations of North America to implement westernization and industrialization programs. Today, most Cherokee dress in European-style clothing, but do wear traditional clothing on special occasions. Like most southern nations in eastern North America, the Cherokee historically practiced slavery. Slavery was formally abolished in 1885 as part of the modernization efforts. Racial divides and tensions still remain, but the Cherokee government has, in recent years, implement programs to help blacks integrate into Cherokee society.

The Cherokee legislature, known as the Tribal Council, is organized into a semi-parliamentary democracy, with a prime minister as the Head of Government, and a president as Head of State. The Cherokee Tribal Council is closer in style to the French National Assmbly, rather than to the English Parliament. The Cherokee Confederacy is centered around what would be western North Carolina, Tennessee, and the northern bits of Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. The indigenous republics of North America, being sovereign nations, did not suffer an equivalent of the Indian Removal Act.

Historically, the Cherokee Confederacy has been rivals with the Haudenosaunee Federation. However, in recent times the two nations have been putting their rivalries behind them. In terms of good relations, the Cherokee Confederacy has historically been an ally of New Neatherlands, which in located in Virginia. The various nations of North America have formed a European Union-style economic union, and there are hopes that this will eventually leads to a federation. There is a general spirit of good will and optimism. That said, North America still has a ways to go before its nation states become united.

The flag contains seven gold stars in the shape of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major, on an orange field with a green border. Ursa Major is an important constellation to several tribes within the Cherokee Confederacy. It also symbolizes how the same night sky shine over the entire Cherokee Confederacy. Blue would seem a natural color choice, but the Cherokee picked orange instead. There is some debate about why this is. Popular belief says that it symbolizes the Cherokee Confederacy’s ties to New Netherlands. However, the Cherokee actually picked orange to contrast with the blue flags several other North American nations use. The green border is to offset the orange.

Book Review: The Monster War by Alan Gratz

Well, here are at last. We've reached the third and final book of The League of Seven series. There really isn't much more to say, so let's get right into it. We're taking a look at The Monster War by Alan Gratz.

Archie Dent is still reeling from the loss of the Dragon Lantern. In fact, he no longer believes that he deserves to be a hero, and has taken to sulking in the shadows. But fate isn't about to let Archie off that easily. There are still two members of the League of Seven yet to be found. Meanwhile, Philomena Moffit is using the Dragon Lantern to raise an army of monsters, and is planning on marching them on New Rome. A war is brewing, and the League of Seven are going to have to take a final stand and defeat Moffat once and for all.

The League of Seven trilogy started off with a great first book, and an equally excellent second book. So, how does the third and final book do? Well, there were many things that I did enjoy about The Monster War. Having said that, there are also several fairly significant flaws. Let's start with what I enjoyed.

The book starts in Houston in the Republic of Texas. The people of this alternate Texas are primarily Latino, though they refer to themselves as mestizo. Mestizo is a Latin American term for people of mixed ancestry; usually European and Native American. Despite this, the Texans all talk, dress, and act like stereotypical Texas cowboys. Most of them speak in the typical Texas drawl, but will toss the occasional Spanish word or phrase in occasionally. Believe it or not, in our world, Texas didn't really have a large Latino population until relatively recently. In fact, up until the 1990s, German was the most common second language in Texas. Obviously, this has very much changed over the past couple decades due to shifting demographics.

Like in our world, Houston is home to a massive arena. However, it is a colosseum-esque arena known as the Astral Dome. The ceiling and corridors as covered in glowing bioluminescent lights that look like the night sky. It is another leftover relic from Atlantis. It is at the Astral Dome that Archie meets Gonzalo. He's a member of the Texas Rangers, just like his parents and siblings. He's good are sharp shooting, horse riding, lassoing, and other typical cowboy things. All of this is very impressive given that he is also completely blind. Oh, but don't worry, he has a talking raygun named Señor X to act as his seeing eye...uh, gun.

It hasn't escaped my notice that Archie's iteration of the League of Seven falls into that trope you see in a lot of kids media. The one where all the kids in the man group are various tokens. We've got the token Black kid (Clyde), the token Asian kid (Kitsune), the token Latino (Gonzalo), the token Scottish kid (Fergus). So, I guess it makes since there would also be a token disabled kid to go along with everyone else. I was worried that Hachi would be the token Native American kid, but thankfully, we got another Native American member of the team. We'll discuss her in a minute.

Señor X has an Aztec-esque design; he looks like a turquoise serpent. That made me wonder what the X stood for. Perhaps it stood for Xiuhcoatl? It is a name that can mean multiple things. It can mean fire serpent, and there is a creature by that name in Aztec Mythology. However, it can also mean hidden weapon. Both interpretations would certainly suit a raygun like Señor X.

Lo and behold, I was correct. Turns out, Señor X, or rather, Xiuhcoatl, was created by the Lemurian iteration of the League of Seven. The Lemurians were the forerunners of the Mesoamerican civilizations; just like the Atlanteans were with the Native Americans from above the Rio Grande. Though, it turns out even Lemuria had its own predecessors in the form of Atlan. Their name appears to be a reference to Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztec people. It is from Aztlan that we get the word Aztec. The people we now refer to as Aztecs actually referred to themselves as Mexica, which is where Mexico gets its name.

Interestingly, the members of the Lemurian League of Seven were all gods from Mesoamerican mythology. Or perhaps, they are misremembered as gods. They included Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca from Aztec Mythology, and Ixchel form Maya Mythology. The League of Seven has always been an international organization, so the mixing of Aztec and Maya deities is excusable. Though I was a bit surprised that the Maya hero twin Hunahpu and Xbalanque weren't members. Or perhaps they joined a different iteration of the League of Seven?

Also, if Lemuria was the forerunners of Mesoamerica, then presumably they left behind lot of steampunk tech like Atlantis did. And if that's the case, how did Mexico and Central America still get colonized by Spain? It is a bit disappointing that we never got to see what New Spain is like. Also, why does the Texas flag look the same as it does in our world? In our world, the Texas flag was model off of the American flag. In the Leagueverse, however, the flag of the United Nations of America looks like the Iroquois flag. So, logically, the Texas flag ought to look different as well, but I digress.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but the Republic of Texas comprises almost of our world's Texas. I say almost because Galveston is an independent city-state run by pirates. Oh, and it is completely underwater. A subaquatic city of glass domes and metal tubes. Galveston was founded by the pirate Jean Lafitte. As a result, the ruler of Galveston is known as The Lafitte. The primary inhabitants of Galveston are the Karankawa people. They're the indigenous inhabitants of Galveston Island. However, these Karankawa are a bit different from the ones in our world. They're seven feet tall on average, have grey skin, webbed hands, and gills; though they can breathe air just as well as water.

As soon as I read all of that, I joked to myself that the Karankawans must be related to the Deep Ones from the Lovecraft Mythos. Hey, there are a lot of references to the works of H.P. Lovecraft in the League of Seven books. Not long after that, it is mentioned that the Karankawa refer to the Mangleborn as the Deep Ones. Apparently, most Karankawa have a small amount of Deep One ancestry, hence their appearance.

It is in Galveston that Archie finds the final member of the League. She's a Karankawa girl named Martine. She's incredibly intelligent, especially when it comes to science and engineering. She has even designed her own submarine called The Kraken, which it looks like a giant squid. I usually describe The League of Seven series as a kid-friendly version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but with original characters. I guess Martine is the Captain Nemo of the group. I always find submarines with a steampunk aesthetic to have a certain charm to them. It's a shame submarines don't appear more often in steampunk works. Perhaps, because submarines are something we have in our world, most authors don't consider them to have the same exotic romanticism as airships? But I digress.

Martine is also notable in that she has autism. Well, it is never stated outright, but it is heavily implied. She has trouble understanding emotions and social cues, she has very detail-oriented thinking, has a tendency to get hyper-focused on certain tasks, and can come across as a bit stoic and reserved. Martine also has synesthesia. It is a real-world condition where your senses get mix together. People with synesthesia might perceive numbers and letters as having different colors, or smells, or even tastes. Indeed, Martine describes letters, numbers, and symbols as having different colors and emotions attached to them. This comes in handy more than once a when the League has to navigate another puzzle trap.

It wasn't totally ignored, but shame that more wasn't made of Martine being autistic. Autistic kids, especially autistic girls, are still fairly rare in most media. It seems Martine might have been added later into Gratz's writing process. There is a scene in the first book where Archie gets a vision of the other League member. The descriptions of Kitsune and Clyde fit their eventually appearance, and Clyde even has Buster with him. Gonzalo looks more or less the same, and he has Señor X, though he's also wearing a turquoise Aztec mask that he lacks in this book. However, the final member is described as a white girl with brown hair; a marked contrast to tall, grey-skinned, Martine the Karankawan. Thanks to Martine we now have more than one Native American on the team. Also, her name is kind of a pun. Martine sounds like marine/maritime, as in, thing relating to the sea.

Martine has also found a way to harness aether. It can do pretty much anything electricity can do, but it functions under non-Euclidian geometry, so it is highly unstable. So, it usually only used as a weapon. However, Martine somehow found a way to tame the aether. Aether also has the bonus of not attracting the Mangleborn.

So, the League of Seven is united at last. Now, the hunt is on for Moffat and the Dragon Lantern. The first stop is Memphis, where we get several cameos from real world historical figures. Jesse James is back, and he's teamed up with Harriet Tubman and John Brown to bring tick-tocks to freedom in Acadia via the Underground Railroad. Oh, and did I mention the Underground Railroad is literally a railroad that runs underground? John Brown is a robot, but Harriet Tubman is a human who fights for the liberation of tick-tocks.

My problem with these cameos is that they don't really do anything interesting with the historical figures. They just pop in, say a few lines, and disappear from the plot. It reminds me of those Liberty Mutual ads that would play before The American Experience on PBS. There was the one with the animatronic Sacagawea who says "I'm Sacagawea, I helped Lewis and Clark discover the West. I'm Sacagawea, I helped Lewis and Clark discover the West." Or the one where the animatronic Paul Revere goes "I'm Paul Revere, one night in 1775 I warned everyone that the British are coming. I'm Paul Revere, one night in 1775 I warned everyone that the British are coming." The point being, there's more to American History, and American historical figures, than just these one sentence bits of trivia.

