#35. PAVANE By Keith Roberts

Published : 1966
Pages : 279
Overall Mark : 7/10

1588: Queen Elizabeth is felled by an assassin's bullet. Within the week, the Spanish Armada had set sail, and its victory changed the course of history.
1968: England is still dominated by the Church of Rome. There are no telephones, no television, no nuclear power. As Catholicism and the Inquisition tighten their grip, rebellion is growing.

KEITH ROBERTS (1935-)
An influential figure in British science fiction both as writer and illustrator, Roberts published his first stories in 1964. He was for a while editor of the SF magazine Impulse, and painted covers for it and for its companion title, New Worlds. His other novels include The Furies, The Chalk Giants and Kiteworld.

VERDICT
This is not the best alternate history novel I've read, but it has its merits. The background as to why the world is how it is is detailed, and the series of short stories add up to a pretty good view of the imagined world of the author. Unfortunately the stories aren't consistently good, and the final chapter seemed, in some sense, to spoil what had come before. This is interesting, but there are better books out there.