Lion's Blood: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom in an Alternate America (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "SPRING'S FIRST DAY WAS A WARM SWEET SONG, a time of companionable silences and comfortably shared labor in Mahon O'Dere's coracle..." (more)
Key Phrases: sword master, Abu Ali, Dar Kush, Ghost Town (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the year 1863, a primitive village is raided, the men killed, and the women and children captured. The survivors find themselves chained in the dark, filthy hold of a ship crossing the ocean to the New World, where they are sold into slavery. The powerful master of a vast Southern plantation purchases the 11-year-old Irish lad Aidan O'Dere. Yes, you read that right--in this alternate America, the South was colonized by black Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and Franks to the Southerners. Through his brilliant inversion of our history, author Steven Barnes examines the complex evils of slavery in a new light with Lion's Blood, an intelligent and exciting novel of freedom and bondage, battle and intrigue, sex and love, set in an America threatened by total war as Aztecs, Zulus, Moors, and whites clash.

A Hugo Award and Cable Ace Award nominee, Steven Barnes has written 15 novels and 15 teleplays. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

"If you would not fear the lion, you must be a lion yourself," notes an old Swahili proverb, and it's that fearlessness that gives Barnes's moving epic its strength and power. What if the captives on those long ago slave ships had been predominantly white and the slave owners predominantly black and brown? This alternative historical novel dares to dissect the differences and similarities between Muslim and Christian ethics, no easy task in these troubling times. By focusing on two engaging main characters, Irish Christian Aidan O'Dere, unwilling slave, and African Muslim, Kai ibn Jallaleddin ibn Rashid, uneasy master, Barnes manages to achieve extraordinary balance and insight into both worlds with unflinching honesty as these two become friends against the odds. Greedy white Northmen catch and sell into slavery the young O'Dere and his family, who arrive in the New World in 1863 (or 1279 Higira time). But instead of the United States, they encounter a divided Bilalstan, ruled by Zulus, Arabs, Aztecs, Vikings and Indians still unable to choose peace over war. As O'Dere strives to find his way to freedom and Rashid strives to figure out whether freedom is just a dream, their lives connect on a battlefield both metaphorical and physical. Interwoven subplots enhance the vivid characterizations, adding romance, Sufi mysticism and philosophical musings regarding martial arts, religion, family and power. This is a dazzling accomplishment, perfectly timed for Black History Month. Agent, Eleanor Wood. (Feb. 13)Forecast: Previously known for his collaborative work with Larry Niven (Saturn's Race, etc.) and his SF detective novels (Blood Brothers, etc.), Barnes may generate controversy with this ambitious alternative look at race relations, especially if critics take aspersions attributed to certain characters out of context. Either way, Barnes seems destined to be a major player in the field.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 461 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (February 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446526681
• ISBN-13: 978-0446526685
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #576,390 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Close Mirror, December 17, 2002

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Lion's Blood is a satire of race relations in this country in the latter half of the 19th century. On one hand, it is an exercise in polemics and rhetoric, but on the other, it tells an engrossing story of two boys who have a complex master-slave relationship. In many ways, it resembles an inverted Roots.

In ancient times, many Greeks, including Socrates, were attracted to Egypt, especially after a wounded Alexander claimed the throne of the Pharaoh. Alexandrian Egypt, allied with Kush, established trade routes up the Nile and into southern Africa. When Rome became a commercial and military threat, Egypt and Kush allied with Carthage and defeated Rome, which sank in obscurity. When Islam arose, Bilal, a former Abyssinian slave, saved Muhammad's daughter, Fatima, from the Prophet's enemies, carried her to Abyssinia, and married her. Fatima become an impassioned leader, second only to the Prophet himself, leading her followers on the jihad that established Islam throughout Africa.

When a plague swept through the Egyptian royalty, an Abyssinian gained the throne, giving both empires a black royalty. The plague also swept Europe, killing the bulk of the population, and leaving only small villages and scattered barbarian tribes. In 1863, the Egyptian and Abyssinian empires are the two superpowers. Egypt has colonies in Bilalistan, corresponding to the Gulf states from Alabama to southeastern Texas, but most colonists are Abyssinian or Zulu. It's just a matter of time before the colonists declare their own independence.

Aiden is an Irish boy who, along with his mother and sister, has been captured by Norse raiders. They are sold in Andalus and shipped across the Atlantic to Bilalistan. Some die, the survivors are sick, and all feel they are in hell. In Bilalistan, Aiden and his mother are sold to Dar Kush, but his sister Nessa is not. When they reach Dar Kush, the estate of the Wakil Abu Ali Jallaleddin ibn Rashid al Kush, Aiden meets the second son, Kai, and aids him in a prank that gets him switched. Kai saves him from most of the punishment and selects him as his footboy. Despite their difference in status, the boys develop a strong friendship. However, situations keep happening that bring the friendship in conflict with the master-slave relation.

