I loved The Sky People. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Imagine if the pulp sci-fi of the first half of the 20th century turned out to be substantially accurate in its premises. In Stirling's new series of novels, other planets in the Solar System are earthlike and inhabited by human or humanoid creatures. The Earth history of our universe and the one in the book are identical through the early 1960s. They diverge in Stirling's book when the first Soviet probe touches down on Venus. Instead of the death-shrouded desert of our reality, the probe finds a lush world inhabited by primitive humans, saber-tooth tigers and dinosaurs. The Sky People centers on the U.S. colony of Jamestown, and a joint U.S./Soviet rescue effort that brings our plucky pulp heroes into contact with a beautiful warrior princess and her stone-age kingdom.

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

S. M. Stirling frequently places strong or even amazonic women in his books. In Conquistador, one of Stirling's main characters is a Adrienne Rolfe, a power lifting redhead from an alternate Earth. In The Sky People there's nothing so overt, but three of the female characters are notably kick-ass and worth the attention of anyone who likes science-fiction and tough girls.

[The Sky People - Amazon.com]

Related Items:

• Conquistador
• Crimson Kings