1916. The Great War rages overseas, and the whole of Europe, Africa, and western Asia is falling to the Central Powers. To win a war that must be won, Teddy Roosevelt, once again the American president, turns to his top secret Black Chamber organization–and its cunning and deadly spy, Luz O’Malley Aróstegui. On a transatlantic airship voyage, Luz poses as an anti-American Mexican revolutionary to get close–very close–to a German agent code-named Imperial Sword. She’ll need every skill at her disposal to get him to trust her and lead her deep into enemy territory. In the mountains of Saxony, concealed from allied eyes, the German Reich’s plans for keeping the U.S. from entering the conflict are revealed: the deployment of a new diabolical weapon upon the shores of America…
I’ve always been a fan of speculative fiction. Behind Harry Turtledove, S. M. Stirling is my second favorite alternate history author. Black Chamber features a strong female protagonist in a World War I setting. Strong women in this era are fun to read, because although we know that these women had to exist in real life, there just aren’t a lot of stories about them.
S. M. Stirling is known for series without end, and I’ve already requested the next book in the Tales of the Black Chamber series on NetGalley. As I’ve come to expect with this author, the tale is full of adventure and there was obviously a lot of research for the telling of this gripping tale. Four starts, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one in 2019.
Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.
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