Well, technically it’s Lest Darkness Fall & Related Stories because this edition has a short story by S.M. Stirling in it, and if it’s the one I’m thinking of it’s also worth perusing. Lest Darkness Fall is one of the classic ‘time traveler changes the past’ stories; not least because it doesn’t assume that the hero is going to be able to recreate every technological innovation. L. Sprague de Camp was simply too freaking brilliant to fall into that particular trap. Lest Darkness Fall is almost eighty years old, and doesn’t look a day over thirty. I don’t even know why I’m recommending it; surely everybody reading this has read it already, yes?
Anyway: say farewell to The Complete McAuslan.
Yes…read the Sprague DeCamp book quite some time ago.. but the new one sounds interesting. I like S.M. Stirling..
I’ve read quite a few things by L Sprague DeCamp, but not that one… On the reading list!
“The Apotheosis of Martin Padway”? If so, yes, it’s very good, and it contains a nice payoff.
“Lest Darkness Fall” is brilliant. Another of its good points is that it deals with Late Roman history — after the Western Empire’s fall and during the time of the East Roman attempt to retake it. I always thought it would be fun to do an alternate Earth RPG setting in the world that resulted after LDF.
The paperback I had has a companion story the author of which I don’t remember (maybe it was Stirling), but also well done: a patrician woman from 2nd century AD Rome is transplanted back to the time of Romulus and Remus and Rome’s founding.
That would be David Drake.
Yep: “To Bring the Light.”