The Peshawar Lancers [Mass Market Paperback]

S. M. Stirling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2003

S.M. Stirling's acclaimed hardcover debut-and a top ten Locus bestseller for two months-The Peshawar Lancers takes readers to an alternate 21st century earth, where boats still run on steam, messages are exchanged by telegraph, and the British Empire controls much of the world from India. But the Czar of all Russias is preparing for global conquest...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aimed at readers who thrill to King, Empire and the fluttering Union Jack, as well as to brave white heroes, their faithful dusky-skinned servants and sneering villains, this alternative history from the bestselling author of the Islander novels supposes that in 1878 "a series of high-velocity heavenly bodies struck the earth," wreaking havoc throughout Europe and North America. Because much of the British merchant fleet survived the "Fall," the English upper classes were able to escape to the Asian subcontinent. As a result, the British raj, extending from Delhi through India, Afghanistan and the Kashmir, still exists in the 21st century, though the technology consists of 19th-century vintage railways, hydrogen airships and a turbine-powered building-sized "Engine," the equivalent of a computer. It's a nifty premise, but in trying to continue in the grand tradition of such adventure writers as Kipling, Lamb and Mundy, whom Stirling acknowledges as influences, the author fails to inject much life into his stock characters, from the heroic Captain Athelstane King of the Lancers and the captain's memsahib sister, Cassandra, to King's Sikh companion, his trusty Muslim servant and the inevitable wise and helpful Jew. Unfortunately, this is less history altered than simply stopped, and the story is wordy pastiche rather than active inspiration. Not without humor, appendices survey the worldwide consequences of the Fall, complete with the succession of British monarchs from Victoria on. (Jan. 8)Forecast: Given recent events in Peshawar and the Northwest Frontier area, this novel is bound to attract more than usual attention. But since its tone is so at odds with today's grim reality, it may be considered by some in dubious taste.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In 1878, a deadly asteroid shower decimates the population of the Northern Hemisphere and forces the relocation of the British Empire to its southern colonies in India, Australia, and South Africa. Two centuries later, when the British Raj faces deadly threats from rival empires, the crown prince places his trust and the fate of the empire in the hands of a young officer in the Peshawar Lancers and his twin sister, a brilliant and innovative scientist. The author of the "Islander" series (e.g., Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, On the Oceans of Eternity) has written a remarkable alternate history. Stirling's impeccable research infuses both plot and characters with depth and verisimilitude, creating a tale of high adventure, romance, and intrigue that belongs in most sf collections.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Roc (January 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451458737
• ISBN-13: 978-0451458735
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #284,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft -- I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, great, throwback fun, January 10, 2005

By 

Richard Lender (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Peshawar Lancers (Mass Market Paperback)

Guilty pleasure - thy name is THE PESHAWAR LANCERS.

The first thought that occurs to one after reading this ripping little yarn is that Harry Turtledove now has some serious competition for the title of Alternative History King. A Young Pretender has arrived and it turns out to be a long haired ex-barrister who cut his literary teeth writing up salacious tales of Aryan lesbian dominatrixes hailing from a South Africa that never existed.

In THE PESHAWAR LANCERS, Stirling weaves loads of Kipling, Mundy, and Hobson-Jobson into a throwback tale of a British Empire that never was. A shower of comets strikes the Northern Hemisphere in the fall of 1878, plunging the most advanced half of the globe into a deep freeze for several years. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli gets a quick heads-up on the climatic consequences from scientific advisors led by Lord Kelvin...and before you know it he's managed to use what remains of the Royal Navy and British merchant marine to ship off the the richest and most useful elements of British civilization off to Britannia's southern hemisphere holdings: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and, for Queen and Court and capital, the Raj in India while the rest of Eurasia and North America, save for Japan, a resurgent Arab caliphate and a French remnant fleeing to the Maghreb, plunges into death, canibalism and barbarism. What emerges a century and a half later is a wild and crazy early industrial world where an Indianized Raj still employing steam engines and Martini-Henry rifles now rules half the world from Delhi - setting an exotic stage for adventure that Kipling or Haggard would have thrilled to. The plot itself is a simple confection involving a plucky cavalry captain, a satanic Russian cannibal count, and a plot to destroy a pneumatic computer which holds the key to predicting another Fall. It's not great literature. It *is* ripping good fun.

