Pavane

by Keith Roberts

Book Overview

In the year 1588, Queen Elizabeth of England was assassinated. As a result, when the Spanish Armada attacked, England went down defeated, changing the history of Europe and the New World as we know... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1857989376
• ISBN13: 9781857989373
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Haunting alternate history

This is simply a beautiful work; another gem from Gollancz' Masterworks series, although one which reads more like fantasy or historical fiction than SF.The novel is told through a series of six 'Measures', vignettes of story and mood focusing on a different character each time. While each works separately, taken together they form a tapestry linking thematic and narrative concerns - producing, ultimately, a beautifully-conceived and wonderfully effective tale of twentieth century England stifled by an all-powerful, anti-progress Catholic Church.The alternate England is a triumph of understated, economical world-building (something that many of today's fantasy novels could learn from, perhaps). It is filled with enduring images - the Signallers' towers, the steam engines, the land held in winter's icy grasp - made all the more striking and memorable because we are shown them through the eyes of convincing and distinctive characters. My only criticism would be of the 'Coda', which feels superfluous, and far too neat. Otherwise, this is a moving story of a transforming world, all the more effective for being incompletely explained.

Not a typical "Alternate History" - and that's a Good Thing.

Pavane is promoted as an alternate history book, but it is not really like most works of that genre, which seem to focus more on technique than anything else. It reminded me strongly of Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz in more than a few ways, particularly tone, structure, and the Catholic atmosphere. The book is not one single narrative, but six short stories plus a coda section, taking place over a period of several generations. While reading it, you may think that the stories are barely related, but as you read on, you discover more and more connections, like the pieces of a puzzle falling into place. (For this reason, don't take the advice of the earlier reviewer who suggested only reading the first two stories.) Then the coda comes along with a revelation that causes you to rethink everything that came before -- and perhaps read the book over again to see what you missed. The images of the England in Pavane will stay with you a long time. This book is a treasure; it deserves its reputation.

Pavane

This is an excellent book, a largely unknown gem. I picked it up because the steampunk theme intrigued me. I didn't expect the quality of writing I found here.Pavane is alternate history (also alternate-timeline, though that's subtle.). Queen Elizabeth was assassinated, and the Catholic Church has maintained tyrannical control of Britain and Europe. Only limited technology is allowed, and Roberts' descriptions of the steam trains and the semaphore signalling stations are beautiful.This is not a book with a linear plot -- the title gives a clue to its structure. Its parts work together to form a gorgeous whole, but we don't follow one character throughout, which may throw some readers. In addition, elements of worldbuilding exist -- the long description of the semaphores, for example -- which don't directly support the plot. Some readers will be bothered by that, but I wasn't. I found the world, the Signallers' Guild and all the rest, fascinating; the sort of world in which multiple wonderful stories could be told.Though we see each character for a limited period of time, Roberts keeps them sympathetic and interesting. The whole book has a mythic feel. Though written in '66, I found nothing dated about it. The only thing that might perhaps change from a modern standpoint is that I think Roberts intended the end to be entirely happy. From the perspective of 2002, it's bittersweet, with the beauty of what was lost shadowing the bright modernity with a dark counterpoint.

An eerie, but beautiful, book

In case you were wondering, a "pavane" is a stately dance in elaborate clothing, and this book is contructed like such a dance: six measures and a coda, each one a separate, but tenuously connected, story. It's an alternate history of the world in which Queen Elizabeth I is assassinated in 1588, and the Spanish Armada conquers England. For hundreds of years after that date, the Roman Church rules most of the world with a somewhat iron hand, keeping to a minimum the progress of science and inventions. Throughout the book you wonder about the rationale of the Church leaders for this stance, until everything (sort of) is made clear in the Coda. The writing is quite lyrical at times, and even though a reader might wish for more information about the world the author created, enough is given to enable you to understand what is happening, even if you don't quite know what's going on (if that sounds like a contradiction, it certainly is, but you have to read the book to understand what I mean). If you enjoy "alternate history" works, I think you will like this book very much.

A True Alternate History Classic

Keith Roberts' great late '60s Alternate History novel, Pavane, towers over the popular contemporary AH novels, with their tendency toward silly games such as "pick the branch point" or "identify the historical figure in a new role". Pavane is based on a history which branched when Queen Elizabeth died early, and the Spanish Armada succeeded in conquering England, paving the way for continued domination of Europe by the Catholic Church. This book is concerned with metaphysical and moral questions such as the nature of history and the value of technology.It is composed of a brief prologue, indicating the "branch point", followed by six "measures", novelette- or novella- length sections, beginning in 1968 and carrying the story forward several decades. Each measure is a self-contained story, but there are also links between them, particularly three stories which follow three generations of the Strange family. Finally, a Coda serves to cast the entire story in a somewhat different light, for one thing technically removing it from the strict "Alternate History" subgenre, and also commenting on the central conflicts of the story. The mood overall is rather dark, though flashes of brightness and joy light the pages. Roberts' Catholic dominated England, or Angle Land, is rather backwards technologically, as the Church carefully vets all scientific and technological knowledge, rejecting some advances and delaying others. Thus we have steam-driven road-based "trains", and semaphores instead of telephones, in the late 20th Century. Roberts' detailed descriptions of both sorts of old-fashioned technology are intriguing and rather romantic. At the same time it is clear that people are poorer and hungrier and fewer because of this retarded development -- but there is throughout an ambiguity about the depiction of this alternate present which is only intensified by Roberts' coda.The book is set in a time of subdued unrest -- the heavy hand of the Church on Angle Land is clearly resented, and this resentment is seen to spread throughout society as the book unfolds. The opening story deals with Jesse Strange, a prosperous and hardworking businessman, who must work with and around Churchly taxations and technological restrictions. That's a side issue to his personal story, though, as he takes his train on the last trip before winter closes the roads one year, worried about outlaws, and finds a reason to visit a barmaid he has long fancied, and also encounters an old school friend. Both meetings have momentous results, and change his life profoundly. "The Signaller" follows, a stark, sad, beautiful story of the title character's successful struggle to become a Signaller, and the violent fate that awaits him on his first solo assignment, as well as the mysterious person he encounters alone in the back woods. "Brother John" introduces us to a monk, an accomplished artist, who is radicalized when he is forced to record in his drawings the efforts of an