Fortune's Stroke
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3.9 • 15 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
EVIL FROM BEYOND TIME RULES THE GREATEST EMPIRE ON EARTH!Link, the supercomputer from a future that should not exist, has used terror and gunpowder weapons to forge the Malwa Empire: harnessing the vast manpower of the Indian subcontinent and using the barbarian races of the periphery to bind the whole together. No power on Earth in the 6th century could stand against Link's evil.Aide, a human soul embodied in a jewel, has come back to halt evil's progress. Aide has no power but that of truth, but truth is the only power that could move the greatest general of the age, Belisarius.With his sword, his paladins, and his genius, Belisarius has turned the armies of Byzantium into a weapon capable of blunting the first assault of the Malwa hordes. Now, supported by allies from all the world yet free, Belisarius, with his wife and co-commander Antonia, faces overwhelming Malwa numbers in a ring that tightens about them.There is no room for maneuver and no safety in defeat. The armies of Good and Evil gathered on the fertile plains of Mesopotamia will decide the fate of the world.And the fate of all the future!At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This exuberant romp of an alternate-history novel is the fourth volume of a series (Destiny's Shield, etc.) in which two contending super-beings from the far future try to determine humanity's fate through changing the 6th century A.D. The villain, Link, uses the Indian Malwa Empire as his tool; the benefactor, Aide, chooses the Byzantine Empire and particularly the famous Count Belisarius, its most formidable general. Belisarius's formidable wife, Antonina, plays matchmaker for the emperor of Ethiopia, thus giving the forces of good a fighting navy in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The delightful diplomatic noblewoman Irene Macrembolitissa also plays matchmaker, securing the marriage of the Maratha leader Ragunath Rao to his beloved Princess Shakuntala (a South Asian Princess Leia figure). Finally, Belisarius himself brings the Malwans' invasion of Persia to an end. However, Link has managed to find another human host and is as ruthless as ever, while Aide has developed a raunchy sense of humor from too much association with biological humans. Readers shouldn't take all this too seriously (and those new to the series would do well to read the earlier volumes before tackling this one), but should sit back and chortle while admiring the authors' alternate-technological ingenuity.
