Agent of Byzantium

These stories are readable, and amiable enough, but I found them rather disappointing. Much of the time, I had the vague feeling that I was reading stories for children.

Perhaps the main problem is that they're so implausible. First, in almost every story someone invents something important, such as gunpowder, printing, or distillation. And our hero is right there discovering it before it becomes common knowledge—or even inventing it himself. Second, things work in the stories that probably wouldn't work in reality. They're unconvincing.

Characterization is more or less adequate, but patchy. Background is rather lightly sketched in, considering that Turtledove is supposed to be an expert on Byzantium.

The later stories in the book are a bit better than the earlier ones.

Turtledove is commonly described as “the master of alternate history”, but I haven't seen anything from him that justifies that title, and this book certainly doesn't.