But I feel like Alan Gratz feel into that trap here. The scene with Harriet Tubman might as well have her going "Hey, look, I'm Harriet Tubman. Howdy, howdy, howdy! Oh, and John Brown is here too. Say hi, John! Well, goodbye now."

There's really not much point to the scene, other than to make the slavery parallel with the treatment of tick-tocks more obvious. Señor X even says that Lemuria collapsed as a result of a civil war over the rights of tick-tocks. You'd think that something more interesting could be done with someone Harriet Tubman. Alan Gratz was able to do interesting things in the previous book with historical figures like Marie Laveau and George Armstrong Custer.

We also get a cameo from Winchester Colbert. In our world, he was a member of the Chickasaw people who traveled the Trail of Tear. He went on to become an important tribal leader once the Chickasaw arrived in Oklahoma. In the world of the Leagueverse, however, the Trail of Tears never happened, and the Chickasaw remained in the ancestral homelands in Tennessee. Winchester Colbert is the mayor of Memphis as of 1876. You actually get a lot of cameos from less well-known historical figures. I wish Gratz had made more of them. One thing I liked about Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy was that each book ends with a section that explains what part were based in reality, and which parts were artistic license. Doing something similar with The League of Seven books would be a great way to introduce kids to lesser-known historical figures.

Moffit has created a Shadow League to oppose the League of Seven. The shadow leaguers include murders, thieves, and...William Tecumseh Sherman?! In the Leagueverse, he was a notorious arsonist who was sent to Alcatraz. Wait, if Sherman is from the United Nations, and Alcatraz is in the Republic of California, how does that work? Is Alcatraz the Leagueverse equivalent of Guantanamo Bay? Now, Sherman's famous March to the Sea could, I suppose, be categorized as a bit harsh. However, it also helped speed up the end of an incredibly brutal war. For reference, the American Civil War killed two percent of America's overall population. Oh, and you know, assuring a Union victory also ended slavery once and for all.

Some people say "But what about all the Southerners who suffered from Sherman's March?" And that I say, what about all of the African-Americans who suffered under the yoke of slavery? The fact remains, Sherman helped put an end of the horrors of slavery. Plus, the Confederates had it coming. Most of the historiography that paints Sherman as a monster tended to be written by pro-Confederate historians. The sort of people responsible for the myth of the Lost Cause. Thankfully, modern historians are reexamining Sherman in a more sympathetic light. As far as I'm concern, Sherman was a true American hero, and deserves to be remembered as such.

Well, anyway, getting back on track, the League splits up...again. I mean, I know they had their reasons, but it is repeatedly emphasized that the League is strongest when they're together. Archie, Hachi and Fergus got into numerous situations that could have been avoid if they'd stuck together in the last book. Also, Hachi killed everyone involved in the slaughter of her village. So, technically speaking, Hachi is a serial killer. Yet none of the characters ever bring this up, or object to her actions. I know they villains had it coming and all, but you'd think at least Clyde, being a lawman, would object to Hachi's methods.

Clyde and Fergus go back to Wichita, while Hachi and Martine go back to Standing Peace tree. Really? There's still plenty of interesting places left to explore, but instead we're retracting our footsteps? I was hoping we'd at least get to see the Navajo, or perhaps the Inuit.

Well, at least Kitsune and Gonzalo go to Shikaakwa, which you might know as Chicago. All the buildings of Shikaakwa are on hydraulic lifts to cope with flooding. The buildings are also connected to a massive grad that crisscrosses the city. This means the buildings can be moved around quite easily. So, when someone in Shikaakwa says "There goes the neighborhood!" they mean it literally. Still, gotta wonder how the plumbing and gas lines work with such buildings. Of course, steampunk tends to favor things that are cool over things that would actually work. In real life, most steampunk machine would require way too much fuel to actually function. There is a reason our world never developed steampunk tech.

I'll give points for having the Ametokai Strangler be made out of kudzu vines; that was genuinely clever. Kudzu is an invasive vine from Japan that is wreaking havoc on American ecosystems, particularly in the Southeast. One of the issues is that it, essentially, strangles native plants of the region. It was also nice to have more scenes of Gonzalo and Kitsune interacting with each other. Also, apparently the Shikaakwa Cubs are a thing, but they're a lacrosse team, rather than a baseball team.

Also, apparently the Leagueverse does use oil. However, they use it to light lamps, rather than for internal combustion engines. Well, I guess internal combustion does require an electric spark, and electricity is a no-no. That, and apparently oil is actually the blood of the Mangleborn. Guess that's why the Leagueverse is steampunk, rather than dieselpunk. On an unrelated note, why do some many of the Native Americans in the Leagueverse wear Western style clothing? By Western, I mean clothing white people would wear. If anything, you'd think it would be the other way around. Native Americans are implied to have a numeric majority over Yankees.

So, the titular Monster War happens, and the League of Seven links up with the United Nations at Gettysburg. Due to allohistroical irony, Robert E. Lee is leading the Union at an alternate Battle of Gettysburg. Lee is presented as far nicer than he was in real life. For example, he promotes Clyde to a captain, and compliments him on his excellent leadership skills. In real life, Lee would have whipped Clyde and told him that his name be Toby now. Lee even delivers an alternate version of The Gettysburg Address to rally the troops!

It is another Lost Cause myth that Lee was a kindly slave owner, and that he only joined the Confederacy out of loyalty to his home state of Virginia. Lee's personal letters make it crystal clear that he knew that the Confederacy was fighting to preserve slavery, and that this is why he joined them. Also, he was a terrible commander who regularly got his troops slaughtered. For example, during the Battle of Vicksburg, every man under Lee was either killed or captured. By contrast, Ulysses S. Grant got through the whole battle without losing a single man. Though, the fact that Lee is commanding so many Native American troops is accidentally accurate. In our world, the Five Civilized Tribes owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy.

Speaking of Native Americans, apparently the tribes are all fighting each other in a massive civil war...which we only know because Lee tells us so. We did get hints of this back in this first book, but that particular plot point got dropped up until this book. I mean, that's a pretty significant detail to ignore until just now. This is why it is important to show, not tell. Also, one of the monsters is a wendigo that has possessed an Inuit man. Slight problem, wendigo are from the mythology of the Algonquin peoples, not the Inuit.

Okay, now we're getting into the really spoiler stuff. So, if you don't want any of that, turn back now.

This is your last chance. Are you sure?

Okay, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.

There was one major bombshell early one in The Monster War that I've been leaving out til now. We know that Archie was created via a ritual carried out by Edison and Blavatsky. However, it turns out they got funding by some mysterious benefactors: the Septemberist Society! Archie was created as part of another attempt at making an artificial league. Archie and the other member of the League decide that they can't work for the Septemberists anymore after that. Hachi has found out about this, but she doesn't blame Archie. Well, actually, that's a lie. She's deeply resentful towards him, and convinces the other members of the League that he's too dangerous to be trusted. So, they keep blue amber from Dodge City on hand to encase Archie if he ever snaps.

Oh, and wouldn't you know it, Archie goes completely berserk and hulks out specifically because his friends didn't trust him. Now, granted, Archie has lost control of himself and gone on rampages in the past. However, if the rest of the League had just sat him down and explained their concerns, then maybe they could have avoided all of that. Especially if they got Mr. Rivets to act as the voice of reason. I suppose there's a message here about the importance of not keeping secrets and being honest.

I also kind of get what Gratz was trying to do with regards to Archie's origins. It didn't escape my notice that a bunch of Native Americans had to die for a white boy to live. The United States of America is a land of so much wealth, prosperity, and opportunity. And yet much of that prosperity was build atop the corpses of millions of indigenous peoples. But, like Archie, most of us didn't choose to be born into such a world. It's just the way the cards were dealt.

That having been said, I feel that things between Hachi and Archie could have been handled better. I understand that Hachi felt angry and all, but she let her grief consume her almost to fatal consequences. Worse, none of the other characters ever call her out on this. We all got shit to deal with. That's no excuse for dragging everyone else down. I feel like Rocket Raccoon in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie; the part where he calls out Drax for letting his grief and desire for vengeance nearly kill everyone.

Hachi does sort of forgive Archie...possibly. She calms him down by having Kitsune create an illusion of all the men in Hachi's village saying they don't blame Archie for being born. The way it is written is kind of ambiguous. Did Hachi really forgive Archie, or was she only saying that to calm him down? Oh, and during all of this, Kitsune is barely hanging on after Archie impaled her with a harpoon. But she doesn't hold it again him, and she refuses to lay down and do nothing. She keeps pressing on to help calm Archie down. And that is why Kitsune is best girl.

Speaking of which, we finally learn her true origin. One of her ancestors was a kitsune, so occasionally members of her family are born with fox ears and tails. Her parents thought she was a monster and abandoned her, but her kindhearted grandmother raised her in a cabin in the woods. Well, at least until Kitsune was about eight, and grandma died. Kitsune was pretty much on her own until she met Archie and the League. She masks a great sadness with her mischievous personality. But she isn't sad, because the League is her family now. Will somebody please give best girl a hug for me?

So, Moffit is defeated once and for all. You'll have to read the book if you want the specifics on that. She was completely insane, but she had a point about the Septemberists being untrustworthy. Ultimately, Moffit was a tragic villain. She was born a monster, but the Septemberists made her into one. So, the League decide to operate in the open from now on, and reveal the truth about the Mangleborn to the United Nations of America. Oh, and they're dissolving the Septemberists Society, effective immediately, and placing the leaders of the Septemberists under arrest for the kidnapping and forced medical experimentation of countless children.

Well, I guess this does somewhat mitigate the positive portrayal of Robert E. Lee earlier in the book. Hopefully, Lee will be rotting in prison for a very long time. Although, Fredrick Douglas is also a member of the Septemberist Council. Thus, one of the great American heroes in our world was an evil child kidnapping monster in the Leagueverse. Well, he was complacent in such activities, at any rate. Also, Hellcat Maggie is a member of the Septemberists Council. In our world, she was a member of the Dead Rabbits, an Irish street gang based in Manhattan. She was a fighter who wore brass claws on her fingers and filed her teeth to sharp points.

So, justice is served, the truth is finally revealed, and our heroes get a ticker tape parade in their honor. Well, except Archie. He's sulking in the shadows inside the float. He doesn't think he deserves to be a hero because of what he is. He is still convinced he'll always be a monster. Worse, Archie speculates that he not only has the strength of 100 men, but also all of their lifespans too. Meaning, potentially, Archie will live for over 8,000 years. Oh, but don't worry, Mr. Rivets assures Archie that he'll always have him.

