New World Order: Two Worlds, One Order

Ben Jeapes is the author of The Xenocide Mission, The Ark, Winged Chariot, and 18 short stories, most of which can be found at his Web site: www.sff.net/people/ben-jeapes. He lives in Oxfordshire, England.
From the Hardcover edition.

Grade 7 Up–This historical science-fiction novel opens on a May afternoon in 1645. The bloody civil war between King Charles I and Parliament is wreaking havoc on England. John Donder, a war-weary general traveling incognito, returns to the village where he was fostered as a young man and where he unknowingly left behind a son. The pair quickly become allies in a political landscape of warring armies, guerilla warfare, and dubious alliances. The stakes, of course, are nothing less than history as we know it. The two befriend Charles I and his son and ultimately make common cause with Oliver Cromwell, for John Donder is neither Loyalist nor Parliamentarian. His true identity is Holekhor and he has come from a parallel universe that enjoys technological advances not yet known in the 17th century. He heads an alien invasion that will make Britain a tribute colony subject to exploitation by the greedy Holekhor overlord. This colonizer/colonized reversal is the central conceit of the book and its most intriguing feature; John Donder and his son, with their divided loyalties, sit uncomfortably at the crux of it. The rest–invaders with machine guns and dirigiblelike warships, train derailments, mastodons outfitted for war, betrayal in high places, and the awful stench of battle–have all been seen before. Enjoyment of the alternative-history elements requires some prior knowledge of the period. This fast-paced adventure will appeal to action-oriented readers who may skip over the Royalist/Roundhead intrigue to get to the big explosion that conveniently cuts England–and John Donder and his son–free of Holekhor rule.–Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
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