"1980s SF novels Alexander the Great, 47 Ronin, etc.?" Topic

Back in high school, a friend introduced me to these.
The first novel involved an (illegal) fight club in the far future where Alexander the Great was smuggled forward in time before his death and restored to health. He is then given command of an ancient-style army on a massive ringworld, to fight a famous ancient "alien" general for the amusement of wealthy patrons. Alexander thoroughly enjoys this, as he's unlikely to run out of "lands" to conquer.

Another novel in the series has one of the time kidnappers enlisting the 47 Ronin as his own bodyguards against some of the criminals in the first novel. (This was my introduction to the tale of the 47 Ronin back in the day.)

I think there were more novels in the series, but I never read any others.

So, do these ring a bell? My searches have proven fruitless.

Perchance:

"The book you are looking for is likely "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers.In this classic sci-fi/fantasy novel, an underground "fight club" features a resurrected Alexander the Great (known by his birth name, Alexander of Macedon), who was plucked from the timeline just before his death and restored to perfect health in the distant future."

Could it be:
The Gamester Wars series by William R. Forstchen
Books included in the series:
The Alexandrian Ring (1987)
The Assassin Gambit (1988)
The Napoleon Wager (1993)

The Gamester Wars is probably it!

(It's definitely *not* Tim Powers.)

Bingo! Thanks!

Wow, sorry about that! I used an AI search and it came back with that. I should have went out and read what it was about. Not right at all!

Funny, I just brought up "The Lost Regiment series" by historian and author William R. Forstchen elsewhere. As ideas for fictional battles.

Was going to read yours, but libraries in my phone, don't have it.

So I'll try Anubis gates and see if it's any good

I am grateful for all the pointers.

Doug

@35thOVI, let us know how you get on. "The Anubis Gates" was my first Tim Powers book and it remains my favourite. It's at the weird end of fantasy, but the world has an internal logic that means it's not weird for the sake of being weird.

What is weird is that AI synopsis, which is clearly for a completely different book. Still, if an AI hallucination brings someone new to the writing of Tim Powers then maybe all is not lost.

Will do, I am 50 pages in.

Interestingly I tried typing

A book about a fight club in the far future where Alexander the Great was smuggled forward in time before his death and restored to health

Got another completely unrelated book. Wow.

I wouldn't be surprised if AI wrote the book it described and put it on Amazon in order to cover up it's error of the book not actually existing… ;-)

"Fight club" was me trying to get a shorthand in— probably not the best term in context.

The detailed plot is that in the future "war gamers" are literal and spectators. They pay or trick people to have wars, which they watch and bet on.
In this novel, time travel is used to collect great generals from the past, bring them into the present, and get them to lead these armies.

The second novel begins with someone bringing forward the Old Man of the Mountain and the Order of Assassins to kill the protagonist, so he finds the 47 Ronin to protect him. A little less "wargame" on that one— but a nice skirmish set up idea!

And yes, I suspect Forstchen is/was a gamer, at least when he was writing these 40 years ago!

Interesting!

"The second novel begins with someone bringing forward the Old Man of the Mountain and the Order of Assassins to kill the protagonist, so he finds the 47 Ronin to protect him. A little less "wargame" on that one— but a nice skirmish set up idea!"

That part came up in the second AI search I did with your original description, but it didn't mention the author, Forstchen in what it returned. When I saw it talking about the 47 Ronin, I thought AI had lost its marbles.

I may play with it again. With enough information, I've normally been able to find other books.

I suggest Forstchen's book "One Second after for those interested in a post EMP world. I love 'The Alexandrian Ring" because Alexandros lives on and continues to conquer!

Wolly, finished a couple days ago.

Liked the book. Not on my all time top 50, but enjoyable enough I tried to read his sequel to it. But neither of my libraries had online copies of it. So moved on to another book.

Different from normal fantasy. Time travel with a Charles Dickens, Sherlock Holmes flavor with little "time after time" thrown in. Don't want to spoil it for anyone.