The Peshawar Lancers
OCLC 51390580 | | |
Preceded by | "Shikari in Galveston" |
---|
The Peshawar Lancers is an
Stirling also wrote a novella, Shikari in Galveston, which is set in the same background as The Peshawar Lancers but occurs several years earlier. It was published in the alternate history collection Worlds That Weren't.[5]
Background
The story details a world where a heavy meteor shower, known as "the Fall", impacted with catastrophic force across much of the Northern Hemisphere in 1878, creating a massive dust cloud that blots out the sun. This in turn causes the collapse of Industrialized civilization, which was unable to survive without the ability to raise crops in winter-like conditions that lasted for three years. In order to survive, the British Government, under the leadership of Queen Victoria and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, employed the Royal Navy and all merchant shipping to evacuate the population of the British Isles to its colonies in India, Australasia, and South Africa over the next several years. After martial law breaks down in 1881, the rioting British lower classes storm the remaining military outposts in London; unable to escape, Disraeli is killed by rioters and becomes a martyr. The British Isles are abandoned, initially becoming the home of groups of degenerate cannibalistic savages, most of which quickly consume each other to extinction, and are only cautiously recolonized in the 20th century. By the time relatively normal weather returns, nine-tenths of the former population in the UK, as well as millions of other people around the world, have died as a result of the disaster.[3]
The book is set in the year 2025, after the world's climate has recovered from the devastation of the meteors. The
Athelstane King is an officer of the
The world of The Peshawar Lancers
The Angrezi Raj
In 2025, the Angrezi Raj is the most powerful nation in the world. The King-Emperor John II rules almost half of mankind. The Raj is divided into three main regions, each of which has a significant representation in the Raj Parliament in Delhi:
- Viceroyalty of India
- The location to which the British government was evacuated after the Fall (along with 1.5 million refugees), India suffered from drought, famine, and a Second Mutiny, in which millions of starving Indians rose against the British after hearing rumors of food being shipped back to Britain. The Second Mutiny ended in the 1890s, and solidified the government's relationship with loyal groups in India. By 2025, the Viceroyalty of India is home to some 130 million people, and includes what would have become the nations of India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and half of Thailand. Nepal is a client kingdom. Delhi is the capital of the Raj.
- Viceroyalty of the Cape
- The Viceroyalty of the Cape was the destination of some 500,000 British refugees after the Fall. By 2025, the Cape is a staunchly conservative Viceroyalty (the center of the Tories), and also has a nascent nationalistic movement to break away from the Raj. It includes what would have become the nations of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and portions of Kenya. It is home to some 40 million people. The Cape's ruling white elite resorts to various legal stratagems to keep most non-whites disenfranchised.
- Viceroyalty of Australia
- The Viceroyalty of Pacific islands. It is home to some 20 million people. Australia also has small colonies in the Pacific Northwestcoast of North America.
- Other territories
- The Angrezi Raj also includes the protectorates of Madagascar and the Batavian Republic (under the rule of the descendants of Dutch refugees from the Fall), territories such as the British Isles (which would begin to be recolonized in the early 20th century, mostly in England and Wales more than in Scotland and Ireland), and various outposts around the world. As seen on the map, it is attempting to re-colonize other parts of Europe such as Denmark, Germany and Poland, though its hold is tenuous, mainly along coasts and up major rivers. The Empire also claims all of the former United States, Canada, Newfoundland and northern Mexico, but rules little of it politically aside from outposts scattered across the coasts.
The Russian Empire
During the retreat southwards in 1880 from
Centered in
Other empires
- The Empire of Dai-Nippon
- Dai-Nippon (the Empire of the Dragon Throne) consists of a Siam. Akahito is the Emperorof Dai-Nippon in 2025.
- The Caliphate of Damascus
- Formed after the collapse of the Persia to Hungary. Although not nearly as advanced as the Raj or Dai-Nippon, the Caliphate represents a daunting threat to any potential invader. Skirmishes with France-outre-Mer have resulted in the loss of Sicily, and skirmishes with the Raj have resulted in the loss of Zanzibar, Bahrain, and Aden. Slavery is very common in the Caliphate.
- France-outre-mer
- Forged by French, Spanish, and various other refugees from Continental Europe, France-outre-mer is quite friendly with the Raj, not least because of the constant threat of the Caliphate. Centered in Algiers, France is now in the process of reclaiming European France, and is in negotiations with the Raj to rebuild the Suez Canal; it also maintains a hold over the coasts of Spain and Portugal. During the novel, King-Emperor John II arranges for his daughter Sita to marry the heir to the throne of France-outre-mer, leading to speculation of a possible union between the two empires. As of 2025, Napoleon VI is the Emperor of France-outre-mer.
The rest of the world
Most of Europe, parts of North America, and equatorial Africa is inhabited by cannibal tribes and bands. Smaller empires include the
Plot
The story takes place in the year 2025, in a world where the British Empire, now centered in India, remains the dominant world power. A series of environmental disasters in the 1870s has stopped the advancement of technology and forced the great empires to move south.
