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Lest Darkness Fall (Gateway Essentials Book 58) by [L. Sprague deCamp]

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L. Sprague de Camp

Lest Darkness Fall (Gateway Essentials Book 58) Kindle Edition

by L. Sprague deCamp (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 114 ratings

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Against the Fall of Night

The Roman Empire had spread order, knowledge, and civilisation throughout the ancient world. When Rome fell, the light of reason flickered out across the Empire. The Dark Ages had begun; they would last a thousand years. Could a man from the 20th century prevent the fall of Rome? When lightening struck and he was hurled backward into the sixth century, the question became anything but academic to Martin Padway, but even forearmed with a knowledge of 20th century technology and of events to come, what could one man do? But Padway must try, lest darkness fall.

Print length

267 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Gateway
Publication date

29 Sept. 2011
File size

988 KB
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Christopher G. Nuttall
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005HRT8W2
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gateway (29 Sept. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 988 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 316,045 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 3,620 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 4,533 in Science Fiction Adventure (Kindle Store)
- 6,405 in Science Fiction Space Operas

Customer reviews:
4.1 114 ratings

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L. Sprague de Camp

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4.1 out of 5

114 global ratings

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Interested Person

An interesting and influential alternate history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2019

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The plot is simple: an archaeologist with expertise in Rome is transported back to the time of the Roman collapse, in which the ruling Goths are defeated in a destructive war that led to the European Dark Ages. Can he survive, and can he stop it?

The reason to read this book is the care and thought that has gone into it. Can the printing press be brought into the 6th century? Can gunpowder? Do they change the world? To what extent is technology key, compared to ideas and politics? Its visceral and thought provoking.

The reason to with old 5 stars is that this is clearly the focus. The story tends to "fast forward" through actual life. I would have appreciated more attention on living with 6th century morals, of the conversion you can and can't have, on life. This is all in regular historical fiction, so maybe... Go look there.

This is alternate history. You get something very different and interesting. Do try it!

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

An alternative past masterpiece!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2013

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I cannot believe that I am the first to review this great science fiction novel. In the forties it would certainly have been listed in the all time top ten. Unfortunately De Camp fell out of fashion and spent the rest of his very long career being published by the second and third rate SF magazines. Even more unfortunately he has only been sporadically published in Britain, and mostly that has been his superb fantasies. His SF has only really been available in import shops.

This is his masterpiece. An archaeology student called Martin Padway finds himself in the late Roman Empire-don't bother how he got there, it's not that sort of SF - and manages not only to survive but to reverse the fall of the Empire. Most of the key characters are historical, notably Belisarius, and the technology that Padway supplies makes all the difference to the success of the empire.

I won't describe the plot further. The importance of the work is the convincing nature of the changes that Padway stimulates. There are no Van Vogt super inventions, just a careful expansion of the technology that existed and an introduction of some later intellectual ideas. De Camp is one of the cleverest and most knowledgeable SF authors and always knew more about the topics he deals with than he lets out.

Read this, you'll love it, and you'll feel cleverer than you were before.

5 people found this helpful

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disappointing, after an intriguing start

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 June 2017

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Professor Martin Padway is an archaeologist and ancient historian visiting Rome. After a flash of lightning, he is transported back to 6th century Rome, at a time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when its carcass is being fought over by the Goths, who control Italy, and the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire, which nevertheless still calls itself Roman. After a promising start, as Martin tries to find his feet and get his head round the dramatic and unbelievable change in his circumstances, he decides to make it his mission to change history, so that the Roman Empire will not fall, and the darkness of the so called "dark ages" will not descend. So he proceeds to create the printing press, telegraphs, clocks, and so on, as well as military technology to protect the micro-world he is trying to create. In my view, the novel deteriorates as he becomes very powerful and is quickly effectively running the government and is mainly able to persuade people to support his technological endeavours, despite a couple of close scrapes earlier on. In this respect, the novel is rather like an updated Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The final part contains a lot of descriptions of battles, which I always find a bit tedious. In places, this is quite funny, but overall rather a disappointment.

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Kindle Customer

Standard stuff. Boring at times.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 March 2021

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This was so unmemorable that I find it difficult to even remember much about it. It was pretty standard fare for these things. Kept going to the end to see where it went but not the best type of this genre.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2016

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An amazing book. Read it years agao. One of the first fantasy books I read. Just as good now. Recommend it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 July 2018

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2015

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Excellent alternative history novel - shame it wasn't followed up with a sequel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 August 2014

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The author was well on form writing this book. Very good.

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L. Sprague de Camp

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