Agent of Byzantium, Harry Turtledove
Agent of Byzantium, Harry Turtledove
2 Rating(s)
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Agent of Byzantium

Author: Harry Turtledove

Narrator: Tim Campbell

Unabridged: 9 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/19/2019


Synopsis

A dashing master spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire and discovers impossible inventions like gunpowder and telescopes in a magnificent romp from the maestro of alternate-history science fiction.

In another, very different timeline—one in which Mohammed embraced Christianity and Islam never came to be—the Byzantine Empire still flourishes in the fourteenth century, and wondrous technologies are emerging earlier than they did in our own. Having lost his family to the ravages of smallpox, Basil Argyros has decided to dedicate his life to Byzantium. A stalwart soldier and able secret agent, Basil serves his emperor courageously, going undercover to unearth Persia's dastardly plots and disrupting the dark machinations of his beautiful archenemy, the Persian spy Mirrane, while defusing dire threats emerging from the Western realm of the Franco-Saxons. But the world Basil so staunchly defends is changing rapidly, and he must remain ever vigilant, for in this great game of empires, the player who controls the most advanced tools and weaponry—tools like gunpowder, printing, vaccines, and telescopes—must certainly emerge victorious.

A collection of interlocking stories that showcase the courage, ingenuity, and breathtaking derring-do of superspy Basil Argyros, Agent of Byzantium presents the great Harry Turtledove at his alternate-world-building best. At once intricate, exciting, witty, and wildly inventive, this is a many-faceted gem from a master of the genre.

About Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove (he/him) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Master of Alternate History." He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Hugo Award for Best Novella, the HOMer Award for Short story, and the John Esthen Cook Award for Southern Fiction. Turtledove's works include the Crosstime Traffic, Worldwar, Darkness, and Opening of the World series; the stand-alone novels The House of Daniel, Fort Pillow, and Give Me Back My Legions!; and over a dozen short stories available on Tor.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Laura Frankos, and their four daughters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ann on April 13, 2007

This particular book isn't really a novel. It's a collection of short stories about Basil Argyros, essentially a secret agent in 14th century Byzantine empire. Except this Byzantine empire is a bit different than the one in our past due to a few minor changes: 1) An Arab named Moaumet, in the 6th cent......more

The Roman Emperor, Constantine, accomplished many things, among them were the reorganizing of the Empire, moving its capitol from Rome to a city straddling the Black Sea and the Mediterranean that he called Constantinople. That capitol and that part of the Empire lasted for a thousand years though s......more

Goodreads review by Olethros on September 12, 2015

-Correcta, ligera y todo un ejemplo de literatura de evasión.- Género. Novela (con una enorme premisa de partida que la coloca totalmente en la ficción, pero novela al fin y al cabo). Lo que nos cuenta. En una realidad en la que el Imperio Bizantino sigue controlando la mayor parte de las posesiones d......more

Goodreads review by Richard on September 02, 2020

I don't recall how this particular title came to my attention. The synopsis seemed right up my alley. What I had pictured was more like Sword for the Empire. Something like: with barbarism at the fringes of the known world, our hero the industrious spy, would use wits and brawn to save the day. What......more

Goodreads review by Liutauras on January 12, 2019

Niekad nemėgau alternatyvios istorijos. Nes mano nuomonė paprasta. Net jei Archimedas būtų ne atradėjas, o rūbų modeliuotojas. Net jei pasaulinė civilizacijos religija būtų pranašo Mahometo mokymas. Net jei WW2 būtų laimėjęs vyras su dantų šepetuku po nosim. Niekas iš esmės nesikeistų. Žemės istorij......more