| The Gladiator | |
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| Author | Harry Turtledove |
| Language | English |
| Series | Crosstime Traffic |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction, Alternate history |
| Publisher | Tor |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Preceded by | The Disunited States of America |
| Followed by | The Valley-Westside War |
The Gladiator, Tor, 2007 is the fifth novel in Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic Series. (The title page mistakenly numbers it the fourth.) It is set in Milan, Italy in the year 2097 AD in an alternate where communism triumphed over capitalism in the Cold War. The book tied with Jo Walton's Ha'penny for the 2008 Prometheus Award.
Background[]
Unusually for this series, there is no POV from the home timeline to exposit the differences between "home" history and this alternate; therefore the Point of Divergence is left a bit vague. The earliest stated POD is the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States backed down, permitting the Soviet Union to maintain nuclear missiles in Cuba. This was the first signal that the US was not so resolute as it claimed. Subsequently, the US withdrew its forces from the Vietnam War in 1968. Gradually all of Asia fell to Communism. In Europe, popular fronts were built up between Democratic Socialists and hardline communists leading Europe and eventually North America to fall to Communism by the end of the 20th century. No details are given as to how this later, far reaching event took place.
However, while the Cuban Missile Crisis may be the relevant POD, Turtledove himself has admitted that it isn't necessarily the point of divergence.[1] A curious flourish of the alternate is that Soviet propaganda continues to hold Joseph Stalin in high esteem alongside Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. This suggests that either the de-Stalinization movement of the 1950s never happened, or one of Nikita Khrushchev's successors reversed this trend and rehabilitated Stalin's image.
While the US was eliminated as a contender for world power and completely subjugated, China remains an active rival, maintaining its own sphere of influence and effectively maintaining a new cold war with the USSR. The only specific detail given is activity of pro-Chinese guerrillas in Soviet-dominated Albania.
Plot[]
As with the previous Crosstime volumes, the story is told through the point of view of two young people, Gianfranco Mazzilli and Annarita Crosetti. The Crosetti and Mazzilli families share a kitchen and bathroom between their two apartments, a consequence of Communist living. Aside from this, the two have little in common. Annarita is the overachieving daughter of a doctor. Gianfranco is the underachieving son of a midlevel Party bureaucrat.
However, Gianfranco develops a passion for a game called Rails across Europe, available only at a gaming shop called The Gladiator. The game, with its capitalist overtones, helps Gianfranco with his studies. Annarita, as a member of the Young Socialists' League, investigates The Gladiator, and concludes it is ideologically sound. However, it is soon shut down by the Security Police. One clerk, Eduardo Caruso, escapes, and comes to the two for help. He reveals he is actually from a parallel universe where capitalism won the Cold War and communism is inconsequential. The two resolve to help him get home, while at the same time pondering what his revelations about his own world might mean for theirs.
Literary Comment[]
As previously stated, the lack of a home timeline POV leaves the alternate history world-building drawn in broader strokes than is usual for the series. Further muddying the waters is the fact what history we do get comes from in-universe communist propaganda, which is hardly an unbiased source.
Another new flourish in The Gladiator is that Crosstime Traffic is acting with something like an altruistic motive. Eduardo admits that most of the time, Crosstime travel is done for trading purposes, with the added mission of ensuring that other alternates do not discover the secret of crosstime. However, the communist alternate, with its limited technological development and its callous abuse of its own resources, is of little use to the home timeline. Thus, Crosstime decides to subtly introduce notions of capitalism to the populace, with the hope of building a freer and better world.
The two "local" POVs allows Turtledove to more closely examine how denizens of one alternate deal with the idea of an arguably better world, particularly when these denizens live in a system that preaches the inevitability of their own history. Gianfranco and Annarita have been taught all their lives that, per the writings of Marx, communism was/is destined to win in the long run. The idea that it hasn't in most alternates is initially astonishing. Turtledove then compares and contrasts Gianfranco and Annarita's respective reactions. Gianfranco enthusiastically embraces everything the home timeline seems to offer. Annarita still sees virtues in her own world, although she does long for the greater political freedoms the home timeline enjoys.
See Also[]
- "Powerless", set in a world where the Soviet Union appears to have won the Cold War. It does not seem to be set in the same continuity as The Gladiator.
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