The Alexander Inheritance – Eric Flint (Eric Flint, Georg Huff, Paula Goodlett)

“The Alexander Inheritance” is a spinoff from the ‘1632’ franchise. If a modern town can be transported to 17th-century Germany and change history, why shouldn’t a modern cruise ship be transported to the Mediterranean, shortly after Alexander’s death, when his empire was starting to disintegrate?

The book has the flaws of the weaker books of the 1632 franchise. They are exposition heavy: The authors spent a lot of time and effort researching the era, and they want to share. The characters are two-dimensional and hard to care about. (These are not general weaknesses in Flint’s writing, but this book isn’t really “by Eric Flint”, but by other writers playing in Flint’s literary back yard.) And there isn’t much story supporting the authors’ competent technical what-if exercise.