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Innovative story-telling but pedestrian writing!It was a freak accident. Young Martin Padway, an American historian specializing in the late Roman and Gothic period just prior to the fall of the Dark Ages in Europe, is struck by lightning. When he awakes he finds he has been transported in time and has landed smack in the middle of his specialty. His memory, his intimate knowledge of upcoming events, his physical stamina, his language abilities, his political acumen and his ability to adapt to b...

Rating: 4* of fiveA re-read of a classic SF novel rethinking the trope of time travel from Wellsian to Twainian tropes. The mysterious transposition into the past via non-technological means, though, is permanent in de Camp's work. I think that makes the story a lot more interesting and a lot more fun. The stakes are a lot higher for Padway/Paduei than for Snodgrass since Paduei is there in the past for good.The parts of the story that don't quite work for me are the parts about Paduei's effects...

Out of copyright. Nice FREE ebook at https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_Sci...

Read Jo Walton's review, https://www.tor.com/2008/08/14/lest-d...
She points out why I prefer this one to the Twain book: de Camp was a historian of technology, so this is a tech-heavy book. Time for a re-read, I think.

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lest_Da...
--including more copies online.
CAUTION: HEAVY SPOILERS in the rest of that wikipage!

God bless you, Mr. Twain!L. Sprague de Camp’s classic sci-fi / time travel / alternate history story, certainly influenced by Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, has stood the test of time itself very well. Told with an adept eye for historically accurate detail and better than average characterization this 1939 publication is one of the earlier of the “golden age” of science fiction novels and most certainly one of the better written. De Camp was 3 years old when Twain die...

Martin Padway is struck by lightning while visiting Rome and finds himself permanently displaced to the 6th century AD. A student of history, he decides to use his knowledge of technology and history to prevent Rome's fall and thus prevent the Dark Ages, and single-handedly jumpstarts the Industrial Revolution, introducing distilleries (to give him some money to live on and finance his operations), double-entry bookkeeping, the telegraph, the printing press, modern methods of warfare, etc. Yanke...

Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by author L. Sprague de Camp. The book is often considered one of the best examples of the alternate history genre; it is certainly one of the most influential. The novel reminded me of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In it American archaeologist Martin Padway is visiting the Pantheon in Rome in 1938. When a thunderstorm arrives lightning cracks and he finds himself transported to 6th centu...

CONCEPT: A History professor is whisked back in time to Rome; only a few years before it's about to fall; with his foresight he attempts to not only create a living for himself but, at a later point, to stop the fall of Rome.HISTORY SETTING: 6th century Italy; very interesting setup. I didn't know much about it and rarely is it covered except in passing as they focus on other parts of the world. DeCamp knows his material.PACING: The story is only 260 pages long which is small for today's fantasy...

** Original review** Nov.12, 2009**de Camp made up a lot of my reading back in the 70s. This is an interesting take on the time stream idea. Pretty good read.Wow, someone just liked this 2 line review. Thanks.I'm surprised at how sparse it is. I imagine it's because my wife had passed away not long before and I was looking at moving to a smaller place. Please allow me to expand it a little.I read this book long ago but it made an impact as it's very well written and one of the best classic scien...

3.5 stars. Classic time travel tale. Good writing, nice pacing and a tour of ancient Rome. What is not to like.