Fireball (novel)

Fireball is the first of the Fireball Trilogy by John Christopher, first published in 1981, exploring the adventures of two cousins when they were suddenly transported into an alternate history Earth through a mysterious fireball.

Simon, a British, met his cousin Brad, an American, but did not get along. Simon found out unfortunately that not only was Brad conceited, Brad was actually learned enough to be conceited.

The two boys were drawn into a mysterious glowing ball which instantly transported them into what seemed to be more than a thousand years back in history.

Eventually, they realised it was not to the past but an alternate Earth they had arrived in, but one which in history, the Romans won an important battle and as a result, kept status quo the Roman Empire. The stability led to stagnation of technological development as there was no motivation for change.

The boys were separated to be sold as slaves. Brad though, was able to make use of, having learned and remembered Latin, to get a closet Christian to purchase his freedom. It turned out that Christianity never became the State Religion, and also never got far from being a persecuted forbidden religion. With the help of other Christians, Brad located and freed Simon.

By evidence of his modern wrist-watch, Brad convinced the Pope they came from a different and more technologically advanced world.

The opportunistic Brad offered to help the Pope raise an army to overthrow the Roman authorities, ostensibly to cease oppressions of the Christians, but mainly, in return for power, status and wealth for the cousins to rise in the new realms.

Simon went along because he wanted to free the slaves and promote equal status for non-Romans, and because he fell in love with a high born girl.

Brad introduced to the Christian armed forces the stirrup and the longbow, which were never invented in that realm. The Christian forces was victorious and the Pope entered Rome riding on a donkey.

However, Simon was quickly disillusioned when the new Church authorities began forcing all people to convert or face death by the pendulum.

Together with Bos, a gladiator, and the staunch pagan, Curtius, both formerly on the side of the rebellion, they sailed off on a ship towards the New World.

This novel was followed by two sequels, New Found Land (1983) and Dragon Dance (1986)