Does Archie decide to quiet being so mopey and join his friends in the celebration? Nope! We end with him still sulking in the dark, bitter about how nobody understands him. I mean, wow, that's really the note we're going to end the series on? Archie, serious question, were you even paying attention to what Kitsune told you? Pretty much everyone in the League, except Gonzalo and possibly Martine, lost their family in one way or another. But that doesn't matter. You guys are a family now. You wanted to be the Percy Jackson, but you wound up as the Nico di Angelo of the team. Less than ideal, maybe, but end of the world? Not even close. On that note, nobody rejected you, you rejected yourself. Ugh, where's Will Solace when you need him?

Maybe you will outlive your friends, but that doesn't mean the time you have with them matters less. If anything, it is all the more valuable because it might end. So, get off your stone ass and go be in that ticker tape parade with your family, by Hiawatha! And hey, you've still got Mr. and Mrs. Dent. They kind of disappeared after the first book, but you've still got them...unless they were arrested with the other Septemberists. 

I know Alan Gratz has written some short stories set in the world of The League of Seven. I really do hope he does consider revisiting the Leagueverse, because as it stands, it has ended on way too depressing of a note for my taste.

I know I sounds like I've been rather critical, but on the whole I did enjoy The Monster War. It was a very gripping and engaging story with great worldbuilding and characters. I was never bored, and I was always eager to see what came next. Sure, it has its flaws, but so do the other books in the series. Taking the overall experience into account, I found it an enjoyable book, and would be more than happy to recommend it. I'll also plug the audiobook version one final time.

So, what are my overall thoughts about The League of Seven series. Overall, I did enjoy it. I think it is a great series for introducing alternate history to kids. I also appreciated that it remembered that Native Americans are a thing exist. Though, I do feel that Gratz didn’t do quite enough to make all the tribes more than just names on a page. Still, the series has very interesting worldbuilding, and great characters. My biggest complaint is that three books, at roughly 336 pages each, simply wasn't enough to explore this incredibly interesting world in full. Gratz tried to pack as much as he could into each book, but things jump around so much, we never get enough time to really explore the different stops on the journey. Well, for the most part anyway. That's why I'm really hoping we get more books, or at least short stories, set in the world of The League of Seven.

But on the whole, I find The League of Seven a welcome addition to the alternate history genre. So, there you have it. We reviewed The Monster War, and our time with The League of Seven is at an end. It is a somewhat flawed, but highly entertaining read. Hey, sometimes a speckled axe is best of all, as Benjamin Franklin famously observed.

Well, that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: The Dragon Lantern by Alan Gratz

You guys seemed to have enjoyed my review of the first book in Alan Gratz's League of Seven series. Well, I have some very good news for all you. We are reviewing the second book in the series today. So, without further ado, let's get into it. We're taking a look at The Dragon Lantern.

Archie Dent and his friends Fergus and Hachi are continuing their mission as the founders of a new League of Seven. To that end, they've traveled to the city of Cahokia in the Clouds to retrieve the Dragon Lantern. It is an artifact from the civilization of Mu, and they hope it will give them a major advantage against the Mangleborn. Unfortunately, they lose the lantern almost as quickly as they find it. So, the team decides to split-up. Archie and Mr. Rivets head out to the western territories to track down the thief. Meanwhile, Hachi and Fergus follow a tip to New Orleans. They hope to track down the woman responsible for the death of Hachi's father. There's plenty more steampunk adventures in an alternate America to be had, but is splitting up the team really the best idea?

The League of Seven started off strong with an excellent first novel. The Dragon Lantern not on keeps up the momentum, but is even better than its predecessor. There's plenty of new exciting details to add to the worldbuilding. First of all, what is Cahokia in the Clouds? In our world, Cahokia was a major settlement in southwestern Illinois, not too far from where St. Louis is, during pre-Columbian times. It had widespread agriculture and irrigation, but was most famous of its massive earthwork mounds. If the artifacts that have been found are anything to go on, then Cahokia might have been able to rival the civilizations of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes in terms of advancement. Of course, given that the people Cahokia left no written records, we know frustratingly little about their civilization.

In the world of The League of Seven, however, Cahokia was never abandoned. These days, it is owned by the Illini people. Although, in a twist of irony, St. Louis was abandoned following the awakening of the Mangleborn. It is only remembered as a former French settlement. Anyway, there are technically two Cahokias; the one on the ground is call Cahokia on the Plaines, and the one in the sky is called Cahokia in the Clouds. Cahokia in the Clouds started as a massive hot air balloon connected to the ground by an equally massive cable. It was built by Mu; another of those lost civilizations like Atlantis, but said in the Pacific. Cahokia in the Clouds was used as a docking port for airships over the years, and before long people began hanging entire buildings off of the great balloon.

By the present day, Cahokia in the Clouds is a massive layered dangling city crisscrossed by walkways and gangplanks. It is a popular destination during the hot summer months. Sounds a bit too acrophobia for my liking, but different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Cahokia in the Clouds also serves as the prison for the giant Antaeus, who is a Mangleborn. He was defeated by Heracles, but Antaeus being a king in Greece was just the cover story. Antaeus will remain frozen as a statue as long as he never touches the Earth.

There are also more appearances from real world historical figures. Archie gets a ride thanks to George Armstrong Custer. He's a captain in the United Nations Steam-Man Corp. The United Nations of America has about ten or so giant steam-powered mechas. Each of them is ten stories tall, super strong, and can shoot aether blasts out of their arm cannons. In many ways, they're kind of like battleships that travel on the land. The one Custer commands is named Colossus. Colossus is used for border skirmishes with the Sioux. So, Custer is still fighting the Sioux, but Colossus' crew is almost entirely composed of Native Americans; so, two steps forward, one step back, and all that.

There is one notable non-Native America among the crew: a black kid named Clyde. He's training to help pilot Colossus, and is a natural-born leader. He spent many years in an orphanage, but he doesn't let that get him down. He's nearly always cheery and upbeat, and has a kind word for everyone. Naturally, it isn't long before Archie recruits Clyde to the League. It is good that Clyde knows how to pilot Colossus. At one point, Colossus becomes possessed by the spirit of a dog named Buster. Colossus, or rather Buster, will only obey Clyde  If you want to know exactly how that happened, well, you'll have to read the book for that one.

Well, things were getting a bit animesque once the giant robots got introduced, but that's just makes it even more so. Clyde‘s like the protagonists of one of those animes where there's some giant robots or mecha, but only the protagonist can command and/or pilot it. Get in the robot, Clyde  He wouldn't need my promoting, but I couldn't help myself.

So, now let's talk about Hachi and Fergus in New Orleans. I was a bit wary when I saw that voodoo was going to play a major role in the New Orleans storyline. If you'll recall, last time, Alan Gratz tried to pass a Billy Graham quote off as Cherokee wisdom. There were a lot of potential pitfalls and stereotypes that Gratz could fall into if he wasn't careful. Thankfully, I'm pleased to report that this did not happen...for the most part. We'll get to what wasn't good in a minute. We're going to focus on the positive for now. Early on, Hachi and Fergus meet Marie Laveau. She was a practitioner of Voodoo, but did so out of religious devotion. Voodoo is a religion like any other. Most of that stuff about charms and spells is called Hoodoo. There were practitioners of both in New Orleans, and there was a bit of cross-pollination between the two.

Laveau played up her reputation as a Voodoo queen to scam gullible white people out of their money. Before you think too harshly of her, I'd remind you that a black woman in 19th Century New Orleans didn't have very good prospects for employment.

The League of Seven version of Marie Laveau does seem to have at least a few legitimately magical powers. However, magic is a fact of life in the world of The League of Seven, so that is perfectly excusable. Moreover, the vast majority of the time, Laveau prefers to use trickery, sleight of hand, and misdirection, rather than magic, to get things done. One detail I like is that, at certain points, Laveau wear a white robe and a white headdress. That is the traditional attire of a voodoo priestess. I also liked that it is emphasized that the point of voodoo is to serve the loa. They aren't gods per se, but they largely fill that role in voodoo. Voodoo teaches that there is supreme creator deity, but he isn't involved much in daily life. So, daily life is overseen by the loa. You serve them, and pray through them, but don't actually worship them directly. It is important to note that Voodoo is the result of fusing traditional West African religions with Roman Catholicism.

Now let's talk about the Kingdom of Louisiana itself. Shortly after the Mangleborn rose in 1775, Aaron Burr gathered an army and marched on New Orleans. He then proclaimed himself as King of Louisiana. The Kingdom of Louisiana comprises the states of Louisiana and Arkansas from our world. As of 1875, Aaron Burr's daughter, Theodosia, is the current monarch of Louisiana. In our world, Aaron Burr did indeed take part in a scheme to carve out a new nation somewhere in the American West. Where exactly is subject to some debate; many historians say Louisiana, but others say Texas, or the Southwest. However, he was only able to attempt this thanks to the many connections he'd made over the years. Burr simply did not have these connections in 1775. I enjoy alternate histories with independent Louisianas, don't get me wrong, but Burr establishing a kingdom in 1775 is too early to be considered realistic.

Louisiana doesn't really use Tick-Tocks like America does, but it compensates by using zombies to supplement the military and workforce. Vodou, the Haitian equivalent Voodoo, has a special class of priests called bokors. They serve the loa with both hands. That means, they can perform rituals that some might describe as black magic. However, it is important to emphasize that, in this context, black magic is not the same as evil. There are certain spirits in Vodou that are said to be bribable, and for a price, they can help you out. If you want to make a deal with the spirits, a bokor will act as the middle man. Bokor are also useful for making zombies. In Vodou, zombies are believed to be revived as mindless slaves, not flesh-eating monsters.

Louisiana does have a few particularly notable zombies on-hand. For example, Andrew Jackson served as a general in the army of Louisiana, but he died twenty years before the event of The League of Seven. So, he was revived as a zombie, and serves as Queen Theodosia's personal bodyguard. Quite ironic, as Jackson was one of the people responsible for getting Aaron Burr tried for treason in our world.

