More than a third of the way through Book 2 of Arturo Sandus and his campaign to return to the stars. Maybe.

I have another series of books I am working on about a contemporary sorcerer of sorts who discovers he can move between universes. His movement is sideways, so to speak, not temporal (so far, hee hee) so it is always 2020+ wherever he lands. I am finding it a challenge to come up with a reasonable hypothesis as to why this Earth only has mid 19th century tech while this other Earth is almost the same as his Earth. Another is still stuck in the late bronze/early iron age while one over here is still in the ice age and there are no humans, at least on the American West Coast.

The whole idea is very much a pandora’s box. What about an Earth where Germany didn’t mobilize in 1914, instead opting to do a form of lend lease with their Austrian neighbors, propping them up with arms and supplies and in the process keeping Great Britain out of the war as well. Another where the American revolution never happened and technology stagnated at a level not much more advanced than the Napoleonic period…

Then there is the high tech Roman world, where the Empire never fell due to a restoration of the Republic in the 5th century…