Customer Reviews

Fitzpatrick's War

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If this is Mr. Judson's first work of science fiction, I hope he will publish more. This book is outstanding.

The book is presented as the memoir of Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, a soldier and engineer from the 25th century. Due to the "Storm Times" of the late 21st century, humanity has been forced back to the age of steam. The most powerful nation on earth is the Yukon Confederacy, which comprises the former United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. In his college days, Bruce befriended an ambitious young man named Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, son of the Confederacy's then ruler. An unfortunate "accident" befalls Fitzpatrick's father and the son is made Consul. Fitzpatrick entrusts Bruce with engineering projects that prove most useful in the war he starts.

Judson goes one step further with something that may be unique: Bruce's memoirs have been annotated by a college professor writing in the 26th century, Dr. Roland Modesty Van Buren. In that time, Fitzpatrick is thought of as a hero and Van Buren tries to discredit and refute many of Bruce's assertions in the footnotes. By clever use of these two diametrically opposed narrators, Judson makes critiques of everything from the concept of the history books being written by the winners, to religion, and to ambitious men who want to be Great Men.

I strongly recommend this book.

At its core this story is mostly a re-telling of the story of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the world with enough Sci-fi tossed in to move the story along.
However, that being said, its a REALLY good re-telling of the story and brought with it fresh thoughts to the age old question of what is History and what is Truth?
As the Author shows with his choice of portraying this as work of Non-fiction with editors remarks we see that history is flexible and perhaps on this level should challenge us to wonder how much of what we "know" is also truth.
Overall I can see how some might dismiss this story as the actual war is short compared to the overall novel and some parts do go on a bit longer than I would have liked. Additionally the challenge of creating a world devoid of electricity with advanced genetics is a bit far fetched.
Still, I couldn't find myself putting it down for more than a few hours before I wanted to get back into the world the author created, technical flaws or not.
If you are a fan of alternative history or simply a fan of history you should enjoy this book.

I actually picked this one up by accident - i was looking for space opera and thought this was, considering it takes place in the 25th century. Unfortunatly i failed to find what i was looking for. Fortunatly what i found was this.

I was going to say something long and informative, i doubt i'd do it justice. I'll say one thing: it's beautifully written. The air of an annotated memoir is so well done that, sometimes, after reading it for a few hours you might look up from the pages and be mildly surprised to find yourself not in a Yukon homestead.

Awesome book.

This tale of psuedo history is one of the most interesting tales of fiction to come along since Harryy Turtledove's alternate histories. This is a character driven tale told from the perspective of a classmate of Ftizgerald. Love and war and the author's unstated contention that the two are mutually exclusive, are the major themes in the book. This is the story of a post apocalyptic world that has not changed that much, after a few centuries to rebuild, the world moves on as before but with no electricity. We first meet the story's main character, Robert, a boy from a small village that has distiguished himself in a border war with Mexico and won appointment to the military academy; as he first meets Fitzgerald...the current consul's son and the future consul that will conquer the world. The characters are well fleshed out and the overall world story is explained in small bits throughout the book. The author's comic prodding of academic credulity and hidebound traditions is a wonderful counterpoint -- these asides are related as historian's footnotes on nearly every page. Overall, a wonderful reading experience for fans of science fiction, history or anyone else.

"Fitzpatrick's War" commences in the year 2415 in a North America ruled by a dour, quasi-Victorian, "United Yukon Confederacy" . Several centuries of destructive wars and various social upheavals have resulted in the formation of a globe ruled in the western hemisphere by the Confederacy, and in the eastern hemisphere, by the Turks and the Chinese. Electricity-based technology has been replaced by that of steam, and the skies are filled with zeppelins and propeller-driven planes that operate with boiler engines. The Confederacy is managed by a nobility referred to as the Lords, while ambitious commoners can rise in class via outstanding service in the military branches. The Fitzpatrick of the title is one such Lord, with the goal of uniting the entire world under the Yukon banner. The narrator is a comrade-in-arms named Robert Bruce, who plays a major role in serving Fitzpatrick's sanguinary desires to bring the benefits of Anglo-Saxon civilization and Protestantism to the Heathen Chinee, the Dusky Hindoo, and the Muslim Turk.

In its setting and theme of a future earth under the thumb of a less than benevolent Rule Britannia, "War" is clearly derived from the classic alt-future novel "The Warlord of the Air" and its sequels, by the English SF writer Michael Moorcock. Like Oswald Bastable in "Warlord", Robert Bruce enters the service of his country as a rather naïve and too-trusting young man, who gradually comes to the realization that the individual to whom he has pledged fealty is in fact a megalomaniac, who will bring death and misery to those under his rule. The depiction of a future earth governed by the social and political mores of a Victorian revival echoes that of Moorcock's novels, with the addition of some bits of wry humor regarding social customs (for example, in the Yukon Confederacy, dancing is considered an obscene act).

At more than 480 pages "Fitzpatrick's War" is a lengthy read and this is its strength and its weakness. The War of the title doesn't take place until more than 300 pages into the narrative, which means that the majority of the book is a leisurely exposition on the world of the Yukons and the various political intrigues that lead to Fitzpatrick's ascendancy as the Ruler of the World. Readers who enjoy this aspect of their alternate history novels may find "War" attractive in this regard. However, if "War" was meant by author Theodore Judson to be an adventure novel, the meandering plot fails to generate much excitement and the book suffers in comparison to "The Warlord of the Air". As a psychological drama of one man's rise, corruption, and fall, it also putters along at too slow a pace, and fails to generate any real sense of drama. One finishes the book liking Bruce, but also thinking of him as a bit of a dullard.