There's an amusing scene where zombies are going crazy in the throne room, so Fergus decides to make a magnet. He mentions how gold won't be magnetically attracted. Shortly after this, pretty much every gold object in the room comes flying at him. Queen Theodosia has to sheepishly admit Louisiana has been going through some tough economic times for the past few decades. Let's see, corrupt government, economic turmoil, hot and humid weather. As someone who is actually from Louisiana, I can attest that this all checks out. Also, I sure hope somebody invented steampunk air conditioning units; because if not, and with all the other steam-powered machines being used, Louisiana is going to be hell on Earth. Well, more so than usual. That goes for the rest of the South as well.

Okay, now we get into the main flaw with the Louisiana storyline. At one point, Helena Blavatsky, who killed Hachi's father, summons the loa Baron Samedi. He is portrayed reasonably correct. He loves to party, drink rum, and is a shameless ladies' man. Hey, he's the lord of the dead, and you don't have to worry about proper behavior when you're dead. However, he's also portrayed as being evil, and wanting to take over New Orleans. The loa can be temperamental, and easily offended, but they are not evil. Baron Samedi is not evil just because he is connected to the dead. His wife Maman Brigitte also appears, and at first it looks like she's going to be good, but no, she's evil too. She also has storm powers, despite Maman Brigitte not being associated with storms. Damn it, Alan! And you were doing so well too!

What's more it is mentioned that the loa are actually aspects of a Mangleborn, known as Le Grande Zombi, that is buried beneath Lake Pontchartrain. Salt repels it and puts it to sleep, and usually the waters of the lake are brackish enough to keep it sedated. Pretty much everything from mythology and folklore is connected to either the League, the Mangleborn, or both in the League of Seven universe. However, having the loa being an aspect of a Mangleborn plays into the "Voodoo is basically Satanism" trope.

As an aside, Helena Blavatsky was a real Russian person who was involved in the occult. She mentions she came to America after Napoleon invaded Russia. So, the Mangleborn took over the Old World, but Napoleon still conquered Europe? And he was more successful than in our world? Was Napoleon a Manglespawn, or otherwise working for the Mangleborn?

Let's move back to the Western storyline. Last time, I wondered how the presence of the Tick-Tocks impacted slavery. Turns out, slavery never happened in the world of the League of Seven. Black people came to America of their own volition. We also frequently see women serving in the armed forces, and in positions of authority, without issue. It seems that Alan Gratz wanted to create an alternate 19th Century free from the racism and sexism that characterized the decade in our world. Though, that's not to say there are no social issues in the Leagueverse.

Tick-Tocks have certain limitations built into them. They can't deliberately harm a human, they can't disobey an order, and they can't lie. If pressed for sensitive, or otherwise classified information, they are programmed to respond "I'm afraid I can't say." Well, most Tick-Tocks have these limitations. Mark-3 Tick-Tocks were built without these limits, and thus had genuine free will. They could also wind their own springs and insert their own talent cards. However, this meant they could back talk to their owners, and question their orders. Many revolts and uprisings ensued, and Mark-3s were discontinued. For reference, Mr. Rivets is a Mark-1, and the latest model as of 1875 is the Mark-4. It is mentioned there was a particularly large uprising lead by a Tick-Tock named Mr. Turner in 1831. So, yeah, apparently Nat Turner was a robot in the Leagueverse. Though, confusingly, it is mentioned that the Haitian Revolution still occurred. Was it a robot uprising? Was Toussaint Louverture a robot?

Of course, Nat Turner isn't the only robot of note. Jesse James is a Tick-Tock outlaw. He and his gang kidnap other Tick-Tocks, and give them upgrades to make them more like Mark-3s. The James Gang is based out of Dodge City in the nation of Wichita. It's called Dodge City because it is the site of a major biohazard. Well, that's what the signs around it claim. Robots don't have to worry about such things, but humans try their best to avoid it at all cost. In other words, they dodge around it.

The hunt for the lantern thief leads Archie and company across quite a bit of western North America. I was pleased that we finally got to see the mobile city of Cheyenne. I was even more pleased that we finally to see Beikoku. I'd been especially interested in them. Beikoku is a Japanese colony located about where Washington state is, and also includes a few bits of Idaho and Montana. Unlike the nations of the Americas, Japan doesn't hide the existence of the Mangleborn from its citizens. All citizens of Japan work together to fight the Mangleborn. As a result, Japan is one of the only places in Asia not to fall to the Mangleborn. The cities of Japan and Beikoku are defended by giant steam-powered mecha samurai. Japan established Beikoku to supplement their food supply, and to mine for materials to make more mecha samurai.

The capital of Beikoku is Ametokai. It is located where Seattle is in our world. It has lots of tea shops, but it has even more coffee shops. Clyde thinks it's all a bit much. By far the most popular coffee chain is Queequegs. It's a joke about how Starbucks got its start in Seattle; and that it gets its name from the character of the same name from Moby Dick. From this, we must assume that Herman Melville still had a noteworthy literary career. Ametokai also has an underground city where numerous illegal activities take place. This further reinforces that Ametokai is an alternate version of Seattle. Seattle has a very famous underground city dating back to the 19th Century.

Interestingly, when Archie and company first arrive in Beikoku, Mr. Rivets has to act as their translator. Most of the Native American nations speak English without issue, but Beikoku uses Japanese as its primary language. Also, the way the dialog of the Japanese characters is written suggest they are speaking with accents. This is in contrast to the Native American characters, who lack any noticeable accents.

So, who is the mysterious lantern thief? She's a girl with fox ears and a tail named Kitsune. Her name and appearance are an obvious nod to the shapeshifting fox women of Japanese Mythology. She's a compulsive liar, and likes to troll people just for shits and giggles. In fact, she gives Archie at least three or four different versions of her backstory. Kitsune also has the power to cast illusions. However, Tick-Tocks are immune to the effects of her illusions. She grew up in an abusive orphanage, but escaped, and became quite skilled at stealing and pickpocketing. But her mischievous nature is what I love about her, and I was very pleased that she joined the League. Well, that and I've got a soft spot for fox girls.

Archie's half of the League also briefly stops in the Republic of California. For some reason, San Francisco is called Don Fransisco. The Golden Gate Bridge is there ahead of schedule, but that's because it was built by Mu. It is cover in pagoda roofs, and has dragons and lions on either end. It would seem that Mu was the forerunner of Chinese Civilization. If I did have one complaint about the Western storyline, it is that we moved around so much where barely get to explore any of the places the characters visit. This is a real shame, as based on what we do get to see they all seem fascinating.

Also, as a random aside, at one point a character mentions that Yankee people have invented some sort of cheese and tomato pies. Cheese and tomato pie is a thing that exists, but I think what he meant was pizza. So, despite not have any Italian immigrants in sufficient numbers, the United Nations of America somehow invented pizza. Granted, I suppose it isn't impossible that some cook might go "I wonder what would happen if I put cheese and tomato sauce on this dough and stuck it in an oven?" But it is still pretty odd.

I'll also take a moment to plug the audiobook version. It is once again narrated by James Fouhey, who keeps up the good work.

Okay, now we're getting into the spoilers. So, if you don't want any of that, turn back now.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

Well, okay then, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.

Let's back track a little to Dodge City. Just what sort of biohazard was going on there? Well, turns out it used to be a secret Septemberist research facility. Back in 1850, the Septemberists decided to create an artificial League of Seven, rather than wait around for a new league to rise. They gathered several children and exposed them to the power of the Dragon Lantern. What does it do? It activates latent Mangleborn DNA within humans. It is estimated that at least forty percent of all humans have at least some Mangleborn DNA. Kitsune was also exposed to the Dragon Lantern at some point, and that's why she has fox ears and a tail.

One of the most promising kids was an Illini girl named Sings in the Night. The Dragon Lantern gave her bird wings and bird feet. She built, essentially, a cryogenic preservation chamber. Good thing too, because that's what saved her after the other kids went crazy and started killing everyone. The Septemberists decided to cut their losses, released a virus to kill their failed test subjects, and washed their hands of the whole affair. The virus is long gone, but they keep the biohazard signs up to keep nosy people out of Dodge. I liked how this added some shades of grey to the conflict. It shows that the Septemberists aren't above performing morally questionable acts in the name of defeating the Mangleborn. The implication being that they view the ends as always justifying the means.

As you might imagine, Sings in the Night is shocked to wake up twenty-five years in the future. She's initially hesitant, understandably, to join Archie's league. However, after mulling it over, she decides she can trust them, and that she doesn't have many other options. Sings in the Night is a bit shy and nervous, but she does start to open-up more as the book goes on. Personally, I was very excited when she joined the League. It was nice to have more than one Native American on the team. One of my complaints from the first book was that it looked like Hachi would be the sole Native American on the team, despite how much Native Americans factor into the plot. Sings in the Night being from the past also presented many excited opportunities. It would be a great way to compare how North America has changed over the decades, and expand on the worldbuilding.

Things were looking great, but sadly, it was not to be. You see, there was one other survivor of the Dodge City lab. Sings knew her as Mina, but she grew up to be Philomena Moffit, the current leader of the Septemberist Society. Mrs. Moffit has gone a tad insane over the years, and wants to use the Dragon Lantern to mutate as many people as possible. Also, her lower body is entirely composed of octopus tentacles. That’s the reason she always wears large hoop skirts. For some reason, none of the Septemberists ever noticed this.

I bring this up because Mrs. Moffat kills Sing in the Night when Archie's half of the League visit Alcatraz Island. I mean, wow, Alan Gratz was not messing around. At the same time, I'm as appalled and outraged as Archie was. We barely got to know Sings, she had so much potential, and now she's dead! Well, at least Kitsune gave her a traditional Illini burial. Oh, and then it briefly looks like she survived. Nope! Just an illusion Kitsune casted. Wow, way to twist the knife in, Alan.

Oh, but Archie isn't done getting traumatized just yet. Turns out he's, basically, a golem. He was carved from stone and bathed in the blood of 100 men. Thus, he has the strength of 100 men. Oh, and did I mention Hachi's dad was one of those men? Well, Archie has officially been run through the wringer, and this is all probably going to play major roles in book three.

Well, at least there is one silver lining. Queen Theodosia is dead, and the people of New Orleans picked Marie Laveau as their new queen. She's going to reveal the presence of the Mangleborn. That way, everyone in Louisiana can work together to fight the Mangleborn. And we find out how she constantly jumps between different bodies: she doesn't. Her two masked assistants are her mother and daughter, and they all take turns being Marie Laveau. That way, everyone will be on the same page, and able to keep up the illusion. That defiantly sound like something the Marie Laveau of our world would do. A good resolution to the Louisiana storyline.

