| Lest Darkness Fall | |
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First edition cover of Lest Darkness Fall |
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| Author(s) | L. Sprague de Camp |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Henry Holt and Company |
| Publication date | 1941 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 379 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by author L. Sprague de Camp. The book is often considered one of the best examples of the alternate history genre; it is certainly one of the most influential. Alternate history author Harry Turtledove has said it sparked his interest in the genre as well as his desire to study Byzantine history.[1]
Contents |
It was first published as a short story in Unknown #10, December 1939. It was published as a complete novel by Henry Holt and Company in 1941 and reprinted by both Galaxy Publishing and Prime Press in 1949. The first British edition was published in hardcover by Heinemann in 1955. The first paperback edition was published by Pyramid Books in February 1963 and reprinted in August 1969. A later paperback edition was issued by Ballantine Books in August 1974 and reprinted in 1975, 1979 and 1983; the Ballantine edition was also issued in hardcover by the Science Fiction Book Club in April 1979 and reprinted in 1996. The importance of the work was recognized by its inclusion in The Easton Press's The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1989.[2] The book has also been collected with David Drake's novella To Bring the Light in Lest Darkness Fall and To Bring The Light (Baen Books, 1996), with other works by de Camp in Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp (NESFA Press, 2005),[2] and with works by other authors in Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories (Arc Manor, 2011). An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.[3][4]
Lest Darkness Fall is written along lines similar to those of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. American archaeologist Martin Padway is visiting the Pantheon in Rome in 1938. A thunderstorm arrives, lightning cracks, and he finds himself transported to 6th century Rome (AD 535).
The period Padway arrives in is a rather obscure one: Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoths, who had recently overthrown the Western Roman Empire, but were (in de Camp's opinion anyway) ruling relatively benevolently, e.g. allowing freedom of religion. In real history, shortly after this the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire temporarily expanded westwards, and overthrew the Ostrogoths in Italy and the Vandals in north Africa, but they never consolidated their rule over Italy, and it collapsed into various small states with further invasions by the Lombards.
Padway begins his adventures confused, wondering if he is dreaming or delusional. Quickly he accepts his fate and sets out to survive. At first Padway hits upon the idea of making a copper still and selling brandy for a living. He convinces a banker, Thomasus the Syrian, to lend him money to start his endeavor, partially by teaching his clerks Arabic numerals.
Padway moves on to develop a printing press, issue newspapers, and build a sketchy semaphore telegraph system. His efforts to produce a mechanical clock, gunpowder, and a cannon are failures. Despite his technological and academic bent he becomes more involved in the politics of the state, as Italy is invaded by the Imperials and also threatened from the south and east.
Padway rescues the recently deposed Thiudahad and becomes his quaestor. He uses the king's support to gather forces to defeat the Imperial general Belisarius and then, deceiving the Dalmatian army, re-enthrones the largely senile Thiudahad and imprisons King Wittigis as a hostage. In 537, when Wittigis is killed and Thiudahad reduced to madness, Padway has a protégé of his married to Mathaswentha and then created king of the Ostrogoths. He also tricks Justinian I into releasing Belisarius from his oath of allegiance and quickly enlists the military genius to command an army against the Franks.
The landing of an Imperial army at Vibo and a rebellion led by the son of Thiudahad threaten the Ostrogothic kingdom and the Ostrogoth army is destroyed at Crathis Valley. Padway assembles a new force, distributes an "emancipation proclamation" to the Italian serfs, and recalls Belisarius. The armies clash near Calatia and then Benevento. Despite the lethal indiscipline of his Gothic forces, some simple tactical tricks and the nick-of-time arrival of Belisarius secure Padway's victory.
At the end of the novel Padway has stabilised the Italo-Gothic kingdom, introduced a constitution, arranged the end of serfdom, liberated the Burgunds, is having boats built for an Atlantic expedition (Padway wants tobacco) and he has entered negotiations with the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula.
Europe will not experience the Dark Ages due to Padway's actions; darkness will not fall.
A response to this story is "The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass" by Frederik Pohl, in which a man travels back to 1 BCE and teaches modern medicine, causing a population explosion. It ends with the fantastically overpopulated alternate timeline sending someone back to assassinate the title character, allowing darkness to fall for thankful billions. Another is Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early", a tale of an American airman sent by a storm to Saga Age Iceland ; his innovations fail.
A short story sequel to Lest Darkness Fall, "The Apotheosis of Martin Padway", authored by S. M. Stirling, appeared in Harry Turtledove's 2005 tribute anthology honoring L. Sprague de Camp, The Enchanter Completed. It provides interesting glimpses of what might have become of the reality Padway altered, both during his old age and a few hundred years later.
Another story inspired by Lest Darkness Fall is "To Bring The Light", by David Drake, published together with the original in one book by Baen in 1996. This story features Flavia Herosilla, a well educated woman living in ancient Rome at its height. Like Padway, she is sent back in time by a lightning strike, in her case to the era of Rome's beginnings around 751 BCE. Unlike Padway, who tries to change history, Flavia tries to recreate the founding of Rome based on the legends that she knows.
Jo Walton wrote: "In 1939, L. Sprague de Camp came up with one of the wonderful ideas of science fiction, the man taken out of his time to a time of lower technology ... As soon as Padway’s there, he puts his head down and starts to concentrate on what makes these books such fun—improvising technology from what he knows and can find around him. Padway starts with distilling and double-entry bookkeeping and makes his way up to newspapers and heliographs. ... The more you know history, the more you can see how clever the book is. ... De Camp was a historian of technology. His The Ancient Engineers (1963) is a Eurocentric but nevertheless fascinating non-fiction book." [5]
Boucher and McComas praised the novel as "a witty version of the Connecticut Yankee theme, distinguished by its lore of Gothic Rome."[6]