THE PESHAWAR LANCERS drags in only a few spots, and Stirling's dialogue is never as stilted as Turtledove's tends to be, nor his prose quite as labored as alternative history tends to. The guilty pleasure is made less sinful by by Stirling's success in weaving exhaustive research into a truly fascinating, believable alternative world where the heroes are always manly, the native servants always faithful, the villains always darkly cunning and the maidens always in need of rescuing. Guilty pleasures, as I said; but for those willing, pleasures just the same. The politically correct-minded may not make it past the first chapter and are best advised to stick to Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe. And for those who think Stirling overstates the likely propensity for a transplanted British upper class eventually "going native" into an Anglo-Indian cultural fusion, I recommend William Dalrymple's WHITE MUGHALS as a corrective tonic. It may not be as far-fetched as you think.

Now that THE PESHAWAR LANCERS is available in paperback, you've run out of excuses. Pick up a copy today.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rousing Good Adventure Story!, March 9, 2002

By 

John G. Gleeson Sr. (Frederic, Mi USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Peshawar Lancers (Hardcover)

I think that it was Coleridge who coined the phrase, "a willful suspension of disbelief", which is, in my mind, what it takes to enjoy good fiction. Readers with imagination and the ability to "suspend" are going to love this book. It makes no pretentions of being other than what it it is, a really good adventure story, replete with sword fights; manly heroes who admit and enjoy their vices; tough, but still feminine heroines, who are excellent shots, and really BAD bad guys. Author Stirling acknowledges inspiration from such former great adventure writers as Burroughs, Sabatini and Talbot Mundy, whose "King of the Khyber Rifles" features as its main character, one Athelstan King. Lancers' featured character is Athelstane King, but Stirling's fast moving plot is very different from that of Mundy. Placed in alternative history following a global disaster caused by meteors hitting Earth in Victorian times, King and his friends battle to save the remains of the British Empire, now centered in India from the machinations of an evil Russian agent and his minions. If you are looking for serious, New York Times' approved fiction, save your money. But if you, like me, really enjoy a well conceived and crafted, fast paced adventure story, you will not be disappointed. Don't start it, though, unless you have time to read it from cover to cover. Once you are "into" Mr. Stirling's world, you won't want to come home again until the story is finished. This book only needs two things: first, a sequel, and, second, a good (as in GOOD) movie version.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feels like Rudyard Kipling, October 23, 2002

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Peshawar Lancers (Hardcover)

Another ingenious alternate history novel from Steve Stirling. He throws in a fascinating amalgam of 19th century Britain and India. Along the way, you get to learn a bunch of Indian words and, at least I did, salivate over the food descriptions.

The basic premise is that of a comet almost destroying the world, via many years of dust being thrown into the upper atmosphere, and inducing harsh winters. Plus of course the massive tidal waves from the comet's impact. He draws on recent scientific work on mass extinctions of the dinosaurs, and the nuclear winter hypothesis that arose in the last years of the Cold
War.

Patriotic American readers may not be thrilled by Stirling's scenario. What is left of the United States is populated by howling savages. And the British Raj lays nominal claim to North America. Though it barely bothers to enforce it, so irrelevant is the region. As if the American Revolution never happened. Europeans may not feel any better. There are cannibals on the Rhine, and what is left of French culture huddles along North Africa. The British Empire has decamped to India, with the aristocrats merging into the Indian upper castes. The bad fellas are cannibalistic Russians, worshipping the demon god Chernobog. This is the only unfortunate aspect of the novel. The evil doers are totally cardboard.

The crux of the actions happen in Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier of our Pakistan. The battle scenes are written with Stirling's usual flair in such matters. Plus, of course, his signature description of the rural landscape. Those of you who have read his General or Nantucket series will recognise this.

He has clearly positioned this as the start of a new series, given the amount of careful research he has done. Comparable, perhaps, to that which he put into the Bronze Age for the Nantucket series. We have much to look forward to.