Customer Reviews

Beyond the Gap: A Novel of the Opening of the World

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The glacier has been retreating for as long as anyone can remember, but it will always be there, right? There cannot be anything beyond the glacier. But, when a nomadic Bizogot chieftain comes to the capital of the Raumsdalian Empire with the news that there is a newly-opened gap in the glacier, all of the accepted information is thrown into turmoil.

And so, a team is hastily put together to search the gap and find out just what does lie beyond. This is the story of Count Hemnet a haunted but capable man, and his adventures beyond the gap.

Overall, I found this book to be a bit of a disappointment. The first half of the book is filled with heavy dialog and character development, leaving the reader to plod along waiting for something interesting to happen. Finally, when the story begins to pick up, and the action grows interesting - POOF, the book ends!

Now, if the author goes on to make a sequel or two, then the lengthy character development might become valuable. But, as it stands, the book is just too slow, too heavy, and not interesting enough.

By the way, I must agree with the reviews that say that this book is not historical fiction - it is in fact fantasy literature. The story includes working magic, and the distribution of the various elements (horses, reindeer, polar bears, etc.) is a bit anachronistic. (For example, horses were not domesticated until about 4,500 BC.) No, this book is a bit of a disappointment, and I really cannot recommend it.

I have never read a book by Turttledove before. This one got my attention. Mr. Turttledove has a great reputation. That is what surprised me. I kept waiting for somthing to happen in this book. It seems like an account of a wandering nobel with a broken heart. All of the questions raised through the book go unanswered. All of the conflicts seem to disipate rather than resolve. There is no end to anything. There are pages of hand wringing about a lost love, all fluff, no action, again no end. The premise is great. The characters are interesting. I think an editor should have gotten hold of this and the likely next two books and made one good book. This is not a good book for someone new to Turtledove to start with. I will have a hard time picking up another one.

This appears to be another occurrence of an author whose work I otherwise admire and respect selling out for some quick income.

First, the writing is "talky" and often lazy with adverbs describing said, such as "... said, blandly."

Second, the novel purports to be about a "lost" late bronze or early Iron Age civilization from the end of the last ice age or perhaps from a time between the ice ages, but the dialog often has a distinctly modern tone, to the point of being anachronistic. Many physical items in the story also seemed out of their proper time.

Third, nothing much happens. They go through a gap in the glacier, they briefly encounter some bad guys and don't find what they were looking for; they come back through the glacier and report what they found; and they go north to the Glacier again. The book ends.

Through it all, we follow the emoting of a male character about his ex-wife and a new lover. This would be fitting in a Harlequin romance novel, except the character is an otherwise alpha male, not female, protagonist. Most of the internal dialog from that character is repetitive musings about his evil ex-wife.

I also agree with the other reviewer in his complaints about working magic. The book is a fantasy--nothing wrong with that--not an alternate history.

I repeatedly asked myself as I was reading, did the author bother to read this even once after he wrote the first draft, or did he just send it off to his publisher?

My general opinion of Turtledove's output is that he does better when he's doing stand-alone books than when he's into the second or later volume in a series, and he does better with further-back alternate-history turning points than he does with 19th and 20th century turning points. (Down in the Bottomlands, with a turning point about 6 million years ago, is one of his best ever.) This book bears out that general opinion. It may turn out to be the first in a new series (more about that later) but for now, it appears to be one of a kind.

The turning point for this alternate history appears to be about 12,000 years ago - when, in our world, the last ice age started to end, and the glaciers receded to above the Arctic Circle. I can't be entirely sure how far forward after that turning point we are; civilization seems to have reached a late-Middle-Ages stage, with bows and arrows as weapons, but no crossbows or firearms, and horses being ridden but no mention of stirrups. (Those who have read Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" know that the invention of the stirrup may have been one of the biggest turning points in the history of warfare.) There's writing, but not everybody is literate; there are walled cities, but also nomadic tribes living at a level barely above Stone Age. The overall term for the clans of nomads is "Bizogot" and I don't know whether Turtledove intended us to assume that because this sounds a little like "Visigoth," the proto-Indo-European language that developed into the Western languages we know in our world developed in some similar manner in this fictional world. He may just have meant it to give us rough associations of "barbarians prepared to invade the empire."

