Shef smiled, the first time he had done that for many days. “I like your sign, Thorvin,” he said. “I will wear it.” He slipped the Wayman’s pendant round his neck, turned and looked at the misted sea.

Some knot, some pain within him was released, fled.

For the first time in his entire life he felt at peace.

Qui credit in Filium, habet vitam aeternam; qui autem incredulus est Filio, non videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

—John 3 : 36

Angusta est domus : utrosque tenere non poterit. Non vult rex celestis cum paganis et perditis nominetenus regibus communionem habere; quia rex ille aeternus regnat in caelis, ille paganus perditus plangit in inferno.

The house is narrow : it cannot hold both. The king of heaven has no wish to have fellowship with damned and heathen so-called kings; for the one eternal king reigns in Heaven, the other damned heathen groans in Hell.

—Alcuin, deacon of York, A.D. 797

The greatest disaster ever to befall the West was Christianity.

Gravissima calamitas umquam supra Occidentem accidens erat religio Christiana.

—Gore Vidal, A.D. 1987

Also by Harry Harrison

Also by Harry Harrison
Published by Tor

50 in 50
Bill, the Galactic Hero
Galactic Dreams
The Hammer & the Cross
Homeworld
In Our Hands the Stars
The Jupiter Plague
King and Emperor
Make Room! Make Room!
Montezuma’s Revenge
One King’s Man
One Step from Earth
Planet of No Return
Planet of the Damned
QE2 Is Missing
Queen Victoria’s Revenge
A Rebel in Time
Return to Eden
Skyfall
Stainless Steel Rat
Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell
Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus
Stainless Steel Rat Returns
Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge
Stainless Steel Trio
Starworld
Stonehedge
Technicolor Time Machine
A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
Turing Option
West of Eden
Wheelworld
Winter in Eden

PRAISE FOR - THE HAMMER AND THE CROSS

PRAISE FOR

THE HAMMER AND THE CROSS

“In this rich and exciting alternate history, Harrison evokes the spirit and atmosphere of the so-called Dark Ages with wit, sensitivity and impeccable research … Readers need not be experts in medieval history to appreciate the story of Shef’s rise from slave to king of a kingdom that never was but should have been.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating, sinewy, brutal, and fine … few historicals are as powerfully evocative of time and place as Harrison’s tremendous saga.”

—Kirkus

“Great science fiction doesn’t have to be about the future. Some of the best of it, like THE HAMMER AND THE CROSS, can be about the past and the ways in which our world might have been—but sadly wasn’t—shaped into a brighter and more humane form.”—FREDERIK POHL

“An enjoyable history lesson … the colorfully real characters and the morally conscious storyline should make this book so much more than just a quick sci-fi/fantasy fix.”

—The West Coast Review of Books