★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended
(Time Travel) A 1950s semi-pro baseball team loses their way in Illinois one dark night and find themselves in ancient Rome, where the empress wants them to play—for higher stakes than usual. (33,243 words; Time: 1h:50m)
If you really like baseball this may be a much better story for you
"The Wandering Warriors," by Rick Wilber [bio] and Alan Smale [bio] (edited by Sheila Williams), appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction issue 05-06|18, published on April 19, 2018 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The professor gets them out of their predicament, Quentin plays the game of his life, and Julia Domna escapes alive and finds a career in the 20th Century as a baseball player.
Con: Baseball bores me to tears, and I found I couldn’t believe a crowd of Romans would sit still to watch it. Nor that a Roman Emperor—much less Caracalla—would participate in it. I simply couldn’t sustain disbelief, and between those two problems, it was a long, unpleasant read for me.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 05-06|18)
Rick Wilber Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Alan Smale Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Con: Baseball bores me to tears, and I found I couldn’t believe a crowd of Romans would sit still to watch it. Nor that a Roman Emperor—much less Caracalla—would participate in it. I simply couldn’t sustain disbelief, and between those two problems, it was a long, unpleasant read for me.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 05-06|18)
Rick Wilber Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Alan Smale Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I agree with you about the baseball element of the story being an odd choice for ancient Rome, but what I really liked about this story, and what kept me reading it, was the dynamic of the baseball team itself. I also really liked the setting of the story in the 1940s during WWII, which I felt added a deeper layer of meaning.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure it was in the 1940s? I thought it was the 1950s.
DeleteI liked the dynamic of the baseball team too, plus I liked the way they interacted with the gladiators. My problem was just that every few pages, I'd go "No way would this happen!" at one thing or another.