Okay, this review has gone on for way longer than I intended. Suffice it to say, The Dragon Lantern is a more then worthy second entry to The League of Seven series, and an excellent follow-up to the first novel. It’s full steam ahead for more action, adventure, and alternate history. I can't wait to see where the rest of this series goes.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: The League of Seven by Alan Gratz

I've said before that it is often true that good things come to those who wait. This is especially true in the case of audiobooks. So, today we're going to take a look at an alternate history audiobook that was more than worth the wait. We're taking a look at The League of Seven by Alan Gratz.

The League of Seven takes place in a world here Lovecraftian monstrosities, known as the Mangleborn, arose in 1775. The Mangleborn feed off of electricity, and will awaken when electricity is harnessed in sufficient quantities. The Americas were relatively unscathed, but they were cut-off from the Old World. The Thirteen Colonies founds themselves cold and hungry, but then salvation arrived. The Iroquois Confederacy agreed to adopt the colonists as the Yankee tribe, and thus, the United Nations of America was born. Over the years, the United Nations forged alliances with other tribes and expanded their territory, but mostly stayed east of the Mississippi River.

By the year 1875, the United Nations is a prosperous nation where whites and Native Americans live as equals, and is home to countless steam-powered marvels. Archie Dent is a young boy whose parents work for the Septemberist Society. They're an organization dedicated to the League of Seven. A group of seven heroes always form to take down the Mangleborn whenever they rise. Unfortunately, the Mangleborn have infiltrated Septemberist Headquarters. Before long, Archie is on the run with his trusty robot butler Mr. Rivets. They're soon joined by a Scottish boy named Fergus and a Seminole girl named Hachi. Archie and company have to find a way to take down the Mangleborn before it's too late.

As you might know, before I started this blog, I got my start writing for the Alternate History Weekly Update. It was a truly great blog, and one of the places I looked to for inspiration when I started The Audiophile. It's a shame it had go, but that was a big motivation for me to really kick my own blog into gear. Anyway, one day Alan Gratz stopped by to talk about a new novel he would be publishing soon called The League of Seven. I loved the setting that combined steampunk tech and adventures as well as Native American cultures. Oh, and the maps, I loved the maps too. Personally, I'm a bit sad that an updated version of Alan's full color map, complete with little mini flags, wasn't used. I mean, I get that black and white is more economical, and the map in the book doesn't look bad. Still, that full color map is awesome. Here, I'll include it and the revised official map blow it.

They're mostly the same baring a few minor differences. The most noticeable is that, in the revised map, there is a former Japanese colony called Beikoku in the Pacific Northwest. Interestingly, the book makes mention of something called the Seattle Alliance, whose location is now occupied by Beikoku. Perhaps a holdover from an earlier draft of the book? Anyway, Alternate History Weekly Update founder Matt Mitrovich did a review of the book, which only made me want it more. Alas, there was no audiobook. I patiently waited for this to change, until one day, when my patience was rewarded. So, now here we are

This book was exactly what I expected. I expected it to be an absolute blast, and it was. I loved the way it blended steampunk tech and alternate American History. In particular, I loved the focus on Native American peoples. You don't really see Native Americans too much in alternate history, or historical fiction for that matter. Actually, come to think of it, Native Americans also tend to get left out of the historical record in general; though recent scholarship is working to fix that. There's a lot of untapped potential in alternate history featuring Native Americans; particularly, in stories where Native Americans successfully resisted European colonialism, or else didn't get totally screwed over. As such, I'm glad to see that The League of Seven is working to fix that.

At times I got the impression that Native Americans comprised the major of the United Nations of America; or at least, where in equal name to the white population. In fact, since 1775, some parts of America have gone from majority white to almost entirely Native American. For example, Atlanta, now known as Standing Peach Tree, is primarily populated by the Cherokee and Muskogee. I suppose it does makes sense, given that there haven't been any immigrants from Europe since 1775. The Southeast had a fairly large Native American population prior to the Trail of Tears, which never happened in the world of The League of Seven.

New Jersey retained most of its colonial names, but is pretty entirely Iroquois as of 1875. They build their houses out of brick and stone, but in a way that evokes the longhouses of old. Wait a minute, what happened to the Lenape? They were the original inhabitants of New Jersey before white, and in this case Iroquois, settlers moved in. So, where did they go? It could be an oversight on Alan Gratz's part. On the other hand, at one point, Archie is going through his family's belongings and finds an aether pistol used in the Pawnee War. So, perhaps the expansion of the United Nations wasn't as peaceful as we're led to believe. We do see that there is growing tension between the Cherokee and Muskogee, though this is hinted to be caused, at least in part, by the Mangleborn. I thought that was actually good. Native Americans weren't a united block, they had tensions and rivalries just like everyone else.

So, just what is this League of Seven? Well, like I said, they're a team of seven heroes that forms every time the Mangleborn awake. They're roster is a veritable who's-who of famous members from World Mythology and Folklore. The most famous iteration of the league is the Ancient League. They consisted of Daedalus, Heracles, Atalanta, Ma'at, Anansi, Wayland Smith, and with Theseus as the leader. Wayland Smith is the only one I didn’t recognize from mythology. Apparently, he was a smith in Norse and Germanic Mythology,  and is the one who developed the aether pistol. Ma'at is the name for the Ancient Egyptian concept of balance and order, but there was also a goddess by that name, who acted as the personification of the concept.

It would seem that, in the world of The League of Seven, all myths and legends are true, but not all myths are and accurate account of what actually happened. The stories from mythology we know are just the cover stories, because the truth was too terrifying for the general public to know. For example, Theseus didn't fight a Minotaur in a labyrinth. He actually fought a shape-shifting Mangleborn capable for producing powerful illusions.

The Septemberist have identified a group who they believe to have the potential to be the new League of Seven. Well, maybe they did before the Mangleborn infiltrated headquarters. You know you're reading an alternate history novel when you've got Fredrick Douglas and Robert E. Lee on the same team. The novel makes a point of mentioning that Lee is wearing the blue uniform of the United Nations military. It appears that the United Nations had no equivalent of American Civil War. That raises a good question. Did slavery still happen, or did robots make it redundant? Mr. Rivets has been serving the Dent family since at least the 1770s, so the world has had steampunk tech since at least the 18th Century. We spend plenty of time in the South later in the book, but none of the people we see are black. Hopefully the sequels will address this.

I love the little incidental bits of worldbuilding we get along the way. For example, lacrosse, rather than baseball or football, is the sport of choice in the United Nations. It makes sense, given that lacrosse was invented by the Iroquois. 

The alternate history of The League of Seven goes beyond the 18th Century. For example, the Roman Empire expanded into the New World and established colonies in North America. Atlanta, Georgia was the site of a Roman fort. However, these colonies were a major finical drain, and contributed to the downfall of the empire, along with barbarian invasions. Well, that's the cover story anyway. In reality, the real reason Rome fell was because they started building electrical power stations, and this attracted the Mangleborn.

Also, New York City is instead named New Rome. Is it a former Roman colony perhaps? Instead of the Statue of Liberty, a statue of Hiawatha, the founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, stands in New Rome's harbor. Going back even further, Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria were all real places that actually existed. Atlantis was located in North America, and the Atlanteans were the ancestors of the Native Americans. This is also why there's so many technologically advanced Native American tribes; the technology they use is derived from leftover Atlantean tech. Like the Romans, Atlantis met its end due to building electrical power station and awakening the Mangleborn.

Okay, enough gushing about worldbuilding, let's talk about the characters. Archie wasn't a bad character, and overall, I did find him a good protagonist. That having been said, compared to cast of colorful characters featured through the book, he just came across as a bit bland by comparison. Of course, his primary job in this book was to introduce us to the world of The League of Seven. Perhaps he will get a bit more fleshed out in the sequels. There's more to discuss, but we'll save that for the spoilers section.

Fergus was born in the Carolinas, but apprenticed with an Iroquois man in New Jersey. They both worked at Thomas Edison's lab in Menlo Park; where they sought to unlock the secrets of electricity. However, as previously established, messing around with electricity is dangerous in the world of The League of Seven, and not just because you might shock yourself. Of course, Edison knows this perfectly well, given that he's working for the Mangleborn. Yeah, I didn't like that particular plot point, but more on it in a bit. As part of a ritual to summon Malacar Ahasherat, also known as the Swarm Queen, Edison has Fergus infused with blood from an electric squid. His body is covered in weird tattoos, but he gets the power to shoot electricity out of his hands. I guess it isn't impossible for Fergus to be Scottish, but I found it slightly odd, given that there haven't been any immigrants from Europe since 1775.

Hachi is a Seminole girl from Florida. She lost pretty much her entire tribe to one of Edison's previous attempts to summon Malacar Ahasherat. Did she mean her specific branch of the Seminole? She must have, because we see other Seminole at various points. Anyway, because of this she tends to be fairly reserved and stoic, but she does open up as the book goes on. She has a menagerie of miniature clockwork animals that help defend her. We later learn that she attended an all-girls boarding school in Georgia. They covered all the subjects that young ladies ought to be proficient in. This includes, but is not limited to, reading, writing, arithmetic, sword fighting, archery, and hand-to-hand combat. I loved the scenes set at Hachi's old school.

Okay, now let's switch gears and talk about some of the stuff I didn't like. As previously stated, Thomas Edison is a villain. Can't say I was too pleased about that, but then the book made it worse. At one point, Archie and the gang meet Nikola Tesla at an Atlantean power station beneath Niagara Falls. Tesla is presented as a noble hero working for the Septemberists. First of all, if there haven't be any immigrants since 1775, how his Tesla even there? Second, it really annoys me when people lionize Tesla. While it is true that he did some admirable work in electricity and radio, he also has quite a bit of black marks against him. Chief among them is his support of eugenics. Tesla supported the forced sterilization of the mentally ill, criminals, and racial minorities. Quite ironic, given that Tesla suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder and hypochondria, meaning he'd be subject to the very policies he championed.

And here's another bit of irony: Tesla briefly worked for Edison before striking out in his own. Thomas Edison gets an undeserved bad reputation. True, he was very strict with his patents, but that largely stemmed from how he got screwed over early in his career. True, he could be a jerk, especially later in life, but the energy market was a pretty cutthroat place. People like to blame Edison for Tesla never getting credit, but that fact remains that many of Tesla proposals, such as his plan to use massive Tesla coils to give free electricity to all of America, simply would not have worked. To be fair, not as much was known about the laws of physics as we know now. If anything, Tesla would have made a far more fitting villain. Say what you will about Edison, at least he didn't support eugenics or forced sterilization.

