The Bronze Age. The era of Troy, of Gilgamesh, of the dawning of human mastery over the earth. For decades, fantasists have set tales of heroism and adventure in imagined worlds based on the real Bronze Age, from the "Hyborean Age" of the Conan stories to the Third Age of Middle-earth. Now bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Harry Turtledove, a noted expert on the ancient world, teams up with author and Egyptologist Noreen Doyle to present fourteen new tales of the real Bronze Age from some of the best writers in science fiction. In The First Heroes : here is Gene Wolfe's mock-journal of a man from the future who travels with figures out of history and mythology; Judith Tarr's tale of a town that sends its resident goddess to try to learn the secrets of the morose God of Chariots; Harry Turtledove's story about mythological beings witnessing the devastating effect of the first humans on the Earth's natural order; and a poignant new story from the late Poul Anderson, in which a modern scholar is sent to the late Bronze Age to witness the end of an era, emerging with memories from the past as vibrant and intact as those from his accustomed life. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. **
Description:
The Bronze Age. The era of Troy, of Gilgamesh, of the dawning of human mastery over the earth. For decades, fantasists have set tales of heroism and adventure in imagined worlds based on the real Bronze Age, from the "Hyborean Age" of the Conan stories to the Third Age of Middle-earth. Now bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Harry Turtledove, a noted expert on the ancient world, teams up with author and Egyptologist Noreen Doyle to present fourteen new tales of the real Bronze Age from some of the best writers in science fiction. In The First Heroes : here is Gene Wolfe's mock-journal of a man from the future who travels with figures out of history and mythology; Judith Tarr's tale of a town that sends its resident goddess to try to learn the secrets of the morose God of Chariots; Harry Turtledove's story about mythological beings witnessing the devastating effect of the first humans on the Earth's natural order; and a poignant new story from the late Poul Anderson, in which a modern scholar is sent to the late Bronze Age to witness the end of an era, emerging with memories from the past as vibrant and intact as those from his accustomed life. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. **
From Publishers Weekly
The 14 all-original historical fantasy stories compiled here by Turtledove and Doyle all confirm the opinion voiced by one character that "History isn't melodrama. It's tragedy." Although set in the same era that gave rise to the epic of Gilgamesh, the Aeneid and the Iliad, most have an elegiac tone appropriate for tales about heroes aware of the transience of glory and about ordinary mortals struggling to understand the whims of the gods. In Karen Jordan Allen's "Orqo Afloat on the Wilkamayu," a sympathetic protagonist wrestles with his inescapable fate to die an ignominious death and thereby help preserve his race. Harry Turtledove's stunning "The Horse of Bronze" is a poignant tale of first contact between humans and centaurs who, upon seeing men for the first time, become self-conscious of their species' deficiencies. Several of the most powerful stories are straight historicals that suggest the fantastic only indirectly, notably Judith Tarr's "The God of Chariots" and the late Poul Anderson's "The Bog Sword," which uses a wisp of speculative science to send its narrator back to the twilight of the Bronze Age when the world as his family tribe knows it comes to an end. Readers will find some of these stories mere historical curiosities, but others amount to beautiful and durable artifacts.
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From Booklist
Here are 14 intelligent tales set in the Bronze Age, in which, the editors point out, the foundations of civilization were laid with the beginnings of agriculture, metalworking, and literature (such as the Gilgamesh and Homeric epics). The editors contribute personally to the overall quality, Turtledove with "The Horse of Bronze," in which humans perfect metalworking, and Doyle with "Ankhtifi the Brave Is Dying," extrapolated from the inscription on the tomb of an Egyptian warrior. Other distinguished creations are Gene Wolfe's tale of a time-traveler voyaging with Jason, among other Bronze Agers; S. M. Sterling's story about the alternate Bronze Age of a time-traveling Nantucket; and the late Poul Anderson's "The Bog Sword." Some tales are more curious or erudite than gripping, but not one is less than readable. Kudos to a book to which lovers of historical fiction, fantastic and not, should be directed. Roland Green
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