Leo A. Frankowski (1943–2008)

This is one of those books in which a modern man is suddenly transported into the past, and manages to make something of himself by exploiting all the things he knows that the people around him don’t. There’s a whole family of such books, going back to [b:A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur|13793031|A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337245571l/13793031._SY75_.jpg|2621763], and in general I like them if they’re done well.

The hero, Conrad, is a Polish engineer unexpectedly transported back to Poland in the year 1231 AD. The Polish language has been stable for a long time, so he doesn’t need to relearn it; and, being an engineer, he knows some useful things. But he also knows that the Mongols are going to invade in ten years and kill everyone; so he has a strong motivation to try to do something about that.

It’s a good scenario, and Frankowski depicts Poland in 1231 quite plausibly. Initially Conrad spends most of his time and energy trying to industrialize Poland, which involves a variety of engineering projects but also social and business innovations. He gains some initial capital in various ways, and builds up a profit from his innovative activities. He’s fortunate to gain the support of a few members of the aristocracy (although others are suspicious or hostile).

In his spare time, he likes to have sex daily, and preferably with a variety of different women (marriage doesn’t attract him). He finds that the age of consent in that time and place seems to be 14, and takes full advantage of that. He has only consensual sex, and in his own way he treats women kindly and considerately; but he’s promiscuous by inclination, and women seem to find him attractive.

The whole story seems to be the author’s wish-fulfillment fantasy, fully worked out and written down in detail. Although Conrad does encounter problems and setbacks now and then.

Overall, I find the story mildly entertaining in places and mildly tedious in other places. I’m no engineer, so the engineering projects are much more interesting to the author than to me. Conrad’s sexual activities (which are not described in intimate detail) are presumably enjoyable for him, but do nothing for me. The social interactions and his project of gradually upgrading the whole country are of some interest.

This book is the first part of a series (there are sequels), so it ends at an intermission point rather than a true dramatic finish. You can decide whether you want more; some will, some won’t.

It’s probably suitable only for people who normally read sf, and not for a general audience.… (more)

Although I’m still giving it three stars, I like this one better than the first in the series. Conrad’s plans to transform 13th century Poland are at an early stage but beginning to show some promise. His exercises in engineering are served up in a more digestible form this time. His sex life is still a bit tiresome, but it mostly goes on in the background.

He gets into a feud with the Teutonic Knights, which is generally expected to result in his death. However, as this series continues into further volumes, it’s fairly safe to bet on his continuing existence.… (more)

The continuing story of Conrad the involuntary time-traveller, who found himself stranded in 13th century Poland and is trying to prepare the country for the Mongol invasion that he knows is coming.

In this volume, he’s still working hard on his industrialization programme, but now he also starts the beginnings of an army. Partially by accident, he’s promoted from knight to baron, which means that he gains more land and is entitled to knight people himself.

The story remains mildly entertaining in parts, if you like this kind of thing: Leo Frankowski (1943–2008) was a literary pigmy and politically incorrect, but a competent storyteller.

For most of this series, he avoids explicitly condoning rape, by the simple device of assuring us that most 13th century Polish females were remarkably willing. However, this book includes a rape that he seems to condone, and what’s more it’s not essential to the plot, he could easily have avoided it. Most authors would have avoided it, to save themselves some hate, but I suppose Frankowski was thick-skinned and didn’t care about antagonizing people.

Overall, I find these books sufficiently entertaining to reread them occasionally, when I can’t find anything better to read; but I wouldn’t normally recommend them to other people. The scenario is genuinely interesting, and Conrad’s attempt to gear up Poland to resist the Mongols is worth reading about and not badly handled. However, here we have a hero (and probably an author too) whose main preoccupations are engineering and sex, which doesn’t suit me well; I don’t know about you. The writing style is unsophisticated and characterization is perfunctory.… (more)

The book is about two engineeres, one of whom is the first-person narrator. After a rather long, although not boring, exposition, the two engineeres ship-wreck on a floating (as in: moving about on currents) island. On the island, they find a community of ~12000 people, living in a feudal christian society. The community existed since BC times (IIRC) and has had no contact with the outside world for ~1000 years (apart from the occasional ship or plane chrash survivors).

The book concerns itself with the island's unique social structure and technology, and how these are influenced by the special situation and environmental conditions the islanders find themselves in. The author describes the parallelities and differences of the islanders' culture to western society, mostly from the perspective of the main protagonist. The dynamics between secular government, religious institutions and science are also within the scope of the book, as well as the relation between "magic" and science.

While the book is not thrilling or exciting for the most part, I have found it very interesting. The culture and technology of the islanders, altough fictional, is plausible and well explained. I have found the exploration of how culture and technology are influenced by the requirements of a people's environment to be the distinctive feature of the book.

Most reviews here argue that the author uses the book to dictate his own views on the world to the reader, often in a very "my-opinion-is-correct-and-your's-is-wrong" sort of way. While such passages exist (which I, too, found irritating), it should be noted that because the book is written in the first person, any of the described trains of thought reflect views of the narrator/protagonist, and can only indirectly be said to reflect the opinion the author, which I think is the wrong interpretation here (see spoiler).


The main character often argues that all opinions, views, thoughts and actions of a person are caused by that persons perception of the world and are thus only sensible/valid within this persons personal "bubble". He observes that people often build walls within their minds and refuse to think about (or even to acknowledge) certain issues, so to keep their own personal views (seemingly) consistent with the world.

On the very last pages of the book, the protagonist learns that this also applies to himself.

I think that the often criticised "opinion-passages" are a means of emphasising this point, as they identify the protagonist as a very opinionated character, who is in the end confronted with his own hippocricy, when he comes to realise that he is not better suited to analyse and evaluate the world than others.


My major point of critique on this novel is that the author often resort to simply explaining many of the aspects of the island's society (in the form of an explanation by a character in the book or the narrator himself), instead of showing the the island and having the reader figure it out (See: Show, don't tell). This may be appropriate, as it is only a short book, but then again, maybe it should have been longer.… (more)