Book Review: The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling

Book: The Peshawar Lancers

Author: S.M. Stirling

ISBN: 0-451-45873-7

S.M. Stirling‘s The Peshawar Lancers is set in the not too distant future, 2025, although a completely different one due to an alternate history.

In 1878 Europe, the North Atlantic and North America were hit by a large number of meteorites of unknown origin. Most European countries were wiped out, and the three that survived are not even based in Europe any longer. Most of the existing empires were destroyed and new ones arose. The United States ceased to exist after the complete destruction of the East Coast. The devastation continued with massive alterations to the climate, causing yet more deaths, and the world’s population dropped through the floor.

The Angrezi Raj, which used to be the British Empire, moved several million people from Britain under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli after the catastrophe. India is now the most important country in the Raj, and Delhi is now the largest and wealthiest city in the world, with the Raj being the most powerful empire. There are some other empires and a handful of surviving countries and city states, but many places are still inhabited by cannibals. Technology is advanced over the 19th century, but not by that much.

One of the surviving empires is the Russian Empire, which has evolved into a particularly nasty one. The Raj is an interesting hybrid of British and Indian culture, to a much greater extent than is seen today, with the British having adopted much of the way of life, culture and habits from their adopted country.

The Peshawar Lancers are the regiment of Captain Athelstane King, who is dragged into a plot that threatens not only the safety of the entire Raj, but that of the rest of the world.

The alternate future portrayed in the novel is certainly interesting, although it is doubtful that such a complete hybrid of Indian and British culture would ever have arisen. Unless, of course, there were some truly extraordinary circumstances that caused it – something that did happen in the past depicted in the novel.