I picked this out of the to-be-read pile because it's specifically name-checked in the "SF and the History of Science" panel description on my Boskone schedule. I figure it's pretty likely to get brought up, and since we had a copy lying around, I might as well actually read it so as to be able to say something intelligent about it.
Lest Darkness Fall is the story of archeology student Martin Padway, who gets struck by lightning, and wakes up to find himself in sixth-century Rome. Armed with a slightly improbable level of knowledge regarding ancient history, society, and culture, he sets out to prevent the collapse of civilization by introducing modern ideas and technologies.
I was a little surprised to learn just how old this is-- the original copyright is 1939. It's been around for a long time, and is much beloved and often referenced by SF fans.
It's also one of those "Golden Age" classics that really needs to be read at the age of twelve.
Don't get me wrong-- it's a fun story in many ways, and has some clever bits. It's really not much of a novel, though. There isn't the slightest hint of an attempt at psychological depth or realism, the characters are all paper-thin (and many of the supporting characters struggle to reach two-dimensionality), and the plot is little more than a sequence of thinly-connected events and anecdotes.
Of course, it's not trying to be Literary, but it's still a little hard for me to take seriously. It's a gadget story at its core, and the only real point to it seems to be letting de Camp have some fun thinking about changing history in a really shallow way. The changes Padway makes are relatively minor, and all come off with a kind of Gernsback Continuum smoothness-- there are no major negative side effects from the new technologies he invents, nothing sets in motion a chain of events leading to a really surprising result, and the token opposition provided by the locals always crumbles within a page or two.
It's sort of fun in the trashy way that really old SF tends to be, but I don't really think it offers deep insight into much of anything. I'll get a few more jokes by virtue of having read this, but other than that, it's not that spectacular. But then, I'm coming to it twnety-three years too late...
Comments
# 1 | Simple Country Physicist | January 25, 2007 8:41 AM
Have the currents of the interrelationship between politics and religion been removed? Of the comparison between Goth and Fascist politics? There is a lot of depth in Sprague De Camp's writings, but it is hidden in subtlety, which seems to be a capacity missing in or ignored by modern authors.
# 2 | FS | April 13, 2007 9:46 PM
Agreed, Chad. Too many places where a plot point that should have taken at least a few pages to develop is summarized in a sentence. Modern books are often too fat, but this one could have usefully been double the size.