Aztec Century

Last updated
Aztec Century
Aztec Empire Christopher Evans.jpg
First edition
AuthorChristopher Evans
Cover artistTrevor Scobie and Mark Taylor
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
alternative history
PublisherGollancz
Publication date
1993
Pages352
ISBN 0-575-05540-5

Aztec Century is a science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Evans. In 1994, Aztec Century won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. [1]

First published in 1993 by Victor Gollancz, it is an alternate history novel, in which the Aztec Empire conquers Britain. In this world, Cortez changed sides at the onset of the Conquistador era in the early 16th century, leading to the repulsion of the Spanish Empire's invasion and colonization of Central America. Due to fortuitously strong central leadership, the Aztec Empire has become a technologically sophisticated great power in this alternate 20th century.

Throughout the novel, hints are dropped as to how the timeline differs from our own, though often from the perspective of Aztec officials with an accompanying spin. The Aztec Empire adopts Christianity in the seventeenth century; an Anglo-French alliance led by Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and Andrew Jackson temporarily halts Aztec expansion in North America with a victory at New Orleans in 1815. India and South Africa are claimed to have 'welcomed' the Aztecs' takeover of their nations from the hated British Empire; Queen Victoria is mentioned as having been assassinated in 1893, and the Caribbean is stated to have fallen in the early 1900s.

Towards the end, a stalemate with the Russian Empire is broken when, in response to Russian use of an experimental nuclear mine, the Aztecs deploy an orbital laser and destroy the city of Rzhev; by analogy with the atomic bombings of Japan at the end of the Second World War, Russia surrenders in the face of a weapon it cannot counter. Finally the last remaining resistance to the Aztecs' hegemonic rule over the Earth is removed in a war between the Empire and an alliance of North American states, named as New England, Canada and the Sioux Confederacy. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken MacLeod</span> Scottish science fiction writer

Kenneth Macrae MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels The Sky Road and The Night Sessions won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell Memorial awards for best novel on multiple occasions. A techno-utopianist, MacLeod's work makes frequent use of libertarian socialist themes; he is a three-time winner of the libertarian Prometheus Award. Prior to becoming a novelist, MacLeod studied biology and worked as a computer programmer. He sits on the advisory board of the Edinburgh Science Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul J. McAuley</span> British botanist and science fiction author (born 1955)

Paul J. McAuley is a British botanist and science fiction author. A biologist by training, McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction. His novels dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternative history/alternative reality, and space travel.

<i>The Domination</i> Known as The domination of Draka Dystopian alternate history series by S. M. Stirling.

The Domination of the Draka is a dystopian science fiction alternate history series by American author S. M. Stirling.

<i>The Two Georges</i> 1995 novel by Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfuss

The Two Georges is an alternate history and detective thriller novel co-written by science fiction author Harry Turtledove and Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss. It was originally published in 1995 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom, and in 1996 by Tor Books in the United States, and was nominated for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Priest (novelist)</span> British author

Christopher Priest is a British novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, The Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige, and The Separation.

Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Courtenay Grimwood</span>

Jon Courtenay Grimwood is a Maltese born British science fiction and fantasy author. He also writes literary fiction as Jonathan Grimwood, and crime fiction and thrillers as Jack Grimwood.

The Arabesk trilogy is a sequence of alternate history novels by the British author Jon Courtenay Grimwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Watson (author)</span> British science fiction writer (born 1943)

Ian Watson is a British science fiction writer. He lives in Gijón, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Holdstock</span> British fantasy and science fiction author (1948–2009)

Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavie Tidhar</span> Israeli writer

Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar lives in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.

<i>The Separation</i> (Priest novel) 2002 Christopher Priest novel

The Separation is a novel by British writer Christopher Priest, published in 2002. It is an alternate history revolving around the experiences of identical twin brothers during the Second World War, during which one becomes a pilot for the RAF, and the other, a conscientious objector, becomes an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. The author introduces a deliberate confusion by giving these brothers identical initials – J.L. Sawyer – one known as Jack and the other as Joe.

Christopher D. Evans is a British science fiction writer and children's author. His novels include Capella's Golden Eyes (1980); The Insider (1981); Mortal Remains (1995); and Ice Tower (2000). He is the co-editor of three original SF anthologies, Other Edens (1987); Other Edens II (1988); and Other Edens III (1989).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Edwards</span>

Malcolm John Edwards is a British editor and critic in the science fiction field. An alumnus of The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, he received his degree from the University of Cambridge. He was Deputy CEO at the Orion Publishing Group up until 2015, when he stepped down to become the chairman of science fiction publishing house Gollancz. Edwards lives in London with his wife, the CEO of a public relations company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliette de Bodard</span> French-American speculative fiction writer

Aliette de Bodard is a French-American speculative fiction writer.

The BSFA Awards are given every year by the British Science Fiction Association. The BSFA Award for Best Artwork is open to any artwork with speculative themes that first appeared in the previous year. Provided the artwork hasn't been published before it doesn't matter where it appears. The ceremonies are named after the year that the eligible works were published, despite the awards being given out in the next year.

<i>The Gate of Worlds</i> 1967 alternate history novel by Robert Silverberg

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.

<i>The Crystal Empire</i> (novel)

The Crystal Empire is a 1986 novel by American science fiction and alternate history writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate universe that shares with Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, Robert Silverberg's The Gate of Worlds and Harry Turtledove's In High Places a point of divergence where the Black Death kills much more of Europe's population than it did in reality, opening the way for a Muslim conquest of Europe. The plague also decimates the Mongol Empire, allowing a Mughal power to arise in the Far East in its place.

Bibliography of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction and nonfiction writer Harry Turtledove:

References

  1. "BSFA Awards. Previous award winners". BSFA.
  2. Christopher Evans, 'Aztec Century' (Gollancz, 1993).