This is the closest I have seen of a modern thriller written by Harry Turtledove. You have two operatives sent from an advanced country to a land under siege by corruption, religious fanaticism, and leaders struggling to move their people forward into modern times while hanging onto their power. The twist is that the investigators are an Arab and a Jew sent from North Africa to Italy to aid the Pope and Grand Duke of Parma hang to power against the fanatical Aquinists. Turtledove switched the views of Thomas Aquinas and Al-Ghazali regarding reason and man's relation to God and then postulated how the world have developed. The background is interesting, but the tale is more pedestrian reeking of the standard thriller fare. Not the worst Turtledove I have read, but definitely not his best.

The civilised world has been rocked by a sudden surge of terrorism. Extremism has proliferated even in the countries in the shores of the Mediterranean, which are meant to be that bit more sophisticated than their hinterlands. Suicide bombers spread terror in the streets of previously buzzing cities. Ashen-faced religious leaders condemn horrific acts committed in the name of their faith. Sound familiar? But this isn't the world as we know it. Harry Turtledove takes us into an alternate reality in which Islam, not Christianity, became the dominant religion of the world in the medieval period. Now, progressive, modern and comfortable Muslim nations look warily at their Christian neighbours, and two brilliant investigators are dispatched to the dangerous streets of Italy in an effort to nip the terrorist threat of the Aquinists in the bud.

Khalid al-Zarzisi and his investigative partner Dawud ibn Musa differ in many things. Khalid is Muslim; Dawud is a Jew. Khalid is suave and urbane; Dawud gives the impression of cheerful chaos. Khalid is divorced; Dawud is happily married. But they share a deep concern to stamp out the wave of extremism which promises to burst out of Europe and sweep across the whole Muslim world. The question is, how? As representatives of the Maghrib - the Islamic commonwealth - Khalid and Dawud have been sent to discreetly find out how matters lie. Does the Pope, Italy's spiritual master, have any sympathy with the Aquinists? What's the attitude of Grand Duke Cosimo, the peninsula's secular ruler? How can the Maghrib stop the Aquinist terrorists from destabilising the current, liberal, secular regime and potentially opening the gates for a new religious ruler who will drag Italy back into the Jahiliyah - the time of ignorance?

While this is a thriller - a race against time to foil the Aquinists' information network and to prevent too many further atrocities - you get the feeling that Turtledove isn't really interested in the action so much as the concept. The tension is cranked up, only to fade away in the course of a rather abrupt and tidy ending. But the world-building is superb. The book is essentially a study of what the world would be like if Islam had grown to dominate, rather than Christianity. The intellectual advances of Muslim scholars in the medieval period would have advanced; the world would use Classical Arabic, not English, as its lingua franca; the international style wouldn't be business suits, but robes and keffiyehs. America ('the Sunset Lands') would have been conquered by Muslim, not Christian, forces (leading to names such as 'Arkansistan', which made me smile). Muslim women are liberated, treated as equals, given full opportunities, while Christian women struggle to make their voices heard in a faith which has made little progress since the medieval period. 

So much emphasis is placed - subtly and not so subtly - upon this exchange that it can be difficult to follow the story through it. I found it very engaging as an intellectual experiment but perhaps less so as a novel. Like all spy stories, there's a mole who must be winkled out; a wisecracking sidekick; a swift and unconvincing romance with a stock smart-but-beautiful woman. Yet Khalid and Dawud, in particular, are warm and rounded characters whom you do feel that you've grown to know, even if the peripheral cast members remain somewhat two-dimensional. I wouldn't be averse to reading more about them in the future. And I enjoyed reading a book in which Islam is shown as the religion of peace and process and scholarship - which was the case for so many centuries - and in which we're shown that, had the world been only a very little different, Christianity might have generated exactly the same divisions, resentments and violence that we now associate with Islamic extremism. Is this 'message fiction'? Well, yes, I think it probably is. But it works.

