In High Places (Crosstime Traffic) [Hardcover]

In High Places (2006) is the third novel in the Crosstime Traffic series, following Curious Notions. Annette Klein has spent the past year as Khadija, a muslim girl, in an alternate timeline. She is presently living with her parents in Paris within the Kingdom of Versailles, but will soon be returning to Marseilles and then to her home timeline. She is very happy to be returning to civilization.

In this novel, Jacques is a guardsman in the service of Duke Raoul. Jacques has met the Kleins in their identity of Muhammad al-Marsawi and family and was attracted by Annette, although the robe and veil hid all but her hands and eyes. He though she was about his own age, but he couldn't really be certain. Muhammad had aroused Duke Raoul's curiosity for various reasons, including his perfect Parisian accent; now Jacques is working as a caravan guard while spying on Annette's family.

South of Grenoble, brigands ambush the caravan, taking captives and looting the pack animals. Annette reacts to a lunging attack with a Judo throw and also to the next and the next, but then somebody hits her on the side of the head and she goes down. After another blow to the head, she loses consciousness. Jacques is shot in the leg as he runs back to the Kleins and then surrenders to the brigands.

When Annette regains consciousness, she finds that Jacques is still with her on their way to Madrid. But her parents had been taken to Marseilles. Arriving in Madrid, they are both sold to the same master and follow him to a compound within the city.

That evening they are taken down to a subcellar, placed against the wall, and see a silvery box suddenly appear in the center of the chamber. Annette immediately recognizes the box as a transposition chamber and knows that the slavers have access to crosstime technology. Soon she realizes that the technology must have been acquired within her own homeline; someone in Crosstime Traffic is running the whole show.

This novel portrays the ultimate nightmare of the Crosstime Secret: rogue employees using alternate timelines to act out their own frustrated perversions. The outlaws have taken slaves from various timelines and used them like animals. Even worse, some people have paid to be treated as such slaves, abused and beaten into submission. Of course, none of the paying customers are intentionally killed, but nothing keeps the guards from killing the real slaves.

This subject is addressed in Piper's Paratime series, but never covered to this extent. The characterization is much better developed herein, particularly among the technologically primitive slaves. Also, Annette and Jacques learn much about themselves and their cultures from such close contact with both the slavers and the slaves.

One of the things that Annette learns is the need for slaves (or the equivalent) in low technology cultures. All kinds of necessary work must be done by unwilling individuals if labor saving machines are not available. Insofar as the reviewer is aware, such work was performed involuntarily in all such low technology cultures, from the Norse thralls to the Chinese peasants. Such servitude -- from indentured servants to chattel slaves -- was common into the nineteenth century and, despite all efforts to eradicate it, still occurs elsewhere in the world.

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure and alien cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is the third installment of Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series. These stories are based on a concept developed by the late and highly lamented science fiction writer H. Beam Piper: that numerous alternate worlds exist alongside our own, each different due to various "breakpoints" which occurred at various points in their histories. Thus Turtledove's first volume concerned a world in which the Roman Empire survived into the twenty-first century, his second was set in San Francisco in a world in which Germany won World War I, and now his third is the most ambitious yet.

The Kingdom of Versailles lies in what was once northern France, before the Black Death destroyed the vast majority of Europe's population in the 1300s (in our world the Plague killed off "only" one-third of the Europeans). In the aftermath of the Plague a new variety of Christianity emerged centered on the worship of Henri, God's Second Son. Now, nearly seven hundred years later, Versailles lies on the border between the Christian regions of Northern Europe and the expanding Muslim world to the south.

The story centers around young Jacques, a native-born citizen of Versailles, and Khadija, seemingly the daughter of a Muslim merchant,but actually Annette Klein from the "home time line" i.e. the "real world" of the late 21st century where time travel was discovered and Crosstime Traffic has become a stupendously wealthy corporation dealing in trade between the many alternate worlds.

Annette and her family have been spending some time in Versailles but are preparing to return to the home time line. Jacques is one of the guards of the caravan which is escorting the Kleins to the transposition chamber which takes them from world to world. Suddenly, the caravan is attacked by slavers, and Annette and Jacques are separated from her family. Ensuing events are exciting and well told, with some interesting plot twists and a satisfactory outcome.

All of Turtledove's stories in this series have teenage protagonists and are meant to be not only exciting but also morally instructive. Here the subtext of opposition to slavery is a bit obvious, but it nevertheless bears repetition. I hope there will be many more installments to come, and I only wish I could sign on to work at Crosstime Traffic myself!

A few years ago, Turtledove discovered a curious omission in the science fiction market. Few major, living writers were targeting the juvenile market with new works, with the possible exception of Andre Norton. And in her case, arguably her best novels for young readers were written decades ago. While her recent productivity had fallen, due to age constraints. [She died in 2005.]

Turtledove is a smart bloke. So just as he made himself associated closely with the alternate history genre, he attempted to do likewise with juvenile science fiction. The latest result is this book, the third in his Crosstime Traffic series. Continuing the custom in the earlier books, he chooses a teenage protagonist. A different one from those earlier. This time, she is a 21st century Jewish girl, pretending to be a pious Muslim in an alternity where Europe was devastated by multiple Black Deaths, and Muslims conquered much of southern Europe. Plus, the Industrial Reformation never happened.

The result is a world stuck in the Middle Ages. Backward and squalid. Turtledove cleverly reveals piquant insights into this. As having a character refusing a drink of water. Because of the lack of sanitation, water is often sewage contaminated. Beer in fact is far safer.

While our timeline is shown as importing some food from this alternity, it is not a major factor in the plot. Unlike the second book. Perhaps Turtledove is implicitly acknowledging that our timeline's need for food could be easily met by farming unpopulated Earths. Or more prosaically, the agricultural productivity of this alternity is so low that a trade in food is not significant. I cannot tell from the text which reason it is, though I suspect it is one or both of these.

The plot lacks a certain tautness. Yes, it is an adventure novel. But you'd never confuse the level of action in it with, say, Stirling's Nantucket series.

The plot also has the heroine captured and sold into slavery. This lets Turtledove explore for the sake of the reader the iniquities of slavery, and the contrast between modern and past viewpoints. But probably because of the young audience, the details about the violence inherent in slavery are minimised. Nothing too graphic. In related wise, the rapes of female slaves by male slaveowners is mentioned in an en passant fashion. Nor does this happen to the heroine. No salacious descriptions. A thoroughly G-rated book.