The Crystal Empire (novel)

The Crystal Empire is a 1986 novel by American science fiction and alternate history writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate universe that shares some elements with Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt – the point of divergence being that the Black Death kills much more of Europe's population than it did in reality, opening the way for a Muslim conquest of Europe. The plague also decimates the Mongol Empire, allowing a Mughal power to arise in the Far East in its place.

The Crystal Empire
Cover of the first edition
AuthorL. Neil Smith
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreAlternate history
Published1986
Media typePrint (paperback)

Plot summary

Sedrich Sedrichsohn is an outcast from a small community of Europeans who have fled the twin dangers of the plague and the Muslim invaders and established a colony on the East Coast of North America, practising a cult derived both from Christianity and Wiccan beliefs. Among their tenets are the belief that Christ continues to suffer in Hell until the Last Judgement, and also the placing of blame for the plague on the use of forbidden technologies such as gunpowder.[1] Journeying across the continent, Sedrichsohn eventually comes across a Sino-Aztec kingdom in the West, the Crystal Empire of the 'Han-Meshika', formed by the synthesis of Chinese refugees from the plague with the native Aztec civilisation. This immensely technologically advanced power derives its scientific advantage from the use of psychic 'Dreamers' who, in a large facility on the equivalent of our world's Alcatraz Island, provide the Crystal Empire with glimpses of alternate universes and thereby stimulate its science (one example given is the adoption of the electric light-bulb as a consequence of a Dreamer's vision).[2]

Reception

The Crystal Empire was a finalist for the 1987 Prometheus Award.[3]

Kirkus Reviews found it to be "impressively imagined but overambitious" and "(c)urious but uncompelling", faulting Smith for his "clotted writing" and "hard-to-visualize exposition."[4] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction called it "somewhat confused".[5]

gollark: You've all seen mine, I think, apart from the bit I painted the antimemes over.
gollark: GANs have come a long way.
gollark: Olivia glasses reveal?!
gollark: The code is overly generalised and so impossible to work on.
gollark: Or you can make it directly use APIONET.

See also

References
  1. L Neil Smith, 'The Crystal Empire', Grafton, 1986, p51.
  2. Smith, p461.
  3. "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1987 Prometheus Awards". Locus. Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  4. The Crystal Empire, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published September 22, 1986; retrieved August 19, 2018
  5. Neal Tringham and John Clute. "Smith, L Neil". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. London: Gollancz, updated 10 August 2018. Web. Accessed 19 August 2018. <http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/smith_l_neil>.



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