Agent of Byzantium

by Harry Turtledove

Book Overview

From the New York Times-bestselling "standard-bearer for alternate history" A spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire (USA Today). In another, very different timeline--one in which Mohammed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671875930
• ISBN13: 9780671875930
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

One of Turtledove's first works

The reader is given several stories but all about Basil, a soldier for Byzantium. Basil loses his family in a plague and changes his career to a secret agent. The part where Basil loses his family to a plague is quite touching. I give a salute to the writing of Turtledove that he spares the reader the death of Basil's son by having Basil give him opium for the pain until the end, the child merely stops breathing instead of going through the agony of small pox. Now, this is important. In one of the stories its found how to innoculate the population from diseases. Small Pox destroys large amounts of Byzantium's populace. This discovery is make 600 years before the discovery in Westerm Europe. So, the people running the Byzantium government work to insure the health of their citizens. The Byzantium army is spared the ravages of disease and is able to beat threats from Persian armies. Harry goes into Greek fire, the secret of Byzantium's Naval success for years. It was natural that Basil is sent on a mission to discover the secret of black powder. This is the subject of one story and how it is employed in battles. Basil also works to check the forces of Persia, what we now know as modern Iran. Strangely, while this story was written in 1987 the fact is the threat from Iran (Persia) seems just as real today. Basil battles a Persian spy who is quite like a Soviet spy master (remember, this was written in 1987). Basil is once again the hero and checks this threat from Persia and gains a lover to replace his late beloved wife. Basil is also involved with one of the most weaking things that happen to Byzantium. It was a religious problem with Christianity and that involved the worship of Icons. People would worship the Icon of the cross instead of Jesus the son of God. While this does not seem of great concern to modern readers but form a historical context it's a deadly threat to Byzantium itself. Religious conflicts with the Roman Catholic church weaken Byzantium and let it be invaded by both Muslims and Western Europeans. Turtledove comes up with an solution to the icon problem that would actually not be available until the 16th century. Had the 16th printing press technology been availiable in the 12th Century then Muslim soldiers would not be standing in a ruined Constantinople in 1453. Dr. Turtledove gives some sound historical reasons on how close it was for Byzantium (actually the real name was close to Romania)to being more of an eternal empire than the famous Roman empire that it outlasted by nearly 1000 years. Had just a few events and forces of nature been different then modern Islam would be a shawdow of its present self, the Protestant reformation would not have been needed, and we could have avoided lots of wars. This is the middle of summer. This book is a good read and perfect for those summer vacations.

a new view of history

it was my first reading about alternate history and i love it from the first reading back at 1994. I love Byzantium and it was absolut astonishing to read something like that. I hope to find this rewiew helpful

The Name's Argyros, Basil Argyros

Imagine a 13th century Mediterranean and Middle East... -Where the territories of western and southern Europe won back by the Romans during the 6th century reign of Justinian were not only maintained but expanded. -Muhammad never developed Islam. Instead he converted to Christianity, becoming a holy man, and is now venerated as St. Moaumet. In the absence of Islam's rise, both the Roman and Sassanid Persian (which has by now engulfed the entire Arabian Peninsula) empires remain as the two superpowers, existing in a sort of medieval cold war. Into this world comes Basil Argyros, an agent of the Magistrianoi, the imperial secret police; sometimes he acts as a soldier, but more often he's a spy. During the course of his assignments as an agent of Imperial security, Basil also makes some exciting discoveries, thus making him an agent in another sense: as one who brings change and advancement to the Empire. From the Franks he steals a new weapon, recently cooked up by their monks--gunpowder. He returns from the lands of the Asiatic Jurchen nomads north of the Black Sea with an instrument we know as the telescope. He delivers to the emperor the secrets of printing, a recent Persian invention they've been using to foment insurrection in the Empire's eastern provinces. What perhaps is the most fascinating of all is Basil's witnessing the discovery of inoculation, made during a time of catastrophic plague in Constantinople. Basil's nemesis in many of these stories is the beautiful and deviously clever Persian spy, Mirrane. As the two of them match wits, they develop a mutual respect and admiration, eventually falling deeply in love. The Baen paperback edition contains the following seven stories: "The Eyes of Argos" "Strange Eruptions" "Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire" "Unholy Trinity" "Archetypes" "Images" "Superwine" Only this edition contains the story "Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire;" however, that story can also be found in Harry Turtledove's alt-history collection DEPARTURES (which also includes "Islands in the Sea," the story about Muhammad's aforementioned conversion to the Christian Faith.) As someone with a Ph.D in Byzantine studies, Harry Turtledove knows the peoples and times upon which he bases this alternative world, making it a fun, fascinating read.

Sticks With You

It has been three years since I read "Agent of Byzantium" and after reading many more books of the same genre, I regard this short book among my favorites (along with "Lest Darkness Fall", and The Belisarius Series). Turtledove combines intrigue, technology, warfare, romance, and of course, Byzantine politics to make a great collection of short stories recounting the adventures of an ancient James Bond character. My favorite story recounts how the Empire gets their hands on gunpowder. The femme fatale Parthian spy clearly seemed created to support sequels, of which there have been none ... which is my only dissapointment

fascinating alternate history

Almost a medieval "Winds of War", wherein our hero is just too damn conveniently involved in one civilization advance after another - but saved by excellent writing and a thoroughly likeable protagonist