New Found Land is a young adult alternate history novel by John Christopher, the second in his Fireball series. It was first published in 1983.
Plot summary
In the first novel, Fireball, Simon and Brad are cousins who are mysteriously transported to an alternate history Earth, where the Roman Empire did not break up and Europe remains in pre-Dark Ages technology. In an attempt to improve their status in the new realm, Simon and Brad aid the Christian Church, which is oppressed, to launch a coup by introducing the stirrup and the longbow. The coup succeeds, but the boys did not anticipate the Church as a state power would force everyone in the Empire to convert or die. At the end of the first book, they sail away to the New World, which in the realm, was not discovered yet by the Old World.
At the beginning of this novel, they managed to reach the American continent safely. They are received warmly enough by the native tribes in North America, but soon find themselves yearning for more advanced civilizations.
However, after they attempt to sail down the coast to warmer waters as winter sets on, they are captured by Vikings. In this parallel world the Vikings were introduced to the Latin language and instead of dying out, they have colonized the American continent. Brad, Simon, and their companions Bos and Curtius are greeted warmly by the Vikings and believe they can live here permanently, only to realize that they are to be sacrificed. They escape, but Curtius is killed in the fighting as they leave.
Trekking across the continent, they head for the only civilization in America which has significant urban living - the Aztecs. As the Roman Empire has persisted in Europe of this realm until the 20th century due to unchanging conditions, the Aztec civilization too has continued without encounters from the Europeans' discovery of the New World.
In order to quickly gain wealth and status to enjoy a comfortable living, they take part in the sacred games, which is a cross between squash, tennis and handball. Their aim though is to finish second, as the victors will be sacrificed to the gods. Unfortunately, they win.
To escape the fate of the winners, they escape again, and this time, are captured by sailors from the Far East.
Their story continues in the last book of the trilogy, Dragon Dance.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico - particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, city-state of the Mexica or Tenochca, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although, the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the prehispanic era, as well as the Spanish colonial era (1521–1821). The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early 19th century.
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, the era covers the history of Indigenous cultures until significant influence by Europeans. This may have occurred decades or even centuries after Columbus for certain cultures.
The Dark Eye is a German tabletop role-playing game with a high fantasy theme created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984. It is the most successful role-playing game on the German market, outselling Dungeons & Dragons. Many years of work on the game have led to a detailed and extensively described game world.
The Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2002. The novel explores how world history might have been different if the Black Death plague had killed 99 percent of Europe's population, instead of a third as it did in reality. Divided into ten parts, the story spans hundreds of years, from the army of the Muslim conqueror Timur to the 21st century, with Europe being re-populated by Muslim pioneers, the indigenous peoples of the Americas forming a league to resist Chinese and Muslim invaders, and a 67-year-long world war being fought primarily between Muslim states and the Chinese and their allies. While the ten parts take place in different times and places, they are connected by a group of characters that are reincarnated into each time but are identified to the reader by the first letter of their name being consistent in each life.
Warhammer Fantasy is a fictional fantasy universe created by Games Workshop and used in many of its games, including the table top wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) pen-and-paper role-playing game, and a number of video games: the MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the strategy games Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II and Total War: Warhammer III and the two first-person shooter games in the Warhammer Vermintide series, Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide and Warhammer: Vermintide 2, among many others.
Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described in detail in several editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting with the most recent being the 5th edition from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more depth in separate campaign setting books. Around a hundred novels and several computer and video games use Faerûn as the setting.
Jerónimo de Aguilar O.F.M. (1489–1531) was a Franciscan friar born in Écija, Spain. Aguilar was sent to Panama to serve as a missionary. He was later shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511 and captured by the Maya. In 1519 Hernán Cortés rescued Aguilar and engaged him as a translator during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
The Maztica Trilogy is a set of 3 fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century.
Aztec is a 1980 historical fiction novel by American author Gary Jennings. It is the first of two novels Jennings wrote in the Aztec series, followed by Aztec Autumn. The remaining four novels were written by other authors after Jennings died in 1999.
Space Viking is a science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper, set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences. The story was originally serialized in Analog magazine, then published by Ace Books in 1963.
In world history, post-classical history refers to the period from about 500 CE to 1500 CE, roughly corresponding to the European Middle Ages. The period is characterized by the expansion of civilizations geographically and the development of trade networks between civilizations. This period is also called the medieval era, post-antiquity era, post-ancient era, pre-modernity era, or pre-modern era.
Fireball is the first book in a trilogy by John Christopher, published in 1981, exploring the adventures of two cousins when they are suddenly transported into an alternative history Earth through a mysterious fireball.
Dragon Dance is a young adult alternative history novel by John Christopher. The last novel of the Fireball trilogy, it was first published in 1986.
The Germanicus Trilogy is a trilogy of alternate history of books written by Kirk Mitchell. The trilogy consists of Procurator (1984), New Barbarians (1986) and Cry Republic (1989). It is set in an alternate universe where Rome never fell due to Pontius Pilate pardoning Joshua bar-Joseph (Christ) and the Romans winning a decisive victory at Teutoburg Forest, which allows for the Latinization of Greater Germania.
Saga of the Borderlands is a collection of three fantasy novels, written by Argentine writer Liliana Bodoc. The first book, The Days of the Deer, was published in 2000, the second one The Days of Shadow arrived in 2002 and the third and last one, The Days of Fire, hit the bookstores in 2004. This work takes form in the epic fantasy genre and it takes place in an imaginary world called The Fertile Lands. The main plot of the saga revolves around the Fertile Lands' people's struggle against the armies of evil Misaianes, from The Ancient Lands.
The Gate of Worlds is an alternate history novel by American writer Robert Silverberg. It was first published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the United States in 1967. The first UK hardcover edition was published by Gollancz in 1978.
Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories is an anthology of time travel alternate history stories by American writers L. Sprague de Camp, Frederik Pohl, S. M. Stirling and David Drake. It was first published in ebook by Arc Manor under its Phoenix Pick imprint in February 2011, with a trade paperback following in March of the same year and a hardcover edition in October 2017. Arc Manor issued a second edition under its CAEZIK SF & Fantasy imprint in hardcover and ebook in February 2021, under the alternate title Lest Darkness Fall and Timeless Tales Written in Tribute; the new edition added two newly commissioned stories by David Weber and Harry Turtledove.
Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the sixth book of his Thongor series set on the mythical continent of Lemuria. It was first published in paperback by Berkley Medallion in July 1970, and reprinted in June 1976. The first British edition was published in paperback by Tandem in August 1971, and reissued by Star in April 1979. The book has been translated into Japanese and French.
Bibliography of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction and nonfiction writer Harry Turtledove:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