I have three volumes of Turtledove's Misplaced Legion series on my TBR pile, though these are closer to fantasy than the alternate reality covered here (I believe?). Yet I know he's written other novels which experiment with similar historical 'what-ifs' - I think there are some novels exploring what would have happened if Byzantium hadn't fallen, for example. These questions can be fascinating, and I enjoyed this book for its thought-provoking gusto, even if I  did sometimes wish that the story itself had felt a little stronger. In a world where, increasingly, we come to fear what is different for no good reason - other than it is different - Turtledove's novel is a timely reminder that the world can be very different in its fundamental basis and yet remain, tragically, or reassuringly, very recognisable. A clever and worthwhile book.

For the review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/10/19/through-darkest-europe-harry-turtledove/

"Through Darkest Europe" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by Harry Turtledove (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove). Mr. Turtledove has published in excess of 100 novels. 

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Situations. The story is set in Europe, but not the Europe that we know. In this alternate history, Europe has fallen into a very dark age. 

In this world, Saint Thomas Aquinas back in the 13th century had written the Summa Theologica, a book which concluded that studying science corrupted religion because it reduced man's faith in God's omnipotence and omniscience. The intellectual pursuits of Christiandom have languished since that time. Nearly a century and a half earlier, the Muslim philosopher al-Ghazali had looked into the same issue but had come up with an entirely different opinion. To him, the more that man learned, the better he can glorify God. This resulted in the Muslim world advancing in science and technology, while Europe fell farther and farther behind. 

Now investigators Khalid al-Zarzisi and Dawud ibn Musa have been sent from Tunisia to Rome. Their mission is to do what they can to protect the Pope and the Grand Duke of Italy. The Maghrib, from whence al-Zarzisi and Musa come, does not want the Roman Grand Dutchy destabilized. There is a powerful underground Christian movement in Europe, The Aquinists. The Aquinists have 'seminaries' all over Europe for 'educating' the young men to strike out against the local governments as well as Muslim interests. Their goal is to turn the world back. To make the world over in their view of how people should live. 

As foreigners, al-Zarzisi and Musa have no authority, they can only advise. They work closely with Italian police and find themselves more than once in the way of the Christian terrorists. Al-Zarzisi unexpectedly finds himself attracted to a Christian woman, Annarita Pezzola. As they continue their work, it becomes obvious that there is someone close to them that is working with the Aquinists. Is it Pezzola or someone within the Italian Ministry of Information. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 9.5+ hours I spent reading this 320-page alternate history. The world this novel is set in is a complete reversal of what we see. The Muslim nations are democratic and lead the world in education and scientific discovery. Europe has changed little in decades. The Europeans suffer from much unrest and poverty among the common people. The Aquinists take advantage of this and recruit young men and women as soldiers who are willing to die for their cause and achieve heaven. The story starts a little abruptly and is a little slow. I like the characters of al-Zarzisi and Musa. The fact that al-Zarzisi is Muslim and Musa a Jew puts another spin on things. I also like the whole 'world-flipped-upside-down' premise for the novel. I think that the cover art is well chosen. I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

I've been reading Harry Turtledove for more than two decades, starting with "Guns of the South." I consider him one of the greatest authors of alternate history novels. His latest work, "Through Darkest Europe" certainly does not disappoint.

Turtledove uses this novel to hold up a mirror to the contemporary religious and cultural clash between Islam and Christianity. He envisions a world where Islam is ascendant and Christianity (as well as Judaism) have been marginalized. In a striking parallel to our own world, Islam of "Through Darkest Europe" has become increasingly tolerant, modern, and accommodating. It's not unusual to see Muslims casually drinking alcohol in European restaurants or (in extreme cases) consuming pork. In contrast, the Christianity of this alternative world has become increasingly militant and fundamentalist. The book centers around two investigators from Tunis (one a semi-observant Muslim and the other a non-observant Jew) who are investigating the "Auquinists" - a radical Christian terrorist organization founded on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Turtledove has created yet another alternate version of our current reality - one that is utterly believable and populated with characters who are nuanced rather than caricatures of their cultures and ideologies.

Normally a Turtledove book excites great anticipation. Alternative histories allow the author great latitude to devolp the story. This book describes how the great religions could have been. Unfortunately I could not stay interested with the plodding dialogue and slow moving action. The two investigators did not do any investigating.