Without ProtestantEngland, Spain prevented the Protestant Netherlands from attaining independence, while the German mercantile city states that financed the Reformation were also suppressed. As a consequence, while Spanish power eventually wanes, the RomanCatholic Church has no rivals and the Pope becomes the effective secular, as well as spiritual, ruler over Europe. The Church thus also controls the restive "New World", as well as "Australasia", where James Cook planted the cobalt flag of the Throne of Peter, instead of the Union Flag, in the 18th century. The social effects include a continuing feudal system and bans on innovation, particularly electricity, leading to a roughly mid-19th century technology with steam traction engines and mechanical semaphore telegraphy. Outlying areas are dangerous, with wild animals and occasional manifestations of the "Old Ones" or "People of the Hills" who leave crab-symbol graffiti. The stories take place at a period when the possibility of revolution is rumoured. The location and flavour, nostalgic yet tragic in outlook, resemble a science-fictional equivalent of the fictionalized Wessex of Thomas Hardy. Real geographical locations play a major role: Golden Cap is the site of a semaphore station, and the castle at Corfe is a key presence in the book.
Over all, the long arm of the Popes reached out to punish and reward; the Church Militant remained supreme. But by the middle of the twentieth century widespread mutterings were making themselves heard. Rebellion was once more in the air . . .
The title alludes to the stately and melancholy dance, the pavane, the book being divided thematically into measures and a coda. After a brief Prologue explaining the back-story, the stories are:
"The Lady Margaret": a lonely steam haulier meets a friend from his past;
"The Signaller": an apprentice semaphore operator is assigned to a remote station;
"The White Boat" : a discontented fisher girl is obsessed with a mysterious yacht;
"Brother John": a monk becomes disaffected by the practices of the Inquisition;
"Lords and Ladies": a woman's bitter memories are evoked at the deathbed of the haulier from the first story, who is her uncle;
"Corfe Gate": an aristocrat, the daughter of the central female character in "Lords and Ladies", is involved in a regional rebellion.
The "Coda" is set some years after the events of the final stories, and centres on the son of the seneschal to the female aristocrat from "Corfe Gate".
Reception
Pavane soon found an important place in the alternative history subgenre of science fiction and the work's high reputation continues; The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction assesses it as "now credited as the finest of all 'alternative histories'". Algis Budrys found the novel to be "a tapestry of a book; a marvel of storytelling", and concluded that, despite an unnecessary Coda, it was "a truly wonderful work".
