2019 Dragon Award Finalist, Best Alt History: "Black Chamber"

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For a condensed version of this review, check out my Goodreads post. I'll also submit the shorter version to Amazon.

Greetings to all my internet friends and neighbors, and for those of you who are counting down with me to the Dragon Awards, after this one gets posted, there are only THREE BOOKS LEFT, and 2.1692261574 days left before the midnight deadline. And to any of my family checking in, THANK YOU for the recipe for the Alfredo sauce! It was just as easy as you said, and it was a BIG hit!

This was the very first book review of a book I didn't read in the Kindle version. For this book, and the next three I'm reviewing, the  paperback was cheaper than the e-book. That makes ZERO sense to me.

Out of the 24 books in the four categories I'm reviewing, one was too expensive in ANY format. The people who make the decisions for that book decided that the value of that particular book was at least $15; I disagree. Isn't America GREAT? We get to disagree on the value of a thing! But at least, that makes SENSE. Pricing an e-book higher than a physical copy? I don't get it.

S. M. Stirling has co-written some of the books that helped me hang on, during that long, bleak period when it seemed NOTHING was being written that I liked to read. In fact, it was with the discovery of some books he co-wrote with Jerry Pournelle and David Drake that I discovered there was something new going on, and that all science fiction was no longer incoherent snapping at our own flesh. Thus, I am pre-disposed to look favorably on something he writes, although I couldn't really say he is well-represented in my library. I'm not sure of the reasons why.

At any rate, I was glad to see his name as one of the authors with a book among the finalists for the 2019 Dragon Awards. The category makes a lot of sense to me as well; even though I think I only read one of the volumes, his “Draka” series was Alternate History, so I knew he had some experience with it.

Refreshingly for a book in this category, we are immediately informed of the point of deviation from out timeline. It takes place on May 25, 1912, when incumbent president William Howard Taft dies of a heart attack, leaving the Republican field open to challenger Roosevelt. In our timeline, Taft lived to run, and Roosevelt took 27% of the vote, which allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected. This was the highest turn-out ever for any third-party candidate for the presidency, a result even the more remarkable in light of the assassination attempt on Roosevelt in October, when he took a  single .38 Special to the chest, and still gave the intended speech that evening.

With the progressive Roosevelt at the helm, US foreign policy was more assertive. The border raids in Mexico by bandit Pancho Villa were met with a full invasion, instead of the milder and ineffective punitive raids ordered by Wilson. As a result, Mexico loses sovereignty and becomes a protectorate of the US.

A survivor of the revolutionary banditry associated with the Mexican revolution, Luz O'Malley Arostegui joins an American special operatives group, known as the Black Chamber. Operatives are given training to engage in counter-intelligence work, and she is chosen to impersonate an Irish-Mexican-American (is that too many adjectives?) named Elisa Carmody de Soto-Dominguez, who has been captured while engaging in terrorist activities, and has probably died under interrogation. Fortunately, Luz bears some characteristics in common with Carmody.

Using that identity, and traveling in the guise of a wealthy socialite, Luz boards an airship to Europe, knowing only that she is to meet with a German agent on the trip, and the code name he is using.

And here, regrettably, we start running into some profound Mary-Sue territory, and whatever the male equivalent is called. And we never exit the territory, either.

Luz is the perfect example of female pulchritude, disguising a first-class brain (yawn), and furthermore, is skilled in all forms of combat, armed, unarmed, and stark naked. And her German agent is the perfect example of masculinity, disguising a first-class brain (another yawn) and is also, etc.

So, naturally, they start having sex with each other immediately, while on the airship.

I am SO tired of having to hear about other people's sex lives, and their sexual prowess, and their sexual preferences. I do understand that there are segments of the population that really enjoy that sort of thing. When I first discovered the original James Bond books, as they were still being written, I also took great interest in reading that sort of thing. However, I was 12 years old at the time. (WRONG!) 
Heck, yeah, reading about passionate kisses and embraces was exciting, because I was 12 years old at the time! ( Nope, that's not true. I just checked the dates, and I started reading them in 1963, when I was 10 years old. Sorry! )

Honestly, I'm asking myself now: is this book aimed at 12 year old boys? Because the plot is rather simplistic, in precisely the way that the 12 year old boy inside my brain likes them. The team Luz is a part of ALWAYS prevails, often at great peril, without sustaining any severe injuries. And they are always heroic beyond belief. And they are always lucky beyond belief.

Even the book points this out, as more than one observer says that if they had been told this by anyone else, they wouldn't believe it. And, as I reflect, I don't believe it, either.
If this IS a book aimed at 12-year-olds, well, shame on you. If not, could we PLEASE have more realistic characters next time? I really don't WANT the protagonist to be such a sex bomb that every male and female has uncontrollable lust for her, and when one male character doesn't,  she immediately concludes that he is gay, and outs him to his co-conspirators, as a clever part of her plan.

A small, insignificant, and perhaps mistaken point, concerning the use of the Thompson sub-machine gun in 1916.

First, I get it: this is alternate history. Second, this is alternate history with Teddy Roosevelt as the sitting president, and he is mobilizing the country for war in a way that Woodrow Wilson didn't. However, in OUR timeline, the Thompson wasn't even a thought problem until 1915, and it took until 1917 that a design was produced, with the first models not coming off the line before the war was over in 1918. However, in the novel, it's been in production long enough for the first design flaws to be rectified, and for enough production to be diverted from America to the Germans, that the raiders are equipped with them.

And Luz is highly proficient with one, as well. Sigh. Mary Sue.

Okay, that's not a deal-killer for me. I am willing to accept the idea that under Roosevelt, the design happens much earlier, and that it's Springfield Armory that produces them, and not Auto-Ordnance.

Still, in the end, the deal is killed. It's the combination of the Mary Sue nature of just about ALL of the characters, plus the pan-sexuality being trotted out all the time, that closes the door on this one.. It's really too bad, because I loved the concept.

As for The Question: Is “Black Chamber” a worthy choice for the 2019 Dragon Award in the category of Best Alternate History?

My opinion: no, for the reasons cited. It's a great concept, and yes, Taft was morbidly obese, and might very well have had a heart attack; and, if so, Roosevelt MIGHT have gotten the nomination. I'd like to believe he would have done all of the other wonderful things ascribed to him, and I enjoyed reading the what-ifs. I just needed a more realistic protagonist, and I DO wish we could permit everyone, even fictional characters, the right to privacy concerning who sticks what where.

Peace be on your household.