Looking for old 1970s paperback fantasy about Romans and Mayans

November 18, 2024 5:03 PM

I remember this old paperback c. 1990 in my old used bookstore where Greek or Roman voyagers end up in America and meet the Mayans. It was some type of old DAW paperback from the 1970s, or something like that. Does this ring any bells?

So I remember this book because the artwork was so cool. It felt like early James Gurney, when he was painting book covers in the 1970s. These people are disembarking from their galley and stepping onto a vibrant Mayan waterfront, or something like that. It was a luminous and beautiful piece. I wish I had picked it up at the time, but I was more into romance, and this book looked more like Conan-adjacent historical fantasy.

Anyway, I've googled over and over again, and I can't find anything like this book. Does anyone have any ideas about what it could be, or how to find it?

posted by suburbanbeatnik to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Just from memory, the plot description reminds me most of Somtow Sucharitkul's The Aquiliad, but the book cover description reminds me most of Richard Purtill's The Mirror of Helen (particularly since it was from DAW) or possibly the Baen edition of Harry Turtledove's Agent of Byzantium (which, like The Mirror of Helen, isn't a match for the plot). These are all books that mix fantasy or alternate history elements into Greek or Roman settings, and they were all common in bookstores at the time. But I can't think of a closer match on my own, and nothing is leaping out at me on the lists of fiction set in ancient Rome and fiction set in ancient Greece, which do include fantasy and alternate history novels like The Aquiliad. You might have better luck reading through them.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:48 PM on November 18, 2024 [1 favorite]

Mod note: [Love these old book mysteries! We've added it to the sidebar and Best Of blog; hope you find it, suburbanbeatnik]
posted by taz (staff) at 3:35 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]

Them Bones by Howard Waldrop comes to mind.
posted by y2karl at 12:26 PM on November 20, 2024

Do you think the cover was actually by Gurney or just similar? You can check his bibliography on ISFDB just in case (I don't know how complete it is but it seems like a good start). When I was looking at that list I found New Barbarians, which has Romans and a picture of a ship, but it's not so much of a waterfront.

If you have a librarything account you can view overlaps between multiple tags--I tried "alternate history, roman" and got a ton of results. Unfortunately you can't see it if you're not logged in but accounts are free. You can also try Talpa which lets you search covers.

Some potential covers I found with these methods:
The Dragon Revenant
The Destiny of the Sword
Times Without Number
The Gate of Worlds
Darwinia

I'm not convinced any of these is actually the right answer, but maybe something will be a lead!
posted by cheesegrater at 3:51 PM on December 8, 2024 [2 favorites]