Black Chamber
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Black Chamber

Black Chamber

by S. M. Stirling

Overview

The first novel in a brand-new alternate history series where Teddy Roosevelt is president for a second time right before WWI breaks out, and on his side is the Black Chamber, a secret spy network watching America's back.

1916. The Great War rages overseas, and the whole of Europe, Africa, and western Asia is falling to the Central Powers. To win a war that must be won, Teddy Roosevelt, once again the American president, turns to his top secret Black Chamber organization—and its cunning and deadly spy, Luz O'Malley Aróstegui.

On a transatlantic airship voyage, Luz poses as an anti-American Mexican revolutionary to get close—very close—to a German agent code-named Imperial Sword. She'll need every skill at her disposal to get him to trust her and lead her deep into enemy territory. In the mountains of Saxony, concealed from allied eyes, the German Reich's plans for keeping the U.S. from entering the conflict are revealed: the deployment of a new diabolical weapon upon the shores of America...

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780399586231
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 07/03/2018
Series: A Novel of an Alternate World War Series , #1
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 146,948
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

S. M. Stirling is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels. A former lawyer and an amateur historian, he lives with his wife, Jan.

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Excerpted from "Black Chamber"
by .
Copyright © 2018 S. M. Stirling.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Reading Group Guide

1.

A Reader’s Guide for Black Chamber:

1. While Theodore Roosevelt isn’t a major character in the book, the differences in his career from those in our history are very important to all the major characters. How does his returning to the presidency in 1912 affect their lives? Where would they be without him?

2. In alternate 1916, Luz O’Malley Aróstegui considers herself modern and progressive. How does her conception of this differ from the assumptions we would make about these words today? How is it similar?

3. Luz regards the German intelligence agent Horst von Dückler as both an enemy and a colleague in the same line of work. She doesn’t feel any personal animosity toward him, because he’s working for his country. How does this attitude reflect on her and her world? Does it make her humane, or ruthless?

4. In the Black Chamber world, blacks in America would probably get the vote restored to them much earlier, in the 1910s rather than the 1950s and 1960s. Not because of a civil rights movement, but because the quasi-authoritarian Progressive Republican Party imposes it on the South for its own reasons. Likewise, there is an Equal Rights Amendment for women in 1913 that is closely identified with the Party’s takeover of the US. What are the positive and negative implications of these events?

5. Luz meets Ciara Whelan in Germany. Both women became secret agents because of the violent deaths of family members: for Luz her parents, and for Ciara her brother and, indirectly, her father. What does this give them in common? Unlike Luz, Ciara draws back from her pursuit of revenge. How does this make them different?

6. Ciara is a woman with strong technical interests and talents in an era when this was very much frowned on. How does the fact that Luz admires and praises her abilities affect their relationship?

7. Both Ciara and Luz are of Irish-American background. Does it give them common ground? Why or why not?

8. Luz and Professor von Bülow discuss Nietzsche’s philosophy in relation to women and exchange personal recollections, developing a degree of mutual respect. Luz reflects that if von Bülow weren’t a mad fanatic plotting a horrible crime, he’d be a nice enough old duffer. What does this attitude say about the distinction between the personal and political aspects of a human being, and Luz’s attitude toward those distinctions?

9. When Luz returns to the US and the Black Chamber station in Boston, she’s treated by the officer in charge as a “hysterical female.” What do you think of the way she deals with that?

10. As a spy and secret agent from a wealthy, cosmopolitan background, Luz is much more experienced at analyzing and manipulating human emotions than Ciara. What does this mean for their relationship? Additionally, what does it mean that Luz waits until Ciara has an independent position before inviting her to come and live with her?


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