This story does not pull many punches in describing the effects of chattel slavery on both master and slave. However, it dwells on the worst aspects of that institution only in passing. Barnes points out the almost universal occurrence of slavery in ancient Europe and Asia. In fact, the Norse are only slightly more energetic in slave taking in this story than their historical counterparts; the Norse role in this book parallels the role of the Zulu and other warrior tribes in Africa. Barnes is particularly harsh in his portrayal of the major Zulu character, Shaka, whom Barnes probably modeled on the historical Shaka, but the other Zulus are only slightly less fierce.

Of course, Barnes had to make choices in creating his mirror image of our timeline. He choose Islam as the major religion, probably because we know more about it, but the chances of Muhammed becoming the Prophet of Allah would seem to be rather slim. After all, Muhammed drew from Christian as well as Judaic and Zoroastrian sources for his Holy Book. In this timeline, there would be no Constantine to sanction Christianity and to establish Constantinople, there would be no Byzantine Empire to influence the Arabs, hold down the Persians, and stop the tide of Islam into Eastern Europe, and thus Christianity would be a minor religion in the Near East.

The worship of Baal, however, would likely be even more pervasive with the growth of a Carthage unhampered by Rome. Slavery in Phoenicia and her colonies was much worse than that portrayed in Lion's Blood; it involved human sacrifice, among other horrors, and was more like that practiced by the Aztecs. The slavery in this book is more a matter of economics and greed like that of the latifundia of Rome and the plantations of the American South, large commercial farms which had few mechanized tools and thus needed large numbers of human laborers. Slavery was a opportunistic solution practiced in many places and times; for example, the Nazis practiced such slavery and rumors of slavers persist around Indonesia.

This is Barnes first effort at inventing a whole new world -- well, timeline -- and it is great. The scope is larger, although the cast is still kept comfortably small. The plot is predictable, but intentionally so. He succeeded in making me see slavery from the eyes of a master and a slave and I didn't like it either way. He has the best siege sequence since the Alamo, but with survivors to tell the story; his equivalent to the "cross the line" speech was a corker! At the end, the finale was a foregone conclusion, yet still an uplifting experience.

Barnes has been growing as a writer and this novel shows his versatility. While this book may bring wider fame, I hope he also keeps writing stories with less scope but more innovative plots. Recommended to all Barnes fans and anyone who has thought seriously of the effects of slavery on this country and it's peoples.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lush, Intelligent, and a damn good read!, July 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Lion's Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

When I picked this book up for the first time and read the overlying concept - an alternative history of 19th century America where the racial aspects of slavery are reversed - I confess I thought it sounded gimmicky. Curious, however, I turned to the first page and started reading. I found the writing terrible; trying too hard, streams of unfamiliar celtic terms dumped out in a "look how hard I researched!" fashion, and an over-idyllic setting. Bleh. I put it back on the library shelf.

Oh, if only I had given it a few pages more! Fortunately, I heard enough recommendations over the next couple of years that I checked it out and gave it another try. The clearing-of-the-throat narrative voice smoothes out after a couple of chapters, and with the capture of Aiden and his family by the Northmen, I was hooked.

This is a brutal story, full of death and a message that all races have the human flaws that enable them to be cruel. But it is intelligent, too. Barnes's alternative history is not just a black-white switch, it is a layered, complicated and fascinating creation - one that lives and breathes on its own. I was especially impressed with the insights on the Islamic religion from a unique perspective. But there are also explorations into the cultures of the Aztecs, Zulus, Egyptians and the Greeks - and how they would have developed over the centuries if Rome and Europe had become a backwater.

And lastly - it's simply a good read. Perhaps a little melodramatic at times, but I ate it up. It was good entertainment. Give it a try; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steven's best so far - a thoughtful and entertaining book, February 1, 2002

By	Brenda Cooper (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Steven Barnes has taken a daring step with Lion's Blood. This fast-paced and compelling alternate history novel takes on issues of race, religion, loyalty, and courage. In the world of Lion's Blood, America (known in the book as Balilistan) is colonized by black muslim's, who enslave white celts. The book centers on Aidan, an enslaved celt who was ripped from his life as a child and brought to Balilistan, and Kai, the younger son of Aiden's master. The two young men are in the midst of conflict between races and serious threat from an external enemy. The book is aptly timed to look at issues that are real today.
Steve has always been an excellent storyteller. In Lion's Blood, this ability shows better than ever, and the reader moves from one captivating scene to the next. I highly recommend it!