As it turns out, however, the barbarians and the Empire must make common cause, due to a new danger from the other side of the glacier, because a gap has opened between east and west. Here is where the book starts to hit weaker moments: there are some logical inconsistancies posited in the lack of knowledge our protagonists have about the newly discovered others (whereas they know about people to the south of the Empire, who presumably have been able to travel further around the world unimpeded by glaciers), and the new people, who style themselves "the Rulers," are portrayed in a strictly cardboard bad-guy fashion. Also, as one previous reviewer mentioned, at this point we get competing wizards performing magic, with no attempt at scientific explanation, which for many people would take the book into the realm of fantasy and per force remove it from alternate history. However, if one is willing to allow one's suspension of disbelief to cover the wizards - there may, after all, be things we do not yet know - then this is not a sticking point. On the other hand, my own perspective on suspension of disbelief gave me a few bad moments at what seemed to me the improbable resolution of the romance between Hamnet and Liv.

The book ends in an open-ended fashion, which is why I suspect there may be a sequel planned, and I would worry about that a little, because if Turtledove were to follow his usual track record, the sequel would be almost entirely about battle plans and the development of new weapons, with very little attention given to any character development, or to any plot outside of war and more war. However, that hasn't happened yet; perhaps I'm worried for nothing. And then, there are many people who seem to LIKE those interminable war series, so you may well have something to look forward to!

Oh yes, one more thing: our protagonist and one of his companions are awful punsters. Read these puns at your own risk!

I am a longtime fan of Turtledove but this is the first of his books that I have actually given up on. If I didn't know better I'd say it wasn't even him writing it.

The premise is interesting, an alternate history of Ice Age people who find a gap has melted in the glacier that has dominated their culture for generations imemorable. A diverse group is sent through to explore what, and who, may lie beyond the gap.

Unfortunatley the story is slow to develop and the characters are boring.

The final straw, for me, was the fact that this "alternate history" features a wizard. Sorry, I will accept a lot when it comes to AH's but when magic enters the plot it's no longer AH but fantasy. If I want fantasy I will pick up a title in that genre.

It's too bad that Turtledove wasted a second of his time or ounce of his talents working on this book. His other titles, especially the true AH are superb and I was led to believe this title would follow in the same vein. It does not even come close.

For thousands of years, the great glacier has been the central fact of life for the Raumsdalian Empire and the barbarian Bizogots living in its shadow. But now a Bizogot ruler brings word that the 'gap' no longer simply drives a wedge into the glacier, it has actually divided it in two. A way is now open to the long-forgotten and mythical north. Perhaps, the Raumsdialian emperor guesses, even the great Golden Shrine can be found. He authorizes a small party of Raumsdalians including a mage, a scholar, and a couple of fighters to head north to explore. Soon after they leave, though, they are joined by a group of soldiers and the troublesome woman once wed to Hamnet Thyssen (one of the fighters), is now married to Eyvind Torfinn (the scholar), and is having an affair with the Bizogot ruler who brought the news. Gundrid delights in making trouble and especially in tormenting Hamnet who has never gotten over her betrayal.

The journey to the north--into the land of the glacier takes the Raumsdalians a long way from home to a world where wood is virtually unknown, where crops cannot be planted, and where the nomadic life is considered normal. Fortunately for the Empire, the Bizogots have always been divided--and can be bribed to attack one another when they might otherwise threaten the Empire.

What they discover beyond the gap, though, changes everything. Because there are people living there--people who style themselves the 'rulers' and who look at the opening in the gap not as an opportunity to seek knowledge, but as a chance to conquer the rich lands of the south. And the Raumsdalian Emperor has absolutely no interest in hearing about a risk to his comfort.

Author Harry Turtledove spins a strong tale of magic, character growth, and cold. Turtledove is best known for his alternate history stories and BEYOND THE GAP, while not an alternate history, carries a lot of Turtledove's historical knowledge with the Raumsdalians standing in for the Romans, the Bizogots for the Germans, and the Rulers for the Huns.

Turtledove's fantasy stands out from much of what is being written now because it focusses on people and on the conflict between civilizations rather than the angst of particular dark elves or whatever. Not that Turtledove doesn't have his tortured characters--certainly protagonist Hamnet is tortured and equally clearly Gundrid carries demons of her own that she cannot shake. But we get the idea that the deeds of these characters carries more weight than simply their happiness or their acquisition of wealth. Civilizations stand in the balance as well as personal romance--and that's good stuff.

This book was right up my prehistoric interest alley and I've thoroughly enjoyed Turtledove's Bronze age short stories and editing, so it's no wonder I picked it up. It was a good enough read, and I got to the last page, but it took me longer than usual because the interest level just wasn't where I expected it to be.

