Pavane is an alternate history collection of short stories set in the same setting by Keith Roberts, with the POD being Elizabeth I's assassination in 1588 leading to England's conquest by the Spanish Armada, the total defeat of Protestantism in Europe, and the Catholic Church holding sway over a Western world that remains under feudal and predindustrial conditions. Australasia has been discovered and steam locomotives exist but other technology such as electricity and internal combustion engines remain suppressed by the Catholic Church. There are some odd, not terribly plausible elements in this alternate history, with feudalism not only remaining in power but in some ways being even stronger than in the 16th Century. A past English monarch has even imposed different languages on different classes with the aristocracy switching back to Norman French and cities have Latin names such as Londinium and Dunrovia. There is relatively little AH content, especially on conditions outside of England, and at times the work feels more like steampunk fantasy, an impression reinforced by the presence of the "Old People" (fairies) who make an appearance from time to time in the short stories.
Has anyone else read the novel? Ian Montgomerie did a review some 20 years ago and non-AH genre writers such as George RR Martin also have a high view of the book.
The Coda at the end reveals that the Catholic Church has been suppressing technology due to knowing that there was a nuclear war that annihilated humanity in our world and the current timeline is a universe subsequent to ours, something which the fairies are also aware of. This raises the question of whether the work even counts as alternate history at all. At any rate, technology has apparently from quasi-medieval conditions to semi-futuristic in the space of a generation with hovercrafts and nuclear fusion.
Has anyone else read the novel? Ian Montgomerie did a review some 20 years ago and non-AH genre writers such as George RR Martin also have a high view of the book.
