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Time sweep- near east

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Kveto from Prague
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Time sweep- near east

Post by Kveto from Prague » Tue April 6th, 2010, 4:58 pm

Does anyone know if theres a time sweep novel in mitchner fashion for the near east (near east, syria, palestine, jerusalum, oltremer, holy land, whatever you wanna call it)? It seems to me that area would lend itself to a timesweep more redily than any other place (phonecians, Isralites, Romans, Christians, byzantines, islam, crusades, turks, mamlukes, mongols, WWI, II, palestinians, modern Israel, etc.) it just seems ripe with possibilities. I only imagine it would prove almost imposible to fit everything in.

any examples out there?

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Ariadne
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Post by Ariadne » Tue April 6th, 2010, 5:54 pm

James Michener's The Source is set at various periods in history, the modern "frame" taking place at an archaeological dig in Israel.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Tue April 6th, 2010, 5:54 pm

Michener himself wrote one titled The Source about Palestine/Israel. It was extremely popular when it came out in the mid-1960s. Alas, I found it boring and didn't get very far in it. But I'm not generally a fan of time-sweeps.
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Kveto from Prague
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Post by Kveto from Prague » Wed April 7th, 2010, 10:37 am

[quote=""Margaret""]Michener himself wrote one titled The Source about Palestine/Israel. It was extremely popular when it came out in the mid-1960s. Alas, I found it boring and didn't get very far in it. But I'm not generally a fan of time-sweeps.[/quote]


cheers, margaret and adriane. i might look into it. ive enjoyed his time-sweeps before. but i know they arent for everybody :-)

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Post by Eigon » Mon April 12th, 2010, 7:17 pm

Actually, the Source is my favourite Mitchener novel, partly because I trained as an archaeologist - he was a novelist who got the archaeology part right, which a lot of novelists don't. Some of his novels seem to me to be 'written to the formula', and The Source seemed to be written more from the heart.

(Just to go off on a tangent, Agatha Christie got the archaeology of her time right, too, but she did have the advantage of having married an archaeologist. I don't normally pay much attention to her mysteries, but the Mesopotamia ones are quite interesting because of the archaeological detail.)

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Post by annis » Mon April 12th, 2010, 8:18 pm

Gore Vidal's epic novel, "Creation" comes to mind. Vidal writes with a nicely ironies to mind. It's not exactly a time-sweep, but is set in the ancient Middle East. Vidal writes with a nicely ironic tone.

I don't know if you've read Sprague de Camp's "Dragon of the Ishtar Gate", but it's another novel set in ancient Persia. It's tale about a Persian nobleman and his Greek tutor, sent off on a spurious mission to search for the headwaters of the Nile which is meant to see them killed en route. it's written in an entertaining picaresque style, but Sprague de Camp fits in a lot of interesting detail.
Last edited by annis on Mon April 12th, 2010, 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Kveto from Prague
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Post by Kveto from Prague » Thu July 22nd, 2010, 8:36 pm

[quote=""annis""]Gore Vidal's epic novel, "Creation" comes to mind. Vidal writes with a nicely ironies to mind. It's not exactly a time-sweep, but is set in the ancient Middle East. Vidal writes with a nicely ironic tone.

I don't know if you've read Sprague de Camp's "Dragon of the Ishtar Gate", but it's another novel set in ancient Persia. It's tale about a Persian nobleman and his Greek tutor, sent off on a spurious mission to search for the headwaters of the Nile which is meant to see them killed en route. it's written in an entertaining picaresque style, but Sprague de Camp fits in a lot of interesting detail.[/quote]

Ive heard of the "dragon at Ishtar gate" but id assumed it was more in the sword and sorcery/fantasy catergory since its written by de camp. ill look into it

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Post by annis » Fri July 23rd, 2010, 3:37 am

L. Sprague de Camp actually wrote a few historical novels - Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is the best known, and quite a bit of fun. It even has an orgy scene :)

Here's a list of Srague de Camp HF with synopses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Sprague ... cal_Novels

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