In the House of Sorrows

In response to the passage I posted from The Man Who Folded Himself, Kevin Carson offers this recommendation:

If you want a really interesting picture of a non-Judaeo-Christian world, you ought to check out Poul Anderson's "In the House of Sorrows." Jerusalem fell to the Assyrians at the same time as Samaria.

History went pretty much the same until what would have been the first century CE. The Roman Empire was never Christianized, and when it collapsed its successor kingdoms were pagan. And without the role of the Church as preserver of classical culture, the Greco-Roman heritage was mostly lost.

In what would have been the 20th century, the Levant is part of a decaying Turkish empire whose rulers worship the Warrior Buddha. The Turkish empire is a protectorate of Ispania, but is menaced by an acendant Zoroastrian Persia.

The royal dynasties of Europe still pay lip service to the old national gods, Jupiter and Wotan and all that, but most serious religious devotion is tied to membership in Persian mystery cults.

The endless layers of conquest, without any unifying civilization is reflected in the difficulty a learned mercenary in Palestine has in deciding whether an eroded statue is Herakles and the hydra or Thor and the Midgard Worm.

It seems the story is included in this collection: All One Universe.