The Gladiator: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic
3.5/5
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About this ebook
In Harry Turtledove's The Gladiator, the Soviet Union won the Cold War. The Russians were a little smarter than they were in our own world, and the United States was a little dumber and a lot less resolute. Now, more than a century later, the world's gone Communist, and capitalism is a bad word.
For Gianfranco and his friend Annarita, a couple of teenagers growing up in Milan, life in a heavily regimented, surveillance-rich command economy is just plain dreary. The eventual withering-away of the state doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.
Annarita's a hard-working student and a member of the Young Socialists' League. Gianfranco is a lot less motivated--but on the other hand, his father's a Party apparatchik. The biggest excitement in their lives is a wargame shop called The Gladiator, which runs tournaments, and stocks marvelous complex games you can't find anywhere else.
Then, abruptly, the shop is shut down. Someone's figured out that The Gladiator's games are teaching counterrevolutionary capitalist principles. The Security Police are searching high and low for the shop's proprietors, who've not only vanished into thin air, but have left behind sets of fingerprints that aren't in the records of any government on earth.
Only one staffer is left: Gianfranco and Annarita's friend Eduardo. He's on the run, and he comes to them in secret with an astonishing story: he's a time trader from our own timeline, accidentally left behind when the store was evacuated. The only way Eduardo can get home to his own timeline is if Gianfranco and Annarita can help him reach one of the other time trader sites in this world--and the Security Police will be on their tails all the way there.
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Harry Turtledove
Harry Turtledove (he/him) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer who Publishers Weekly has called the "Master of Alternate History." He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Hugo Award for Best Novella, the HOMer Award for Short story, and the John Esthen Cook Award for Southern Fiction. Turtledove’s works include the Crosstime Traffic, Worldwar, Darkness, and Opening of the World series; the standalone novels The House of Daniel, Fort Pillow, and Give Me Back My Legions!; and over a dozen short stories available on Tor.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Laura Frankos, and their four daughters.
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Titles in the series (6)
Gunpowder Empire: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Curious Notions: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Disunited States of America: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In High Places: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gladiator: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Valley-Westside War: A Novel of Crosstime Traffic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for The Gladiator
40 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I admit it--I picked up this book because of the d20.
Harry Turtledove is not one of my favorite author, I find his stuff very hit-or-miss, but this book is definitely a hit.
Set in Italy in an alternate timeline where the USSR won the Cold War, the story follows Gianfranco and Annarita as their normal lives as teenagers learning to be good communists is disrupted by the intrusion of Crosstime travellers from a timeline that might be the future of our world.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is that it follows Gianfranco and Annarita as the main characters, letting us see their world--good and bad--through their eyes. It turns what could have been a book about a stranded capitalist looking down on the backwards communists he's come to try and rescue, into a coming of age story as A&G struggle to find their way in a world where everything they believed is being overturned, and they need to decide what is right and wrong when their world's version of the devil incarnate comes knocking on their door asking for help.
The writing and characters are well executed, the world believable and the subplots around A&G's school add a strong touch of realism.
I'd like to give it a 4.5--it's a really good book, that I highly recommend, but when I finished it didn't give me that "OMG, that was great" feeling that I expect from a 5 star book. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A great book for young adult readers. For me it lost some of its flow when it went into exposition, and explanation of cold war politics. However, for the younger reader it would be a great book. The book was interesting enough to finish, and gave me a new appreciation for Harry Turtledove. I plan to read more Turtledove in the future.