The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age [Hardcover]

Harry Turtledove (Author), Noreen Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

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 SF 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 SF.

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 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.

Editorial Reviews

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765302861
• ISBN-13: 978-0765302861
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!, November 12, 2005

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age (Hardcover)

This book is a collection of fourteen stories of Bronze Age heroes, each written by a different author, and set in a different setting. Overall, I found this to be a fascinating book. So few books take the Bronze Age as a setting, and it is a wonderfully interesting time! The stories are great, with my favorites being The Gods of Chariots, A Hero for the Gods, and The Matter of the Ahhiyans.

This is a great book, one that I highly recommend to all history buffs, and all fans of great fantasy literature!

In case you are interested, the stories included are:

The Lost Pilgrim by Gene Wolfe - When a time traveler finds himself in a different age than intended, he little realizes the importance of this journey of Argonauts!

How the Bells Came from Yang to Hubei by Brenda Clough - In Zhou China, an apprentice metal artisan learns the gentle wisdom his master lives. Now, if they can just stay alive...

The Gods of Chariots by Judith Tarr - The Mesopotamian city of Uruk is in danger from barbarians, but it is said that to the north there lives a strange new god who fashions weapons of great power.

The Horse of Bronze by Harry Turtledove - When the tin stops arriving from the Tin Isle, Chreiron the centaur leads an expedition to find out what happened. It seems that there is a new race abroad in the world - man.

A Hero for the Gods by Josepha Sherman - Hittite soldier Hupasiya is just trying to keep his family alive, but to save his family he will have the save the gods themselves!

Blood Wolf by S.M. Stirling - In alternate history Nantucket, warrior Kreuhu Wolkwos is looking for fame and honor, but in this strange new world, he may have to use his head to gain it.

Ankhtifi the Brave is dying by Noreen Doyle - During the First Intermediate Period, after Egypt's Old Kingdom, many local lords sought to be proclaimed Pharaoh. But, one man stands true to the gods and the Pharaoh, Ankhtifi the Brave!

The God Voice by Katherine Kerr & Debra Doyle - Lawinia, wife of Aeneas (hero of the Aeneid) has a tale of her own, a tale that only the priestess of Dian can tell.

Orqo Afloat on the Willkamayu by Karen Jordan Allen - Two brothers, sons of Inka Wiraqocha, war over who will be king of the Inkas - but who will win, and what will be the cost?

The Myrmidons by Larry Hammer - A poem that tells of the origin of the Myrmidons.

Giliad by Gregory Feeley - The arrival of a new computer game sends Leslie and Trent into a look at fiction and reality and history.

The Sea Mother's Gift by Laura Frankos - The days are growing colder, and the people of Dett's Orkney island don't yet realize that disaster is staring them in the face. But, Dett is a man of vision...and a man of visions.

The Matter of the Ahhiyans by Lois Tilton - When the Hittite king get word of the Achaean attack on his subject Troy, he sends an emissary to report on the course of the war.

The Bog Sword by Poul Anderson - When a history professor journeys back in time to Bronze Age Denmark, he sees a pivotal time, when the Celts came to Europe bringing their iron weapons with them.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories from the dawn of history, July 1, 2004

By 

Maddi Hausmann Sojourner "madhaus" (Silicon Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age (Hardcover)

This book, with stories all set in the Bronze Age, will appeal to SF readers even though there's precious little SF about it. It is the authors themselves that are well-known to the genre. Co-Editor Harry Turtledove has an entry with an explanation for where the centaurs, fauns, and other mythological creatures went, which is one of the stronger stories in the book. Other big SF names are Gene Wolfe, with a time-traveler who finds himself aboard the Argo instead of the Mayflower; Judith Tarr, whose tale illustrates how a city's fortune can rise or fall based on its weapons rather than its deities; S.M. Stirling, with a short story from his Nantucket universe, where the modern island is transported back to the Bronze age to dominate trade and warfare; and Poul Anderson, closing the collection with another time-traveler who wants to study the Bronze Age but faces instead the rise of the Age of Iron.

Tarr has previously collaborated with Turtledove in their novel "Household Gods." Laura Frankos ("The Sea Mother's Gift," a purely historical tale of the Orkney Islanders) is married to him. Co-editor Noreen Doyle is an historian, and her Egyptian tale, based on an actual inscription, is also straight history.

All the stories are worth reading; there isn't a stinker in the collection. Doyle and Turtledove also included some useful introductory material before each story. This ought to be standard in books like these, where not every reader has a Ph.D. in that era, but in Turtledove's last stint as editor he neglected to give a setting for the stories in _Alternate Generals II_. I was pleased to see these necessary lead-ins when I finished their introduction to the book.

Best stories are Turtledove's "A Horse of Bronze," featuring Meditteranean Sea-faring centaurs who discover humans in the British Isles; "Blood Wolf" by Stirling, which made me want to read the Nantucket novels, and Frankos' "The Sea Mother's Gift," which was the most evocative and had the best sense of character and place. The story that failed did so in an interesting way: Gregory Feeley's "Giliad" seemed like it was the result of a hard disk erasure gone awry. I think what he was trying to do was give the sense of an incompletely erased clay tablet that he uses as a metaphor for his Bronze Age literary stand-in, but this story that takes place right before and after 9/11/01, in Manhattan, never seemed to catch on with me. There is also a confusing segment with a possibly gay couple who is never mentioned again, while the erudite modern family (including an eight-year-old daughter who talks more like a 15 year old) and the Sumerian girl intertwine throughout the story. This tale is thus literary experimentation, and I commend Feeley for the attempt but this needs the love and care of a stronger editor.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb fourteen short story collection, October 10, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age (Paperback)

The contributors to this superb fourteen short story collection consist of a who's who of speculative fiction. The tales can easily be classified as fantasy (with a mythological feel) or historical with little or no fantasist elements. Personally this reviewer found the fantasy shorts more intriguing though the historical ones like that scribed by Judith Tarr are superbly written. Each contribution is original and creative and also included one of the last if not the final work by the legendary Poul Anderson who brings a wisp of sci fi to his entry. Fans of Homer, the mythos, or strong fantasy will appreciate this terrific compilation in which everyday people encounter the Gods and species like centaurs in the era of Odysseus and Achilles.

Harriet Klausner