This is the fifth book of Flint and Drake’s “Belisarius” series, now
finally available in softcover; I reviewed its four predecessors last
fall. For those who’ve joined us since then, it’s an alternate history
series with a fun but goofy premise. Evil people from the far future
have sent an artificially-intelligent computer called “Link” to Earth in
the days of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and his highly-competent general
Belisarius. Link’s goal, naturally, is to so adjust Earth’s history that
its creators ultimately end up on top of the kind of world they like.
Pursuant to this, Link has caused the founding of the Malwa Empire in
India. The goal of the Malwa empire, naturally, is to take over the
world in the most brutal and inhuman way possible, all under the
guidance of Link. This is a series with White Hats and Black Hats, and
the Black Hats (with the exception of a few misguided souls who
eventually come ’round) are very Black indeed. It’s not enough for them
to have evil ends; they must have despicable means as well.

On the other side you’ve got General Belisarius and his happy, jovial
crew of soldiers of all kinds. Belisarius is accompanied by another
visitor from the far future, the crystalline entity called “Aide”.
Unlike the inhuman, emotionless machine-entity Link, Aide is funny,
sarcastic, and caring by turns–but Aide is equally determined to see
Link fail. Naturally, both Link and Aide give advanced technology and
tactical tips to their teams. The difference is, of course, that fascist
Link wishes to control the flow of information whereas Aide is happy to
give Belisarius and his followers anything they can possibly use.

Unsurprisingly, competence, good humor, and the free flow of ideas is
going to triumph over evil totalitarianism, and this is book in which we
begin to see it happen. Like it’s predecessors, it’s a rollicking good
time; the good guys beat the bad guys six ways from Sunday, the villains
get theirs in suitably ironic fashion, and so on and so forth–though
there are some surprises.

There will be at least one more book in the series, in which Link and the
Malwa Empire will presumably be destroyed; it’s to be called
The Dance of Time.

If this sounds like anything you’d enjoy reading, I think you’ll enjoy it
quite a bit. I did.