Mastodawn

A post mentioned the Incan Empire and wondered in passing how they might have survived. Which made me think of an #AltHist novel I read about that, but couldn't recall the title of. (I thought the author was Robert Silverberg, but it turned out to be Fred Saberhagen and The Mask of the Sun.)

Interestingly, when I searched Uchronia·com for "inca", it also turned up H. Beam Piper's "Last Enemy", which has nothing to do with the Incas. Took me a moment to realize the search was picking up on a big part of the story, when one group on a Second Level world scientifically proved that reINCArnation was real. #ScienceFiction

Uchronia also listed a dozen other novels and half as many shorter works, and I might try to dig some up. #SciFi #AlternateHistory

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Ergative Absolutive 5h ago

@bok ooh, if you like Incas and AltHist, I would like to strongly recommend Civilisations, by Laurent Binet. Basically, Vikings make it to North America, and spread European germs, horses, and forging techniques, so when Columbus arrives, things go differently. Eventually, the Incas look at these big cross-Atlantic ships, turn their gaze east, and think, 'hmmmm...'

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bok

@ergative
I've read a longer description and some reviews, and it sounds worth getting. I used to try to keep the number of unread novels on my ereader under twenty, but fifty's not that much different, right?

Read another "Vikings stay in North America" novel about eighteen months ago, King of the Wood by John Maddox Roberts. I thought the history part was interesting, but the main character was a brat, and the story was messed up by bringing fate-magic into the tale.