Through Darkest Europe by Harry TurtledoveMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Harry Turtledove always writes a good story. Sometimes, there's an interesting message underneath as well. Through Darkest Europe is definitely one of those times.
Through Darkest Europe is an imagining of what might have happened if the tenets of modern Western civilization took root in the Middle East rather than Europe. The rise of science over superstition, industrialization, the Enlightenment...move all that to places like Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. Meanwhile Europe becomes a backwater that breeds unrest and discontent.
The book has plenty of references to different history and culture in this alternate world. North America is known as "The Sunset Lands" and makes "Pontiak" vehicles from "Arkansistan." Hitler had no place on the world stage, but there was an equivalently horrific Indian leader who slaughtered the Tamil people. Rather than feet or meters, measurements are made in cubits. Turtledove always spins an intriguing world, and this is no exception. However, the most notable thing about this alternate world is not the differences from reality, but the similarities.
Turtledove could have created a very different world with those assumptions, but instead he chose to make it very nearly a mirror image of our own. Islam and Christianity switch places, with terrorist followers of Thomas Aquinas taking the place of Muslim extremists. Italy is largely a mirror of our Afghanistan, with a weak central government holding onto Rome but little else. Christian extremists from all over Europe pour into Italy, bringing rebellion and assassination with them.
I like the switching of religious and cultural affiliation between the forces of order and terror. It makes the reader think more about the underlying causes of unrest. Turtledove makes it clear that the religion itself isn't to blame, in either case. You can use words from the holy books to support peace or war, order or chaos, love for your fellow man or hatred. It's the character of the people using those words, and the societal influences that shape those people, that makes the difference.
Through Darkest Europe isn't as epic as some of Turtledove's work (see Worldwar), but it doesn't need to be to accomplish its purpose: give the reader an opportunity to consider how unrest and extremism can rise from any culture or religion, given the wrong conditions. An important message, and I encourage others to read it for themselves.
