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 embraced
Christianity and Islam never came to be--the Byzantine Empire still
flourishes in the fourteenth century, and wondrous technologies are
emerging earlier than they did in our own.
Having lost his family to the ravages of smallpox, Basil Argyros has
decided to dedicate his life to Byzantium. A stalwart soldier and able
secret agent, Basil serves his emperor courageously, going undercover to
unearth Persia's dastardly plots and disrupting the dark machinations of
his beautiful archenemy, the Persian spy Mirrane, while defusing dire
threats emerging from the Western realm of the Franco-Saxons.
But the world Basil so staunchly defends is changing rapidly, and he
must remain ever vigilant, for in this great game of empires, the player
who controls the most advanced tools and weaponry--tools like gunpowder,
printing, vaccines, and telescopes--must certainly emerge victorious.
A collection of interlocking stories that showcase the courage,
ingenuity, and breathtaking derring-do of superspy Basil Argyros, Agent
of Byzantium presents the great Harry Turtledove at his
alternate-world-building best. At once intricate, exciting, witty, and
wildly inventive, this is a many-faceted gem from a master of the genre.