Then there was a scene where Fergus meets a Cherokee police officer. The officer tells him an "old Cherokee legend" about how there are two wolves inside each of us. Slight problem, that's not a Cherokee legend. In reality, the whole "two wolves inside you" story was actually invented the American televangelist Billy Graham. In fact, in the first few tellings, he claimed it was an Eskimo legend from Canada. He only changed it to Cherokee after the Canadian Inuit successfully sued him for libel. Whenever someone tells you about a "Native American" legend or myth, ask them what tribe it came from. If they can't name the specific tribe, then it probably isn't authentic. Of course, as we've seen here, being able to name a tribe is no guarantee of authenticity.

This is particularly frustrating as, up until that point, The League of Seven had done an excellent job depicting Native Americans. It didn't fall into lazy stereotypes or caricatures. This was also disappointing due to how infrequently Native Americans appear in alternate history, as I've previously mentioned. Granted, this was the only major error I could stop, and I certainly hope that future installments of the series won't make similar mistakes.

I realize that electricity summoning the Mangleborn was necessary for the story to happen. I realize this, but it still gave the story an oddly anti-science, anti-technology, and anti-progress feel to it. Quite ironic, given the frequent emphasis on how cool the steampunk tech is. Moreover, steampunk tech is shown to have a few drawbacks. For example, Mr. Rivets has a variety of skills and functions, but can only activate them when the relevant punch card is inserted into him. Oh, and he can't insert the cards on his own, he needs a human to do that. If you want him to pilot an airship you need the airship pilot card, treating injuries requires the surgeon card, cooking requires the chef card, and so on. Technically, he can do functions other than whatever card is currently in him, but he does so slowly and inefficiently. And if you happen to lose the punch cards, well, tough luck.

Okay, now we're getting into the spoilers. So, skip down a few paragraphs if you don't want any of that.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

Well, okay, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's get into it.

At one point, Archie and the gang go to the nation of Acadia, which is located in Quebec rather than the Maritime Provinces. I would think that Canada would be a more fitting name, but I digress. Anyway, they retrieve the fur coat of a Mi'kmaq cultural hero who was a member of a pervious iteration of the League of Seven. Think of the coat like the Nemean Lion skin Heracles wore. The Mi'kmaq hero was, according to legend, the son of a bear. In reality, however, he was a Manglespawn. Manglespawn are half-human and half-Mangleborn. Yeah, have fun with that mental image. Heracles was also a Manglespawn, rather than a demigod.

I mention this because, at one point, Archie survives falling from12,000 feet in the air. He was wearing the special coat, true, but that was still pretty impressive. It reminded me of that time Percy Jackson survived jumping off of the Gateway Arch and landing in the Mississippi River. Of course, that was because Percy is a demigod. It was then that the gears started turning. Archie thought of himself as the Theseus of the group, because he's the leader, but what if he's the Heracles? What if he was not entirely humans?

Well, come the end of the book, my suspicions were confirmed. Archie isn't completely human, because he is indeed a Manglespawn. The Septemeberists found him on a mission to the Amazon rainforest. The Dents wanted children, but had trouble conceiving, so they agreed to adopt Archie. He isn't biologically their son, but they still love Archie very much.

I mean, I saw that twist coming, but I was still a bit surprised. That's definitely going to play a big role in the future books in the series. Coming to terms with his nature is probably going to be a big part of Archie's character arc.

And you know I have to take a moment to talk about the audiobook. I initially wasn't sure if James Fouhey would be the right fit, but I soon found that I had nothing to worry about. He gave a solid performance, and from the looks for things, will continue to do so in the next audiobooks of the series.

And I can't wait to explore those next books. Sure, The League of Seven had a few issues, but overall, I was extremely pleased with it. It was an absolute joy from start to finish, and I can't wait to explore more this steampunk alternate America. Do yourself a favor a get a copy of The League of Seven today. Believe me, you will be glad that you did.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

2019 was a year where I got to experience a lot of alternate history books in audio form for the first time.  It was also, like 2018 before it, a year where I finally got around to listening to several alternate history I'd been meaning to get around to.  Case in point, the book we'll be reviewing today.  We're taking a look at the classic alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The Years of Rice and Salt takes places in a world where the Black Death killed ninety-nine percent of Europe's population.  The story follows six or seven individuals, though three in particular, as they are reincarnated over the ages.  Robinson makes it easy by having their names start with the same letter.  The main characters we follow having names starting in K, B, and I.  Secondary characters have names with Z, P, and S.  The novel spans hundreds of years of history, and spans numerous nations, giving it a truly global feel to it.

The novel is divided into ten segments of varying lengths, and I will discuss each of them individually.  For now, I will give some overall thoughts.  I'd been putting off listening to this one, but I'm glad I finally got around to it.  I absolutely loved this book.  I loved its vast global scope, and how it features nations and cultures you don't often see in alternate history.  I also loved the use of reincarnation as a plot device.  It was certainly an interesting twist I haven't really seen in too many other alternate history novels.  The story uses the Islamic Hegira Calendar for dates.  The Islamic year 1 being when Mohammad felid Mecca for Medina in 622 AD.  However, I've rendered the dates in the Gregorian Calendar for convenience sake.  There's a ton of historical and cultural references throughout the novel.  You don't necessarily have to catch them to enjoy the novel, but it adds to the experience.  Thankfully, the Kim Stanley Robinson website has this handy reading guide that catalogs and explains them all.

Well, enough of all that, lets dive in.

Our first segment is titled "Awake into Emptiness."  It takes place from 1381-1424.  It follows a Mongol warrior named Bold who is serving in the army of Timur.  Timur has sent Bold to scout ahead into the Hungarian Basin.  Bold find a land almost totally devoid of humans.  Bold travels through the depopulated Balkans until he is captured and sold into slavery by Arab slavers.  During his time aboard a slave ship he meets an African slave named Kyu.  As the ship makes its way to China, Kyu and Bold discover that their lives are destined to be intertwined.

This segment sets things up for the rest of the novel.  The descriptions of the depopulated Europe were evocative and haunting.  There are multiple mentions of cathedrals being only partially built because everyone died in the middle of construction.  Medieval cathedrals took decades, if not centuries, to be fully constructed.  Often, those who began work on the cathedrals would do so knowing that they would not live to see them completed.

There's a particularly sad scene where Bold encounters the sole European in all of his travels.  The man can't speak any of the languages Bold know, but he gets his point across with gestures.  He was just a fisherman, and was out fishing when the plague hit.  He came back to find everyone, including his wife and children, dead.  Now he's all alone, and due to the language barrier, Bold isn't much company.  They share food and camp together, but the very next day the man is gone.  His footsteps lead to the riverbank, which strongly suggests he might have committed suicide out of despair.  What would it be like, I wonder, to be like the lone European?  What thoughts would go through one’s head as the sole survive of a once prosperous village?  To know that you might be alone forever?  Chilling stuff indeed.

Bold and Kyu eventually get sold to the admiral Zhang He.  He was the commander of the Ming Dynasty's fleet of treasure ships.  They were massive ships that traveled everywhere from the South China Sea, to India, and even East Africa.  The goal was to proclaim China's power and influence to the world, and to collect tribute.  Zhang He is a staple in alternate histories about China colonizing the New World.  Ironically, that doesn't happen in this book til after Zhang He.  We'll talk more about that in a bit.  We also get a frighteningly detailed explain of how eunuchs, of which Zhang He was one, are made.

Another significant aspect of "Awake into Emptiness" is how it sets up the character meeting in the Bardo at the end of each segment.  The Bardo is an afterlife of sorts in Tibetan Buddhism.  It is where souls go as they wait to be judged and then reborn.  I should probably go over the difference between reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism.  Hindu reincarnation is like water being passed from one cup to another; your outside changes, but the essence of who you are stays the same.  Buddhist reincarnation is more like one candle passing its flame to another; there is a deep connection between you and your reincarnations, but they are ultimately different people.  Tibetan Buddhism differs in that it is a bit more like the Hindu view of reincarnation.

The character we meet in The Years of Rice and Salt were part of a Jati in Tibet that got killed in an avalanche.  A Jati is type of village or community; sometimes it can also mean clan or group of that nature.  Throughout the book the Jati constantly find each other, often without meaning too, across their reincarnations.  East Asian cultures, and other Asian cultures to an extent, place emphasis on finding your place within the web of other's lives.  The part of this section that muse about the nature of reincarnation and Buddhism have an almost poetic quality to them.  There's also some parts that end with "but if you want to know what happens next, read the next part."  This is a nod to the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.  

The second segment is titled "The Haj in the Heart."  The bulk is set in the 1560.  It begins in India with two sisters named Kokila and Bihari.  Life is mostly good, and they get married.  Then Bihari dies in childbirth, and Kokila poisons their husbands, for which she is executed.  Kokila is then reincarnated as a tiger named Kya, who is also killed, but not before she saves a wandering Sufi mystic named Bistami.  While on a Hadj to Mecca, Bistami hears of a caravan in North Africa heading to the depopulated land of Al-Andalus.  The caravan is led by the charismatic sultan Mawji Darya, and his beautiful wife Katima.  Bistami finds himself drawn to Katima, almost as though he knows her from somewhere.

This is the only time, barring the last segment, our characters get reincarnated multiple times in one segment.  Bistami at one point finds himself in the court of Emperor Akbar.  He was a real ruler of the Mughal Empire.  It was an off-shoot of the Mongol Empire established by Central Asian Mongols who settled in Northern India.  Akbar was a Muslim, but promoted religious tolerance and understanding.  He often held meetings with representatives of the different religions within his empire.  Unfortunately, subsequent Mughal rulers didn't share his open-mindedness.

I previously mentioned the poetic nature of this book, and it's true in this segment as well.  There is a particularly great scene where Bistami visits the tomb of a great Sufi mystic.  He undergoes a religious experience and has visions, including of his past lives.  The poetic nature, combined with the musings on the nature of reality, reminds me of The Man in the High Castle, another of my favorite alternate history novels.  I should probably talk about Sufism.  Sufism is a type of Islamic mysticism.  They tend to be a bit more peaceful and less politically inclined than Sunni and Shia Islam.  Most Sunnis and Shias, the two main branches of Islam, do not like Sufis very much, and don't consider them real Muslims.  If you've ever heard of the Whirling Dervishes, those are Sufis.  The Medieval Iranian poet Rumi is another famous Sufi.

