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Belisarius III: The Flames of Sunset

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The Flames of Sunset (2009) is the third SF omnibus in the Belisarius series, following Storm at Noontide. It contains The Tide of Victory and The Dance of Time. In the previous volumes, Belisarius has met the Malwa Empire troops in battle and defeated them by various stratagems. Now he heads into the heart of the Empire to finalize their defeat.

The Tide of Victory (2001) is the fifth SF novel in this series. After some last minute changes, the allied army splits into three attack vectors. Khusrau starts in Chabahari, marches inland to Sistan, and then crosses the desert to Sukkur. Belisarius takes Barbaricum and advances up the Indus toward Sukkur. The allied troops catch the Malwa forces in a classic hammer and anvil maneuver.

Meanwhile, under very high security, Kungas takes his Kushans to Marv and drives out the Malwa. Then he marches to Begram, which he makes his capital. Eventually, he takes the Khyber Pass and thereby starts a new front in the war against the Malwa.

In India, Venandakatra the Vile is having major problems with Damodara. He is not used to anyone telling him that he is foolish right in his face, so he orders Damodara to leave Bharakuccha. Damodara informs him that the army will be gone by the next evening.

Shakuntala is worried about Raghunath Rao. He has promised his wife that he will not risk his life until the succession is secure. After the baby is born, however, Rao will be paying a short visit with Venandakatra.

The Dance of Time (2006) is the sixth novel in this series. Damodara finds himself under heavy pressure from the Mahaveda priests. When Rana Sanga says that he believes his family to still be alive, Damodara immediately thinks of Narses, the master manipulator. Then Narses confirms his suspicions and tells them the current location of the family. Damodara is quite irritated, but also feels a sense of relief; the die is cast and he is now free to pursue his own destiny.

Calopodius finds a niche for himself as the director of communications for Belisarius. He also begins writing an official history of the war and the unofficial, but highly regarded, Dispatches to the Army. The wife of Calopodius the Blind pursues her husband into India, leaving confusion, better sanitation, and effective hospitals along her path.

The Empress Regent Theodora allows the young Emperor Photius and his consort to travel to India by way of Egypt and Ethiopia. Antonina appoints Ousanas as angabo and husband of Eon's widow Rukaiya, then takes Ousanas out of Ethiopia with the Emperor's progression. Agathius and his wife join the progression at Charax.

This series is another tale based on the life of Belisarius, arguably the best general of the Eastern Roman Empire. He may have been the best general of all time and compares favorably with Sun Tzu, the Chinese student of war. But his strategy and tactics were based on the archaic war technology of the classical era. Thus Belisarius cannot be directly compared with Napoleon, Robert E. Lee, or other modern generals.

Several science fiction and alternate history tales have provided Belisarius, or his equivalent, with artillery and other advanced weapons. Yet such fiction proves nothing about his inherent capability to accept and use such tools. However, it does prove the respect of these authors.

This series is unusual in that such advanced weapons were developed from existing materials and technologies. Only the basic knowledge was imported from the future. In that respect, this series is much like De Camp's Lest Darkness Fall.

These novels conclude the series. If anyone has not previously read this series, it starts with An Oblique Approach. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Drake & Flint fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of great generals, psychological warfare, and battles against horrendous odds.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I enjoyed the Belisarius series tremendously. As both a military SF and alternative history, this collaboration of David Drake and Eric Flint is engrossing, and action packed. The characters are well developed across the series and the 'flash backs' provide useful background to flesh them out further.

A must read for anyone who likes SF, alternate history, or military SF.

This is a compilation of prior novels, so there's no new material. What is needed to be said, other than if you liked the originals, you'll like this one.

"The Dance of Time". In the sixth century, General Belisarius plans to invade the Malwa Empire to take the war of the future to the enemy in India. To the shock of the Malwa, his assault proves successful as he drives deeper into their empire using futuristic weapons and transportation given to him by the Aide also from the future. The enemy is stunned and in retreat as their Evil from the future tries to remain calm with defeats piling up and his side losing sight of the long term objective of the new Gods ruling earth.


"The Tide of Victory": In India the Malwa Empire suffers a major defeat, but led by the futuristic demon trapped inside a computer, they have not lost sight of their strategic goal of changing the future to having the New Gods rule. They redeploy preparing for a renewed offensive against the Byzantine Empire led by General Belisarius who has a futuristic aide giving him minimal assistance. The Malwa believe that if they can assassinate Belisarius the opposition will collapse as he is the rallying cry.

The fifth book in the Belisarius saga is in some degrees is a filler set up entry for the climax (The Tide of Victory), but the focus of taking late twentieth century weapons, communications, other technology and tactics and bringing them onto the sixth century battlefield remains entertaining and fun. Whereas the final book The Tide of Victory wraps up a super alternate history military thriller in which two superpowers helped differently by allies from the future vie for world domination. However before reading the third omnibus reprint, it is strongly recommend the previous two (Storm at Noontide containing books 3 and 4, and Thunder at Dawn containing Books 1 and 2) should be read first.

Harriet Klausner

I was very fascinated by the Belesarius series and have all the 5 books. When this series of 3 books came out I thought they were new books to the same series. Unfortunately only after I bought them I found out that they are the same books repackages into 3 instead of the original 5 books . In the meantime I noticed that apparently this is common for David Weber and Eric Flint to repackage same contents again and again. It's unfortunate as they are so good writers. So please check the contents of all their books before you buy them to save you some disappointment.

Belisarius III: The Flames of Sunset offers two books in one: THE TIDE OF VICTORY and THE DANCE OF TIME, covering the Malwa Empire and the world of the future that reaches into the past with a monster. The Malwa and their evil struggle with the worlds of the past in this fine and complex read, highly recommended for any science fiction collection.