Athelstane King, a
King returns home, where Singh's father, Ranjit, tells King the truth behind his father's death. King's mother sends him to Delhi to find Elias bar-Binyamin, a Jewish financier who owes the King family a favor, to gain further information. To ensure Cassandra's safety, King's friend Sir Manfred Warburton arranges for her to be hired by the royal palace as tutor to King-Emperor John II's daughter, Princess Sita. While there, Cassandra meets Sita's brother, Prince Charles, and finds herself interested in him.
In Delhi, on his way to the bar-Binyamin residence, King is attacked by assassins and the fight spills over into Warburton's residence. Meanwhile, Warburton has been critically injured by Ignatieff and a traitorous British agent, Richard Allenby. Ignatieff and Allenby escape, and Allenby summons the police. In order to help his friends escape, Narayan Singh stays behind to face the police. Allenby orders Singh taken to his own house for interrogation.
The group finds bar-Binyamin and his son David. They go to Allenby's residence to expose him as a
As the Garuda prepares to take off, King's group sneaks on board. The captain takes the King-Emperor hostage and reveals that he has planted evidence implicating other governments in the assassination attempt, in order to trigger a major war. He blows himself up, killing himself and King-Emperor John and damaging the Garuda critically. King kills Ignatieff in a brutal sword duel, with help from Ibrahim Khan.
Major themes
Though The Peshawar Lancers is set in 2025, 23 years into the future from when the novel was published, Stirling does not use 21st century technology. Stirling postulates that without the resources and innovation of Europe and North America, technological advancement would have been slowed due to the local conditions of the surviving nations.[6] Technology is progressing, though by time of the novel's setting, but still lags behind our level of technology. Air travel is done by hydrogen-lifted airship and motor vehicles are still rare. Plus there are occasional steampunk incursions like Babbage engines.[7] In terms of biology, however, the Raj equals if not surpasses us in some fields.[8]
Unlike previous Stirling novels that preceded The Peshawar Lancers, there is less warfare and violence than one would expect considering Stirling's earlier works and instead focuses on conspiracy, espionage and diplomacy.[8][9]
One reviewer commented that The Peshawar Lancers had an "eerie prophetic resonance" with current events. Throughout the novel there are various terrorist tactics used to defeat the protagonists, including the mid-air explosion of an airship. Also reviewer noted the possible theme of fundamentalism vs. secularism. Whether this theme was intended by Stirling is unknown.[10]
Literary significance and reception
Steven H Silver called the novel an "action-filled adventure through a future reminiscent of the British Raj" and described the characters as being "sympathetic and realistic despite the alternate world which they inhabit." Silver, however, found the amount of research that Stirling did to write the novel to have slowed down the plot and he also complained about the foreign terms throughout the novel that were devoid of translation or definition.[6] In a second review of the novel, Silver had more negative things to say of the characters describing them to be "more like archetypes than like individuals" and also having "lack of dimensions."[9] Don Harlow called it a fun story, but agreed with Silver that Stirling failed to tell the reader the meaning of some of the foreign words used and even corrected the author on the spelling of some words.[7] In an interview, Stirling stated he got the vocabulary for the novel from dictionaries and a Hobson-Jobson that Harry Turtledove gave him as a Christmas present.[11]
The
Paul Di Filippo called the novel "simply the best uchronia in years." He complimented Stirling on the depth of his world building and skillful use of historical personages. Filippo expressed favor for the various characters and especially liked the antagonism between Narayan Singh and Ibrahim Khan.[10]
References to other works
Stirling wrote the novel as a homage to the
References
- ^ "Uchronia: The Peshawar Lancers and Shikari in Galveston". www.uchronia.net.
- ^ "Fantastic Fiction.com: The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling". www.fantasticfiction.com.
- ^ ISBN 0-451-45873-7.
- ^ The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History
- ^ S.M. Stirling (2002). "SHIKARI IN GALVESTON". Sample. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
- ^ a b Steven H Silver (2002). "The SF Site Featured Review: The Peshawar Lancers". Retrieved 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b Don Harlow. "Review: The Peshawar Lancers". Archived from the original on 2008-07-07. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b c d Mark L. Olson. "The Peshawar Lancers Review". NESFA. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b "Stephen Silver's Reviews: THE PESHAWAR LANCERS". SF Site. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
- ^ a b c Paul Di Filippo. "Off the Shelf: The Peshawar Lancers". Book Review. SciFi.com. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
- ^ "Author SM Stirling interviewed". SF Crowsnest.com. February 2002. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
- ^ Sherry S. Hoy (May 2003). "Stirling, S.M. The Peshawar lancers". Book Review. BNET. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
- ^ Peter Hodges (May 16, 2008). "Interview with S. M. Stirling - Part One". Interview. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-15.