Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes

Steven Barnes uses the alternative history novel as a way to explore issues of race, slavery and liberty in this imaginative and well written novel. I always love to find a good new writer and it is especially good to find someone in my favorite region of the country, the Pacific Northwest. Barnes lives in Longview, WA. Just up the road from Portland.

Barnes creates a world in which Socrates escaped to Egypt in 400 BC instead of drinking hemlock. This leads to a rebirth of Egyptian culture. Barnes stretches the rules slightly by having Alexander survive his conquests and become Pharaoh of Egypt, but I won’t quibble.

The story begins in the mid-nineteenth century. Abyssinia and Egypt rule the world in grand imperial style. Europe is the dark continent where civilization never really got a foothold.

North America is dominated by the Aztec Empire in the southwest, the Egyptian colony of New Alexandria on the east coast and Abyssinian New Djibouti on the Gulf coast. The Viking colony of Vineland dominates the St Lawrence River and supplies European slaves to the aristocratic African colonists.

The story follows the life of Aidan O’Dere son of the chieftain of an Irish fishing village. At the age of ten, Aidan is kidnapped along with his mother and his sister by Viking slave-traders.

Aidan and his mother are sold into the service of the Wakil of New Djibouti. The Wakil is liberal on the “slave question” allowing his slaves to keep the remnants of their culture and religion. He is also a conservative advocate of independence from Abyssinia. Aidan becomes the personal servant of the Wakil’s 10-year-old son, Kai.

Aidan and Kai grow to manhood together and develop a deep, brotherly relationship, which is highly complicated by its master-slave nature. As young men their friendship is forged in the fire of war with the Aztecs and battle at the distant mosque Al-Amu.

What I loved about this story is that you come to really care for the characters. In some ways this is an inverted Gone With the Wind. By the end of the book the ante-bellum generation is gone and the next generation has inherited the shambles left to them.

Steven Barnes has the added benefit of being a good teacher. Along the way I learned quite a bit about African history and culture and Islam. There is at least one more book in this series, you can bet I will be tracking it down.

Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
Zulu Heart by Steven Barnes