by L. Sprague de Camp
I first read L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall nearly 15 years ago, and I've reread it dozens of times since then. It's one of my all-time favorite novels, and as I reread it again I thought about why I regard it so. Probably the first reason is that it's a novel about time travel, one of my...
A historian, Martin Padway, is transported to Rome of 500AD and proceeds to introduce inventions (like the printing press, Arabic numerals) and innovations to prevent the Fall of Rome and the inception of the Dark Ages. This is an engaging mixture of time-travel and alternate history--in fact, given...
De Camp's attempt at a more technologically accurate version of Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A 20th century American engineer is transported back in time and he decides to try to prevent the Dark Ages from happening by introducing modern technology into the medieval world.
This was one of my favorite books as a child. It quite possibly was a major influence on my subsequent undergraduate and post-graduate careers since it powerfully motivated me to learn all I could about the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines & the historical figures that litter the novel.It didn't hurt that...
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