In summary, readers of the seemingly endless series of alternate history novels churned out by Harry Turtledove may want to give "Fitzpatrick's War" a look, as well as those who enjoyed Harry Harrison's "Stars and Stripes Forever" series.

This book presents an interesting take on history in the frame of Caldwells "Captains and Kings".

Set in the future it is written as the protagonists historical biography with footnotes from the perspective of an opposing revisionist historian. It reads like a history book from the future and as Judson's first effort shows marvelous imagination and grasp of human nature and the plasticity of history. (History is written by the winners?)

Excellent choice for conspiracy theorists, natural law buffs and libertarians (who happen to be sci-fi fans).

It's nice, in this day and age, to see a writer unafraid to venture into "contrived" points of view (and other less accessible storytelling techniques) that can come across as cumbersome but seemed to work out OK for Edgar Rice Burroughs and others(usually covering up lapses in scientific knowledge, but, hey, who's quibling?). In Theodore Judson's hands, though, the writing techniques include the discrepancies in the stories (the controversy of Bruces version as opposed to the more-accepted history, for example,) and make it a part of the story of the Timermen's takeover of the world...One can almost see this story as a possible future timeline of OUR own world (though you'd have to be really caught up in conspiracy-theory type paranoia to expect it).
This story is a multi-layered feast of speculative fiction, satisfying on many levels and ending with an almost literary-quality flourish, inviting the reader to come to his own conclusion(and the more knowledgeable you are the more satisfying this is).
I hope to see more from this writer...Good Sci-Fi writing has been around for a long time now, and there are a lot of "giants(sci-fi writers)" with shoulders good writers can stand on, continually raising the standards to aspire to.

An epic story - full of rich characters, intrigue & realistic human elements. Judson does an excellent job of blending real history with future history, never striking a false note. He creates great depth of character and an intricate storyline, yet is wonderfully accessible and easy to read. I think he really captured the human element and inner conflicts many of us deal with throughout our lives. I also liked that the book reads like a memoir that's also being critiqued by a biased historian, so he's effectively writing from two perspectives - and he does it seemlessly. I'm going to order his other book (The Martian General's Daughter) right now!

Theodore Judson's Fitzpatrick's War is one of those books that is exceptionally promising throughout the entire reading, but never quite rises to the occasion of reaching that promise.

That said, it is still a worthy read for its well crafted prose, vivid imagining of an Era of Steam, and its originally storytelling perspective - it is presented as a 26th century reprint of a book written by one General Sir Robert Bruce in the 25th century that tells the story of Fitzpatrick the Younger's Alexander the Great inspired war for world domination, complete with footnotes "correcting" the history of Bruce's telling.

The tale starts in 2415 at the War College in the United Yukon Confederacy - the prudish Victorian-like empire that controls North America, England, and Australia complete with feudal lords and an agrarian economy - where Sir Robert Bruce is brought into the fold of Lord Fitzpatrick the Younger's entourage; an entourage being assembled for their parts to be played in Fitzpatrick's looming war.

The rest of the world is filled with small kingdoms and nations except for the middle east which is control by a weak new Turkish Empire and the far east, which is dominated by the Chinese. India is caught in the middle as the confederacy's lone ally in the eastern hemisphere. The Yukon Confederacy maintains a technical superiority over all others as they ended the previous world wars by conquering the United States and suppressing all others with a network of satellites that prevent electrical circuits from working (this network is controlled by a shadowy organization called the Timerman who make like they are neutral and uninvolved in the affairs of state, but are quite manipulative in their own way). This suppression of the Age of Electricity has led to the rise of the Age of Steam complete with zeppelins and steam-powered fighter planes and bombers.

Where the story really succeeds is in the character of Sir Robert Bruce and his telling if his rise to power as a confidant of Fitzpatrick the Younger and his shame for his involvement and the blood on his hands in the lord's war upon the world. It obvious that Bruce's telling is the real history, but the book is made even more interesting by the 26th century editor's footnotes that attempt to hide the truths that differ from the official history.

Fitzpatrick's War reads like a 19th century British officer's war memoir, which is its strength and maybe its weakness as well.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Much of the population was destroyed in the storm times of the twenty first century and the world is without electricity, depending on steam for fuel. The Confederation of the Yukon, flying the flag of the Union Jack is the most powerful country in the world, assimilating Canada, the United States and Australia. It is a feudal age in which Lords and commoners have assigned roles in society and the history books laud Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, Consul and Supreme Commander as the heroic leader of his time.

A book surfaces written by Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, one of Fitzpatrick's closest and trusted friends, that the ruling elites do everything in their power to discredit. It paints Fitzpatrick as a megalomaniac who killed his own father in order to become the next consul; according to Sir Bruce, he declared war on China and Turkey, killing millions in his quest to rule the world; and his thirst for more power led those in his inner circle to turn against him. The Fitzpatrick portrayed in this book was no hero but a tyrant who craved, like his hero Alexander the Great, ruling the world.

The victors rewrite history and it is up to the audience to choose whether to believe Sir Robert or the many history books that make Fitzpatrick out to be a heroic leader. One factor in Sir Robert's favor is that he doesn't spare himself in the narrative. He freely admits he took part in the genocide ordered by the consul and betrayed the vows he took as a soldier. Theodore Judson has created a thought provoking science fiction tale that will leave readers pondering what a fact is.

Harriet Klausner