Alan Smale grew up in Yorkshire, England, and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area. By day he works at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center as a professional astronomer, studying black holes, neutron stars, and other bizarre celestial objects. However, too many family vacations at Hadrian s Wall in his formative years plus a couple of degrees from Oxford took their toll, steering his writing toward alternate, secret, and generally twisted history. He has sold numerous short stories to magazines including Asimov s and Realms of Fantasy, and he won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History.
Just when it seems there is nothing new in [alternate] history comes this debut. Library Journal (starred review) An intriguingly original alternate history. Kirkus Reviews Authoritatively researched, compellingly told, and with pleasing echoes of L. Sprague de Camp, Clash of Eagles is a modern masterpiece of what-if speculation. Stephen Baxter, Philip K. Dick Award winning author of The Time Ships Alan Smale has done remarkable work with the world-building in Clash of Eagles, dropping the sole Roman survivor of a massacre into the complex civilization of the Cahokian Native Americans in the thirteenth century. Yet what follows is more than a standard clash of cultures yarn, for there are other forces in play in this alternate North America, and Marcellinus knows his imperial masters will send more legions to replace his lost men. Can the determination and ingenuity of one man change the fate of a continent? I m eager to find out. Harry Turtledove, New York Times bestselling author of How Few Remain My favorite kind of alternate history: epic, bloody, and hugely imaginative. John Birmingham, author of Without Warning Clash of Eagles is epic in its sweep, exciting in its narrative, and eyeball-kick sharp in its details. Nancy Kress, Nebula and Hugo Award winning author of Beggars in Spain From the Hardcover edition.