The Gladiator (novel)

infobox Book |
name = The Gladiator
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Harry Turtledove
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Crosstime Traffic
genre = Alternate history
publisher = Tor Books
pub_date = May 2007
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn =ISBN 076531486X
preceded_by =The Disunited States of America
followed_by =The Valley-Westside War

"The Gladiator" is a 2007 Harry Turtledove novel for young adults. Part of the loose Crosstime Traffic family of books it is set in a world in an alternate history in which the Soviet Union has won the Cold War. It tied with Jo Walton's "Ha'penny" for the 2008 Prometheus Award. [ [http://www.sfawardswatch.com/?p=841 Prometheus Winners] ]

Plot summary

"The Gladiator" follows the same concept as the other "Crosstime Traffic" novels. A parallel world similar in most respects to our has discovered the technology to visit and trade with other parallels, spreading the notions of liberty and capitalism at the same time.

The plot of "The Gladiator" follows the same formula of the other books in the series with an imperiled company operative and local protagonists being used as guides to the parallel. In "The Gladiator" it is indeed the capitalist West that has been consigned to the "dustbin of history" and the world has been remade in the image of the Soviet Union.

The protagonists of the novel, Gianfranco and Annarita, are teenagers in an Italian People's Republic, satellite to the interests of the USSR. Amidst the grey Soviet Brutalist tenements they discover a strategy game shop that is disseminating capitalist ideas with the games they sell. The shop is a front for the Crosstime Traffic trading monopoly, as the protagonists discover when the shop is closed by the authorities and one of the clerks, Eduardo, turns to the protagonists for help.

References

External links

* [http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/xtime.html Crosstime traffic]
* [http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/thegladiator.html The Gladiator]
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/harry-turtledove/gladiator.htm The Gladiator]
* [http://www.scifidimensions.com/Aug07/gladiator.htm The Gladiator book review]