The premise seems to be of taking a Medieval European city and placing it in North America at the end of the last Ice Age and flanking it with Cro-Magnon-like Bizogots to the north, just as the massive glacier the blocks the Berring land bridge begins to melt through. However, Turtledove and his editors and marketers never state this on the cover, flap, Preface or Introduction. To add to the confusion, Turtledove adds fantasy magic (not "Eastern" or "shamanistic" or "illusion" but downright unexplainable Dungeons and Dragons type magic) to the mix about two-thirds of the way through the book.

There's alot of walking. And alot of dialogue. And alot of pitiful mooning by an otherwise stalwart warrior about the depravity of an ex-wife he should have forgotten long ago. The idea of an enterprising nobleman who is also a formidable warrior also having the emotional fortitude of a female teenager is off-putting, and would almost make one think that Turtledove himself must not have much experience in romance. Furthermore, often the dialogue is disjointed or sophomoric, containing jokes that are either not funny or of a strange humor that's lost on this reader. Often subjects or statements presented by characters just don't ring with the truth of living dialogue.

Otherwise Turtledove's writing is excellent, and the topic interesting. I just don't see why he wanted to put it in the Ice Age if all he wanted from that era was a herd of mammoth and a small cave bear.

As other writers have said, the book finally gets going about the time it ends, and I suspect that the second installment will be better. I rarely read a sequel to a book I've only given 3 stars to, but this one might be the exception. I still believe in Turtledove, and I'm a big fan of prehistoric fiction...even if it is alternative. Besides, he never told us about the Shrine....perhaps a marketing ploy that I'll most likely fall for. But if I give this series a second chance and all that character development is proven to be for not, the second book will be lucky to get 2 stars.

Turtledove, called by many the master of alternate history, here imagines a world in which either the Ice Age lasted longer than it did in our world or humanity achieved civilization at an earlier point. (Mammoths, woolly rhinosceri, glyptodonts and giant sloths are all mentioned as being in existence.) Nidaris, which began as "a mammoth hunters' camp at the edge of the great Glacier," is now the capitol of the Raumsdalian Empire, which, having itself "[torn] the meat from the bones of the empire that preceded [it]," now lives by trade and agriculture (farming is "possible through most of it, though its northern reaches lay beyond the limits of agriculture"), has literacy, and can even support "barristers, "geomters," and "surveyors" and describe its women as "pampered." Though the Glacier has steadily retreated northward over the life of the Empire, it remains a distant presence from which the bitter north wind known as the Breath of God comes every year. Then Trasamund, a jarl (chieftain) of the Three Tusk Clan of the nomadic blond Bizogots, comes to see the Emperor with word that the unthinkable has occurred: a gap has opened up in the Glacier, and beyond are new lands, new animals, perhaps new peoples, and possibly even the legendary Golden Shrine. The Emperor summons one of his nobles, the melancholy Hamnet Thyssen, from his "castle on the edge of nowhere," and bids him lead (or more accurately co-lead, since of course Trasamund will have to go along to show the way to the Gap, and Bizogots don't take kindly to playing second fiddle) an expedition of discovery. The roguish adventurer Ulric Skakki, the scholarly Earl Eyvind Torfinn, and the far-too-fond-of-drink wizard Audun Gilli are also enlisted, and Hamnet's ex-wife Gudrid, now married to Eyvind (and no more faithful to him than she was to Hamnet), decides for reasons unclear to join them. Later Liv, a female shaman from Trasamund's clan, adds herself to the roster, and the oddly assorted group passes through the Gap, to find no Shrine, but a new society, an arrogant and warlike people calling themselves the Rulers, who are aware of the Gap too and have every intention of coming through it and conquering everything they see.

The book would be greatly improved by a map of Turtledove's world: though the expedition seems to be penetrating into an analogue of Earth's Land of the Midnight Sun, there's nothing to indicate that it is coming anywhere near an Arctic Ocean, nor is it clear why the Glacier is where it is (the Ice Age glaciers on our Earth originated in the polar icecaps or in mountain ranges, while this one seems to squat stolidly on a plain, or perhaps more accurately a tundra or taiga). Hamnet is a gloomy and rather self-pitying soul who has been deeply scarred by Gudrid's unfaithfulness and later desertion, and isn't always as sympathetic as a hero should be. There's also a good deal of sex and violence, which are probably inevitable in a world such as this one (and are handled with considerable diplomacy and skill) but definitely make this a novel for adults and very mature teens. But Ulric's wry humor, Liv's forthrightness, and the magic used by her and by Audun furnish much-needed lift to a long expository story which, as another reviewer has mentioned, does seem to be more of a long Act One than an independent volume. On the other hand, once Turtledove manages to get all his conditions and characters established and moves into the real action, he shows once again that there's a good reason he's gained a name for military alternate history. This isn't the best example of the author's work with which to begin your acquaintance with him, but it leaves you wanting to know more about Hamnet's and Trasamund's world and to see whether they will be able to convince the Emperor of the true threat the Rulers represent, unite the Bizogot clans (and perhaps the Raumsdalians) to meet it, and (maybe even) find the Golden Shrine.

