The Peshawar Lancers (Hardcover)

by S. M. Stirling (Author) "Captain Athelstane King rinsed out his mouth with a swig from the goatskin water bag slung at his saddlebow..." (more)
Key Phrases: Narayan Singh, Sir Manfred, Political Service (more...)

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.

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Roc Hardcover; First Edition edition (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451458486
• ISBN-13: 978-0451458483
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #626,519 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sort of a Neo-Victorian Imperial James Bond..., January 11, 2002

By	Carl Malmstrom (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews

S.M. Stirling's latest foray into alternate history is one with a rather inspired premise: after Europe and America are bombarded with comets in 1878, the British Empire must pick up its scattered pieces and reclocate to India. Now, a hundred and fifty years later, the new Britanno-Indian Empire struggles its way through 21st Century politics. While some of it reminds me of the early chapters of Robert Charles Wilson's Hugo-nominated "Darwinia", "The Peshawar Lancers" shares much thematically with Stirling's "Islander" saga: Western culture gets rocked back on its heels, but ultimately struggles and survives in a world that it has unintentionally changed.

Stirling has given a great deal of attention to his world - and it shows. Especially interesting in their own alternate-historical merit are the five appendices at the end of the book that deal with the events of the cometary impact, the British Exodus to India, the state of the world and the British Empire and the level of science and technology in his world of 2025. He has given thought to all of the major players in a world that seems almost more like Asia of the 1920s than the 2020s, but every country comes off as believable and most fall within what I could even see as plausible - given a little dramatic license, of course.

The story itself is a great deal of fun, too. The main character, Athelstane King, is an Imperial Army captain, a young manor lord and a reluctant conscript into his Majesty's service following the uncovering of a conspiracy by the Russian Czar in Samarkand. The story follows him, his armsman, his sister, an Afghan assassin, the Imperial Heir-Apparent and a Algerio-French emissary through Bzyantine plots and a very-well-realized Imperial India. It deals out action, romance, culture and history in equal measure and does so in a way that never drags or lectures.

My reservations about the book (and I have one or two) are relatively minor and deal mainly with personal differences in interpretation than complete implausibility. Having recently flipped through David Cannadine's "Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire", I find myself wondering if even in the necessity of survival, whether or not the British fleeing to India would have 'gone native' to the extent they have in Stirling's book. Certainly, the intergration of British and Indian culture makes for an interesting story and Stirling certainly researched the dynamics of Indian culture well, but I find it a point that I wish I could agree more fully with. Likewise (and this is an even less important point), I question his portrayal of Dai-Nippon (Greater Japan) a bit. As with India, he has certainly studied the culture and history of Japan, but I am not entirely certain how well he has acquainted himself with the attitudes of the times. Given the Japanese propensity for technological innovation and the fact that in 1878 Japan was coming out of a civil war and seriously looking to compete with Western powers (and that it would have been on the other side of the world from the comet impacts), I think Japan would have embarked on a far more ambitious plan of expansion with less recovery time that Stirling shows. Nonetheless, this too is a very minor point.

That aside, though, I highly recommend this book. It's a great read, it's terribly well thought-out and it is very easy to find yourself getting caught up in this very compelling world. I hope not only that this book becomes part of a wider series (it ends on a half-closed note, but certainly with the possibility of much more), but that Stirling takes us to other parts of the world - French Algeria, the Caliphate of Damascus, Greater Japan, the barbarian wilds of America and Western Europe and the rest of the Angrezi Raj (Britanno-Indian Empire) in books to come. I, for one, eagerly await them.

10 of 10 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.

15 of 17 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)

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.