Alpha and Omega, by Harry Turtledove (Del Rey)
Harry Turtledove has
written a lot of books. Really, a lot.
Alternate history, pure science fiction, whimsical fantasy, humor, historical
fiction, and more. I haven’t come across a single one that wasn’t a fast, smooth
read with plenty of action and a ton of nifty ideas. Every once in a while,
though, he so completely nails a story, concept and prose and thematic
resonances, that it stays with me and I find myself blabbing about it like a
fangirl to all my friends. The Guns of
the South (time-traveling racists arm the Confederacy with automatic
weapons) was one such. Also Ruled
Brittanica (the Spanish Armada prevails and William Shakespeare writes
insurrectionist plays) and In the
Presence of Mind Enemies (Jews survive in the shadow of victorious Nazi
Germany). Now I can add Alpha and Omega
to that list.
The elevator pitch
for this book might run, “Indiana Jones
in 21st Century Israel, complete with American evangelicals, ultra
Orthodox Jewish settlers, Muslim terrorists, and journalists on the lookout for
a good story, with an occasional miracle.” But it’s much more. It begins in a
perfectly ordinary thriller-ish way with a dirty bomb detonated in Tel Aviv and
team of Israeli archaeologists (Jewish and Arab, with a nonobservant Jewish
American and a dewy-eyed Christian student thrown in for good measure) excavate
under the Temple Mount and find (of course, Indiana Jones style) the Ark of the
Covenant . . . floating inches above the floor. And the skeptical journalist
who unwisely lays hands on it is summarily carbonized.
What to make of this
miracle?
