TBR Pile Review: Civilisations, by Laurent Binet, translated by Sam Taylor

c.1000AD: Erik the Red’s daughter heads south from Greenland.
1492: Columbus does not discover America.
1531: the Incas invade Europe.

Freydis is the leader of a band of Viking warriors who get as far as Panama. Nobody knows what became of them…
Five hundred years later, Christopher Columbus is sailing for the Americas, dreaming of gold and conquest. Even when captured by Incas, his faith in his superiority and his mission is unshaken.

Thirty years after that, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, arrives in Europe. What does he find? The Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation, capitalism, the miracle of the printing press, endless warmongering between the ruling monarchies, and constant threat from the Turks.

But most of all, downtrodden populations ready for revolution. Fortunately, he has a recent guidebook to acquiring power – Machiavelli’s The Prince. It turns out he is very good at it. So, the stage is set for a Europe ruled by Incas and, when the Aztecs arrive on the scene, for a great war that will change history forever.

Civilisations is a wildly entertaining counterfactual story about the modern world, colonisation, empire-building and the eternal human quest for domination. It is an electrifying novel by one of Europe’s most exciting writers. 

My Review

This is one of my Goldsborough Books SFF Fellowship books, signed and numbered. I read about more than half of it last night after having to put it down for too long. I had to put it down because of blog tour commitments. I had planned to go to bed really early last night – I was exhausted by half five. But…I put the book down at 9pm last night and finally went to sleep, satisfied that I’d finished the book.

The story starts with the Icelandic settlement at Vinland. Freydis Eriksdottir sails south, taking European diseases and beliefs with her. Thor joined the pantheons of Mesoamerica, South America and the Caribbean as Freydis rises to power as the red-haired warrior queen.

Five hundred years later Christopher Columbus arrives in the Caribbean, convinced he is better than anyone else. The locals prove him wrong. In the Inca Empire, two brothers fight for the throne. Atahualpa loses and goes on the run, arriving in Cuba, where he meets a Taino princess and finds the remains of two European ships, which they repair and sail to Spain. In Spain, Atahualpa and his few followers find a barbarian world of religious conflict and oppression, constant warfare and extensive poverty.

Atuhualpa spends the rest of his life doing something about it.

I thought this book was fantastic, a counterfactual take on the meeting of Europeans and Americans in the fifteenth century. It’s one of those ‘what ifs’ that is fascinating to think about. How things would have been different if the meeting of Empires had been more equal. If there had been more respect and tolerance for different religions and cultures. If diseases hadn’t been introduced. If the Tainos had horses.

I found the writing engaging and lyrical. The narrative structure is unusual and writing style unexpected. I enjoyed the different structure and style. The new take on history was thought provoking. The characterisation of Atahualpa and his cohort as individuals rather than as the two dimensional figures bequeathed to us by Spanish writers brought them to life.

Highly recommended.