Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 2/18/2009 + 774 more book reviews

I'd always heard of Turtledove as a good writer of alternate history, but hadn't read anything by him until this book, which I picked up at random. Although nothing on the cover marks this as a YA novel, it definitely is - moreover, it's a YA novel written in an infuriatingly condescending, didactic style which assumes the reader knows nothing of the most basic concepts of history, and is incapable of looking things up or even understanding anything that isn't stated in simple, short words. Reading it, I felt like I had been stuck in some kind of remedial class!
The premise is that, in the near future, travel into alternate worlds has been discovered, and is being used for commerce - products are brought from the "alternates" by merchants who pose as local people. Due to a technical glitch (?) two teenage siblings are stranded without their merchant parents in a medieval-style Eastern European country (which, for some reason, hasn't progressed or changed since the days of the Roman Empire). and have to get through the situation on their own. Unfortunately, there's not really all that much to "get through." Some bureaucrats ask some questions, there's some suspicion - but nothing really happens. The two teenagers act and think in a ridiculously immature manner, and there wasn't really much of anything interesting or different about the world that they're stuck in.
Not at all recommended.

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