It does make sense that the Beber, or Amazigh, as they call themselves, were first to resettle Europe.  Towards the end of its history Al-Andalus was ruled by several Beber/Amazigh dynasties such as the Almoravids and Almohads.  I also liked that the alternate Black Death hit all of Europe, not just the Christian bits.  Al-Andalus, and the Muslim settlements in the Balkans, were just as depopulated as the rest of Europe.  It made it feel a bit more realistic.  Granted, having ninety-nine percent of Europe be whipped out wasn't that realistic, but it is a thing I'm willing to accept for the premise of the novel.  Amusingly, even the characters discuss how odd it is that Europe was totally whipped out.

Katima and her caravan are shown to be more open-minded and liberal than most Muslims.  This is partially because they follow Sufism, but also because they are Berber.  Traditionally, most Berber women have not worn the hijab, and woman have play major roles in Berber life.  The caravan eventually moves further north and founds a settlement at the former site of Bayonne, France.  They name their settlement Baraka.  Katima's husband dies, but there's no precedent for women ruling on their own in Islam.  In fact, the Hadith even forbids it.

Thus, Bistami and Katima declare that those Hadith's don't matter and forge their own.  Granted, there's some precedence to this.  Muslims believe that the Hadith is less authoritative than the Koran, but still important.  Several Muslim women, in places such as West Africa and America, choose to ignore the Hadith to justify not wearing the hijab.  The closest the Koran comes is saying that women must cover their breasts.  Throughout the book there is a theme of trying to reconcile Islam with women's rights, and secular liberalism in general.  The Sufis, and those like them, are trying to establish a light in the darkness, but these lights can easily be snuffed out.  Case in point, more conservative Muslims from Al-Andalus come to overthrow Katima, forcing everyone to flee further north to Nantes.  They name this new settlement Nsara.

Interestingly, when everyone arrives in the Bardo they perceive it as being similar to the Islamic afterlife.  Does the Bardo appear different to everyone?  They do seem to realize that it isn't the Islamic afterlife, and do start to remember their past lives before getting reincarnated.  We'll talk more about all that in just a minute.

The third segment is titled "Ocean Continents."  It takes place in the 1620s.  Japan has been a thorn in China's side for centuries.  The emperor orders a huge fleet of ships to conquer the island nation.  However, a few ships get blown across the Pacific and discover two previously unknown continents.  The section follows the crew as they explore this brave new world.

This is the part where China finally discovers the Americas.  Overall, I did enjoy this segment, but the novel does show its age in places.  When the Chinese first arrive, they meet the Miwok people of Northern California.  The Miwok are overall portrayed well, even if it occasionally dips into "paint with all the colors of the wind" territory.  The narration mentions how the natives barely use the land, and how everything is pristine.  We now know that Native Americans played a big role in cultivating land, and played a major role in shaping North America's ecosystem.  They just did so in a way that wasn't always recognizable to the Europeans.  In fairness a lot of this scholarship has only come on in the last decade or so.  Robinson wouldn't have had access to it.

The bigger issue is when the Chinese arrive in the Aztec Empire.  At first, it looked like we might get a nuanced look at the Aztecs.  They performed human sacrifice, but they did so because they believed it was necessary to thank the gods for giving them the world.  Those chosen as sacrifices lives like kings in the year leading up to the sacrifice.  They were also one of the few societies to give mandatory education for both men and women.  I was hoping we'd see all this, but Robinson fell onto the lazy stereotype of the Aztecs as bloodthirsty barbarians.  It got even worse when one of the Chinese fired a gun, and the Aztecs ran around like chickens with their heads chopped off.  There is a reference to something this is claimed to have happened when Pizarro conquered the Inca.  The problem being that there is no historical evidence that the Inca trampled each other to death when Pizarro fired his gun.  It is likely a fabrication by post-conquest chroniclers.

Anyway, when we get to the Bardo we see that it is falling under the sway of the Chinese celestial bureaucracy.  Does that mean Chinese Mythology is real too?  Overall, not a terrible segment, but could have been better.

The fourth segment is titled "The Alchemist."  It takes place in the Khanate of Samarkand in the 1640s.  It follows three alchemists named Bahram, Khalid, and Iwang.  The start off performing experiments to turn lead into gold.  However, they soon start making discoveries that will overturn all pervious knowledge.  The age of alchemy is over, and the age of science has begun.

I've always loved the history of science, so this segment was pretty fun for me.  The characters make discoveries in all sorts of fields, but the Khan is only interested in military applications.  There's a particularly amusing scene where Khalid complains about Sufis being a bunch of hippies with their heads in the clouds.  He's blissfully unaware that he was a Sufi in a past life.  Another scene mentions that Armenia is a Muslim nation.  That's particularly odd given that pervious segments mentioned them, along with Georgia and Ethiopia, as one of the few Christian nations that avoid the plague.  There's also mention of small communities of Christians in Egypt and the Maghreb.  The characters do speculate that the Armenians might be faking it to get better trade deals, but it is still odd.  Samarkand in our world had some very famous universities, with some very impressive mosaics.  All in all, another great segment.

The fifth segment is called "The Warp and the Weft."  It takes place in North America and follows a ronin named Busho, but his friends know him as Fromwest.  He is severing as a guest to the Haudenosaunee people, and tells of how his homeland was invaded by China.  Busho must convince the Haudenosaunee, and the scattered tribes to North America, to unite and modernize so they can resist colonization from the Chinese and Muslims.

Overall, I thought that Robinson did a much better with his depiction of the Native Americans here.  The Haudenosaunee people are more commonly known as the Iroquois.  They are nation originally made of the five tribes: the Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida.  In 1722 they welcomed the Tuscarora tribe to the nation.  Interestingly, this segment mentions that the Haudenosaunee have expanded to nine tribes.  Just who are these additional tribes?  The Native Americans were exposed more gradually to Old World diseases than in our world.  They've had more time to recover their population.  This does give them more of fighting chance than the Native Americans did in our world.  Still, I can't help but feel that the fate is the Haudenosaunee is just a tad optimistic.  Granted, they've got Busho to help them.

Perhaps it is optimistic, but I'm willing to take it.  I've always wished alternate history featured the Native Americans more.  I've also been fascinated at the idea of Native Americans successfully resisting colonialism.  From what we hear, the Chinese invasion of Japan was incredibly harsh.  There was no divine wind to save the Japanese this time.  Busho wonders if the gods were mad because of the Muslim missionaries in Nagasaki.  It's a sly joke, because around the same time in our world, Christian missionaries were in Nagasaki.  In fact, Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the two biggest Christian settlements in Japan.  I wonder if the souls that would have been those missionaries got reincarnated as Muslims?

The Bardo segment is also interesting.  The Jati try to resist drinking the elixir of forgetfulness to try to retain the memories in their next lives, and find each other.

The sixth segment is titled "Widow Kang."  It takes place in South China in the 18th century.  The widow Kang Tongbi has been plagued by strange dreams and strange happenings.  She speaks in strange foreign languages, and finds herself draw to the Buddhist monk Bao Ssu and the Muslim scholar Ibrahim ibn Hasam al-Lanzhou.  It's almost as though she knows them from somewhere before.

The parallelism was very strong in this story.  At times it almost felt more like straight-up historical fiction rather than alternate history.  The Machu overthrew the Ming Dynasty, thus establishing the Qing Dynasty, just as in our world.  There's also a hysteria over supposed queue cutting, just as in our world.  Queues are long braided ponytails the Manchu pushed upon the Han Chinese.  The Han weren't required to adopt Manchu clothing and hairstyles, but the Manchu put indirect pressure on them to do so.  There were also numerous instances of anti-Muslim persecution carried out during the Qing Dynasty.  Yeah, if the goal of the novel was to speculate about a world without Europe, this was not one of its better moments.

Now, I must be fair here.  Robinson utilizes a more leftist view of history that emphasizes intangible forces of history over individual choice.  Additionally, there the wrinkle of people being reincarnated.  Reincarnation might account for why this world had a Renaissance so similar to our world.  Presumably, the Europeans got reincarnated too.  Perhaps the Manchu were destined to overthrow the Ming Dynasty.  It's interesting to speculate, but let's get back to the story.

Kang eventually marries Ibrahim after he helps her with some hypnosis exercises.  They work together on try to find a way to reconcile Islam with Buddhism, and Chinese culture in general.  There one scene where Kang disparages Islam for the way Muslim women are treated.  Ibrahim point that Chinese women don't have it much better.  Kang concedes that women have it pretty bad all the world over.  Kang also takes to collecting poems and mantras.  Her favorite?  It has to do with rice and salt.  There's also an amusing scene where, when discussing the possibility of past lives, Kang insists that she's always been Chinese.  By this point, we know she's also been African, Berber, Muslim, Indian, Iroquois, and even a tiger.  

It seems that Ibrahim, and a few other Muslims, believe in reincarnation.  In our world, there are some Muslims who believe this, but they are fringe groups, and don't represent mainstream Islamic thought.  Granted, with the changes to history, maybe their beliefs became mainstream.  I just loved Kang and Ibrahim's constant back-and-forth.  They argue, but they also clearly care about each other.  We also hear that many Sufi settlements have gotten crushed by Wahhabis.  They're a brand of ultra-conservative Islam; Saudi Arabia is run by them.  Sadly, this isn't too dissimilar to what happened in our world.  Attempts to reform Islam pretty much always ended badly.

Our seventh segment is titled "The Great Age of Progress."  It takes place from 1829-1864.  The Ottoman Empire has long thought of itself as invincible. That all changes when they get into a war with the League of Travancore; an alliance of states in India.  Travancore is a land of mechanical wonders and scientific advancement.  The segment follows an Ottoman doctor named Ismail as he is taken to Travancore to experience these wonders firsthand.

