Natasha Pulley’s THE KINGDOMS opens in an alternate London – one controlled by the French following their victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The city has been repurposed as a hub for industry. Written English has been outlawed and French citizens own most of the remaining homes and businesses.

In this other London, Joe Tournier discovers himself on a train platform with no idea how he got there. He is diagnosed with a common case of epileptic amnesia.

People all over the country have been experiencing flashes of false memory and remembering people who never existed. But the arrival of a postcard convinces Joe that his visions of a different life are real.

When Joe visits the lighthouse depicted on the postcard, he is captured by an old vessel from the defunct British Navy – captained by an unstable man named Missouri Kite.

Kite explains that the lighthouse is near a portal in time, and Joe has been transported to the past. Recently, a ship passed through this portal and was captured by the French Navy. Most of the crew was taken prisoner; the French used the crew’s knowledge of their own past to turn the tide of the war and defeat the British – leading to the French-controlled England that Joe came from.

It is Kite’s plan to use Joe’s expertise as an engineer to change history again and return control of England to the British.

Kite knows that history has been altered because one man – Jem Castlereagh – escaped from the captured ship and was picked up by the British. Kite was on the ship that saved him, and he and Jem became close.

During his stay on the ship, Joe is not told much about Jem – except that Kite killed him.

As Joe learns more about his captors and their desperate bid to save the British Empire, he develops a sense of belonging that he does not understand. He cannot reconcile his knowledge of what Kite has done with his overwhelming sense of loyalty to the insane man. On top of that struggle, he knows that helping defeat the French will destroy the family that he left behind in the future.

There is a lot to process in THE KINGDOMS; it is both a straightforward alternate history, told like historical fiction, and a deeply interior look at loss and trauma.

Pulley does not shy away from gruesome depictions of battle. Kite’s ship – crewed by women and children alongside what remains of the Navy – charges through a French blockade to rejoin the British command fleet.

During the battle, Joe is helping in the infirmary where Kite’s no-nonsense sister, Agatha, holds court. In the midst of the battle, she is shot down with no warning, and afterward Kite barely reacts to the news that his sister was killed.

Kite’s life has been full of violence and struggle. Like Joe, I found myself unable to hate Kite despite his frequent threats of violence and his open admission that he is a murderer. Beneath that, he is surprisingly soft-hearted.

The novel is a whirlwind of interesting characters and memorable scenes. It was something a little outside-the-box for me, but I am glad that I gave it a try.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian