Empire Of The East

Author: Fred Saberhagen

ARDNEH (Automatic Restoration Director, National Executive Headquarters) was a super computer that averted nuclear war byâ€”temporarily; or that was the planâ€”dicking with the local laws of physics and preventing nuclear reactions. Better than anti-missile missile systems! Except that the other side had something similar up their sleeve, and the simultaneous activation of both of these anti-nuclear systems caused more havoc with natural was than anticipated. In particular, the 'temporary' thing became permanent. Oh, yes, and 'magic' works now, with demons and all. One of them, Orcus, is in effect a nuclear bomb, caught in the middle of its explosion; turned sentientâ€”just like ARDNEH. But Orcus is tricked into imprisonment (that's because demons are dumb, which is what you'd expect from sentient nukes) by one John Ominor, who becomes the leader of the 'East'. And ARDNEH, with his servers safely tucked away underneath a mountain, is the effective leader of the 'West', who, centuries into the future, recruits Rolf, a young peasant farmer, to be his instrument to finally defeat Ominor and destroy Orcus. Why it's on the list: It's a very cool mix of 'technology'-based SF and fantasy. It's also a child of its time, when the Cold War was going full throttle. (It's still going on, of course, but now it's kinda muted and everybody pretends it's finished.) Ratings: Grimness: 1, Bizarreness: 2, Hope: 4, Fun-factor: 5.

Books in Empire Of The East Series (3)

The Broken Lands

The Black Mountains

Ardneh's Sword