Well, this certainly made up for the parallelism of the last segment.  I love seeing industrial revolution alternate histories in non-Western nations.  I also like that Travancore is an alliance of Indian states rather than a single nation.  India is just as ethnically and culturally diverse as Europe, after all.  The scene where Travancore invades Konstantiniyye is an ironic echo of the Ottoman's sack of Constantinople in 1453 AD.  Of course, this time the Ottomans are in the role of the Byzantines.  Wouldn't it be ironic if they were the Byzantines reincarnated?  We also see that the Haudenosaunee League is an ally of Travancore, and are doing quite well for themselves.  Several Buddhist monasteries have also become centers of science and learning.  Buddhism originated in India, but faded away due to the actions of Brahmins, that is, Hindu priests.  They knew they had to try to discredit Buddhism, or they'd be standing in the unemployment line.  It is fitting that Buddhism has returned to the place of its birth here.

We also find out that some European survived in the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands.  A few also managed to survive in England.  Unfortunately, the Ottomans prized these surviving English for their exotic beauty.  The Ottomans made a point of keeping the English members of their harams ethnically pure.  Eventually, this resulted in some pretty nasty inbreeding.  Yeah, those poor English would have been better off if the plague had taken their ancestors.

We skip ahead a bit where Ismail is serving as Tranvancore's ambassador to Yingzhou.  It's China's colony on the west coast of North America.  We discover that the Japanese people and culture have survived in spite of China's efforts to whip them out.  There's even a strong underground resistance movement brewing in Yingzhou.  There's mention of flood occurring in California, and interestingly enough, there was indeed a flood in California around the time this segment is set.

The eighth segment is titled "War of the Asuras."  It is set in the 1950s.  Tensions between China and Dar-Al-Islam have been brewing for years.  Now they've finally boiled over into an all-out war.  In time, this war will be known as the Long War.  The segment follows three Chinese solders named Bai, Kuo, and Iwa.

This segment was maybe not my favorite, but all the same, not terrible.  The Long War can best be described as World War I leading directly into World War II with no break in-between.  The Long War lasted sixty-seven years in total.  The war is so intense that our character beginning to lose their grasp on reality.  Also, apparently the Muslims blew-up the top of Mount Everest so that K2, a mountain in Afghanistan, would be the tallest mountain in the world.  There was no real point to this, and it probably didn't effect  Chinese moral very much.  It probably also wasted time and resources for the Muslims, and seemed more petty than anything.  On a brighter note, Japan has used the chaos of the war to regain their independence.

The ninth segment is titled "Nsara."  It takes place from 1999-2002.  Budur Radwan is a young woman living in the United Alpine Emirates.  She longs to be free and independent like her aunt Idelba, who works as a physicist in Nsara.  Budur decides to sneak on a train bound for the great Sufi city.  She finds Nsara to be a land of wonders, and is drawn to the study of history and archeology by one of the city's madrasahs.  Life is good, but the effects of the Long War still linger.  How long can this temporary peace truly last?

This segment gets fairly metafictional as Budur and her classmates discuss the nature of history.  They even speculate on how things might have gone had history turned out differently.  One of the class's first projects is considering women's role in history, particularly as it relates to Islam.  Their professor, Kirana Fawwaz, is convinced that it is possible to reconcile Islam with feminism if you throw out the Hadith.  She even claims Mohammad was a feminist.  Yeah...she must be using a different translation of the Koran, because everything I've read of the Koran paints a rather unflattering picture of the prophet.  Feminist is...not a word I'd use to describe him.  For example, he once ordered a village of Jews to be put to death for refusing to convert to Islam.  Then there's the whole marrying an underage girl and consummating the marriage with her thing.  There's a little old lady in the class who says that religion has brought nothing but suffering to people, especially women, and should be done away with.  Well, I guess I know what happened to the soul that would have become me.

As someone with a history degree, I can attest that many of the conversations Budur and her classmates have are quite accurate.  There would certainly be even more archeological sites in Europe than there already ate in our world.  We even get to briefly see some surviving Native Europeans in the Orkney, Shetland and Faroe Islands.  They're under the watchful eye of the Haudenosaunee.  So, we've got Native Americans overseeing what is, essentially, a European reservation.  Oh how the tables have turned.  One of Budur's friends is named Tristan, and he makes music based on that of Medieval Europe.  Strange that more isn't made of his status as one of the only ethnic Europeans we meet.  Unless his name isn't really Tristan, and he's The Years of Rice and Salt version of a weeaboo, but with European culture rather than Japanese.

I probably should have mentioned before that the Muslims renamed Europe as Firanja.  Well, the Middle Eastern and North African ones did.  The Central Asian one's call it Firanjistan.  Most of Western Firanja speaks a language that, while similar to Arabic and Berber, is unique to Firanja.  Though, Skandistan speaks a separate language related to the Turkic languages of Central Asia.  Firanja was placed under heavy reparations following the Long War.  The terms also forced them to allow Buddhist monasteries to be established in their cities.  I guess it makes a sort of sense that Muslim madrasahs and Buddhist monasteries became centers of learning.  In our world, many universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, started off as places to train/educate Christian clergy.

Budur travels to a science conference in Iran to help deliver a message to her aunt's colleges.  Specifically, about the potential to split an atom, and create new bombs.  This is presented as something that the world must not know of, but I'm not sure about that.  Mutually Assured Destruction, and thus deterrence, could have saved quite a few lives during the Long War.  From what we hear, it got so bad that women and children got drafted.  On the other hand, Dar-Al-Islam does seem just crazy enough to push the button.  Don't forget what they did to Mount Everest.  On a happier note, we do see that the Buddhist monasteries are making bricks to rebuild the summit of Mount Everest.

Budur also attends an archeology conference.  One of the presentations is of a village in Tibet that got caught in an avalanche.  It is the very village the sent the Jati on their journey across the ages.  I also liked how the Middle East is called the Middle West, as a nod to how Sinocentric this world is.  There's mention of scientists wanting to create a new calendar, with the date of their meeting being year one.  Something similar happened in our world, but the Apollo 11 mission was used as the year one.

Post-war Firanja bares more than a passing resemblance to Germany during the Weimar Republic.  It is mentioned that the Sultanate of Rum has experienced particularly bad hyperinflation.  As the segment progresses, there's increasing political turmoil, and many radicals begin to blame minorities  such as Christians, Jews, and Armenians for Firanja losing the Long War.  There's mention here, and in several other segments of a people called Zotts.  Apparently, that's the Arabic word for Gypsies/Romani.  With all the political chaos brewing, it's a good thing the Haudenosaunee keep a military presence in Firanja.

It would seem the Sufis' efforts weren't in vain after all.  Nsara appears to be a liberal modern city.  And yet it is also mentioned that several parts of Firanja, such as the United Alpine Emirates and Skandistan, are rather conservative.  It goes back to the theme of trying to reconcile Islam with liberalism, pluralism, and multiculturalism.  Quite forward thinking for a book published in 2002.  Personally, I'm not sure it's really possible.  Of course, I'm not sure any religion can truly be reformed.  Better to discard them and find our truths and meanings in something more solid and rational.

Our final segment is titled "First Years."  It takes place from 2030-2088.  The segment follows a Chinese man named Bao Xinhua throughout his life.  He participates in a democratic-ish/socialist-ish movement lead by the Chinese-Japanese philosopher Zhu Isao.  We then follow him as he is assigned to a diplomatic post in Burma, gets married, and then moves to Yingzhou and becomes a history teacher.

I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but I promise this is a good segment.  It appears that, despite winning the Long War, China wasn't much better off than Firanja.  Of course, it was less than China won and more that Dar-Al-Islam lost.  It might seem a little odd that the book doesn't really give as much attention to the social revolution China experienced, but it makes a sort of sense.  The wheel symbol is very important in Buddhism and religions like it.  It symbolizes reincarnation, rebirth, and the cycle of ages.  As you get closer to the center, the arc of the wheel gets smaller.  So, there's that, or perhaps Kim Stanley Robinson felt that, much like this review, the book had gone on for long enough and it was time to wrap things up.  The revolution has aspects of socialist movements, but the philosophy behind it is very much a product of the world of The Years of Rice and Salt.

The real winners of the Long War seem to be the Travancore and Haudenosaunee leagues.  Though there were times where the characters referenced Yingzhou as though it comprised all of North America.  From what I've gathered, Yingzhou seems to refer to China's colonies in America, and North America as a whole.  Sort of like how America can mean either the Untied States, or the Americas as a whole.  Similarly, Inka seems to be South America as a whole, and the Inka Empire.  Anyway, there certainly does appear to be a growing sense of multiculturalism, pluralism, and international cooperation.  All things that are founding principles of Travancore and the Haudenosaunee.  In general, though not completely without flaws, the world does seem to have become a more peaceful place.  There's also reference to a United Nations analogue called the League of All Nations.

Based on what we've seen both here and in the previous segment, it seems that this world is less technologically advanced than ours.  Airships are the primary civilian aircraft, and there doesn't seem to be much mention of any nation having a space program.  There's also not really any mention of television, movies, or computers.  Granted, maybe the characters we follow don't watch much TV, or go to the movies very often.  Still, the lack of computers and the Internet is pretty notable.  It also a shame that, throughout the book, we never really get to see what sub-Saharan Africa is like.  How did they evolve in a world without European colonialism?

It's mentioned that places, such as much of Firanja and Inka, still suffer from widespread poverty, but on the flip side, much of the world has improved quality of life.  In the last segments we did see some Inka in Firanja, so it does seem that they and their culture have survived.  There's certainly a sense of cautious optimism for the future throughout the world.  Bao himself finds a sense of community and belonging in Yingzhou.  His housing complex is much like a modern-day village.  He and his fellow Jati members might not have achieved Nirvana, but they did pretty well for themselves.  It kind of reminds me of the ending of Candide.  Despite all of the hardships, the Jati made it out alive, and are happily tending to their garden, literally and metaphorically.  Well, everyone but the K character.  Of course, Bao does find himself with a new student named Kali towards the end of the book.  Perhaps she'll come around in time.

I'd say, overall, the world of The Years of Rice and Salt isn't necessarily better or worse than ours, but it is very different.  And so, at least for now, the journey of the Jati is at an end.  Well, I think at this point it is pretty obvious that I loved this book.  I also loved the audiobook adaption narrated by Bronson Pinchot.

This was truly epic alternate history.  It spanned, continents, cultures, centuries, and lifetimes.  It shinned a light on cultures and peoples you don't often see in alternate history.  It was an amazing journey, and I'm glad I was along for the ride.  I'm glad I finally got around to listening to this book.  I can't recommend this book enough.  Check it out today, you'll be glad that you did.

Well, I think that's enough from me for now.  I will see you guys next time.