alternate history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
Lord Darcy. It was first published in paperback in 1979 by
Ace Books
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...
, and has been reprinted a number of times since. It was later gathered together with ''
Too Many Magicians
''Too Many Magicians'' is a novel by Randall Garrett, an American science fiction author. One of several stories starring Lord Darcy, it was first serialized in '' Analog Science Fiction'' in 1966 and published in book form the same year by Dou ...
'' (1967) and '' Lord Darcy Investigates'' (1981) into the omnibus collection '' Lord Darcy'' (1983, expanded 2002).
The book collects four Lord Darcy short stories originally published in the magazine ''
Analog Science Fact & Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'' in January 1964, November 1964, and June 1965, and the Dean W. Dickensheet edited anthology '' Men & Malice'', (Doubleday, 1973).
The Lord Darcy stories are set in an alternate world whose history supposedly diverged from our own during the reign of
King Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, in which King John never reigned and most of Western Europe and the Americas are united in an
Angevin Empire
The Angevin Empire (; french: Empire Plantagenêt) describes the possessions of the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and W ...
whose continental possessions were never lost by that king. In this world a magic-based technology has developed in place of the science of our own world.
Contents
*"The Eyes Have It" (1964)
*"A Case of Identity" (1964)
*"The Muddle of the Woad" (1965)
*"A Stretch of the Imagination" (1973)