Beyond the Gap (2007) is a Prehistorical Fantasy. The Glacier had been covering the northern plains forever. Only myths tell of a time before this mountain of ice. Legends also speak of a Golden Shrine -- sacred to the gods -- on the other side of the Glacier, but few believe these old tales.

The Glacier had been retreating even before the founding of the old Raumsdalian Empire. Over the centuries, a gap in the great Glacier has been extending further north. Now the Jarl of the Bizogot clan nearest to the Glacier comes into the Empire to tell of the Gap opening up to new lands with strange animals and plants. He requests Raumsdalian aid in investigating the new territory.

In this novel, the Emperor sends Count Hamnet Thyssen back with Jarl Trasamund to scout these new lands and to hunt for the Golden Shrine. Ulric Skakki is included because of his extensive scouting experience (and his secret trip through the Gap). Earl Eyvind Torfinn also accompanies them to advise on matters related to the Golden Shrine and Audun Gilli-- a trained but drunken wizard -- is persuaded to come along.

Unfortunately, Earl Torfinn is currently married to Hamnet's ex-wife. Everything would have worked out fine, but Gudrid convinces the Emperor to send her along with the expedition, together with six expendable guardsmen. Hamnet would have left the group, but the Emperor sends a scroll commanding him to take Gudrid with them. As the only woman in the party, Gudrid has plenty of opportunities to irritate Hamnet.

After traveling through Bizogot clan lands for weeks, the party finally reaches Trasamund's land and meets members of the Three Tusk clan. The men are much like Jarl Trasamund and many of the women are pretty, but they all stink. Of course, the Raumsdalian men have been without baths for weeks and are just as odorous, but Gudrid wears her attar of roses.

The Three Tusk shaman is a woman, which really surprises Gilli. Liv does not understand the Raumsdalian tongue and Gilli doesn't speak the Bizogot language. Since only a few can speak both languages, Hamnet spends a great deal of time translating for Gilli and Liv.

When the party leaves for the Gap, Liv goes along. Although Trasamund tries to get her to remain behind, he really doesn't want to get her mad at him -- only a fool irritates a wizard or shaman -- and Liv wins the argument. Hamnet continues to be the translator of choice, but he sometimes involves Earl Torfinn to translate technical terms.

As they are traveling through the Gap, feeling uneasy as the walls begin to close in, Liv joins Hamnet as he stands guard one night. She awakes with the feeling that some magical power has been used nearby. Hamnet advances with her in the direction of this magic and she throws up shadowy figures to the side.

Suddenly, lightning bolts flare at these shadows and then another shadow changes to a snow owl and flies away. Shamans and wizards can take on the appearance of an animal, but cannot actually change their shape. Neither Liv nor Galli know of anyone who can do so. Someone is using a different form of magic.

In this story, the expedition crosses through the Gap and explores the other side. They find strange plants and animals and eventually run into other people. As soon as they can get away, the expedition heads straight back to the other side of the Gap.

This story obviously has dangling plotlines, but will there be a sequel? Although not yet announced, many reviewers are assuming that there will be one. The next installment, however, probably will be much more violent than this volume.

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic societies, journeys into the unknown, and intercultural romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

A path has finally melted through the great glacier to the north and a small expedition is put together to explore what is beyond the glacier. This book has a very interesting story, set at the end of an ice age and full of things such as mammoths and working magic. Turtledove puts together a very effective story of the group's journey. The characters are fairly unique and a great deal of character development goes on throughout the novel.
The only poor parts of the novel are that it can get boring in parts, as there isn't much action to break up the monotony of the group's journey. Perhaps this was intentional as a group can't fight off bloodthirsy wolves or barbarians every day. The novel also ends fairly abruptly as a way to open it up for the next book in what may be a trilogy.
Still a very good book, though definitely not amongst Harry Turtledove's best work.