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Miraculous, Phantasmagorical Adventures in Search of He, She, and Jess, and Leading to the Finding of “IT”: A Haggard Conclusion , a direct sequel to He: A Companion to She , and also featuring Aristophano as protagonist; King Solomon’s Treasures ; and Bess: A Companion to Jess . The latter two books were also reprinted in King Solomon’s Children , and It was included in the anthology, They . The two remaining parodies, Ma and Pa , are not fantastic; both were written anonymously for Norman L. Munro in the spring of 1887 by Jacob Ralph Abarbanell, another hack writer for the line.
    It is not recorded what Rider Haggard himself thought of these efforts. But if parody is the sincerest form of flattery, surely he must have been amused.

4. DANCE OF THE SPHERES
    KEITH ROBERTS AND THE PAVANE OF HISTORY (1979)
    One of the more interesting and peculiar subgenres of science fiction is the alternate history, in which the known facts of past human existence are changed just enough to bring about a different result in the modern world. Hence, we have worlds in which the South won the Civil War (Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee and MacKinlay Kantor’s If the South Had Won the Civil War ); in which the Nazis won World War II (Eric Norden’s The Ultimate Solution and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle ); in which the atom bomb never worked and the United States actually invaded the Japanese mainland (David Westheimer’s Lighter Than a Feather ); and even a novel in which the Arabs defeated the Israelis ( If Israel Lost the War , by Richard Z. Chesnoff, Edward Klein, and Robert Littell). But perhaps the best-conceived and most human of these enterprises in destiny is Keith Roberts’s masterpiece, Pavane .
    In 1588 Queen Elizabeth I is shot and killed by a Catholic fanatic. As a result the Spanish Armada successfully invades England, Spain’s Philip II becomes King, and the Catholic Church is restored to a position of pre-eminence. With the power of the English people now behind them, the Popes are able to subdue the forces of Protestant resistance throughout Europe, and once again make themselves political masters of the civilized world. The inquisition is introduced into England and the other ex-Protestant states. The American colonists remain permanently under Spanish rule.
    Roberts choreographs his stately dance into six “Measures,” each originally published separately, loosely connecting them to form a picture of a society in transition. The first story, “The Lady Margaret,” is set in 1968, but this is a time that bears little resemblance to the year in which Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. The Church has retarded technological progress: electricity is outlawed, and the internal combustion engine is banned. Society is restricted and controlled through a series of closed guilds and family enterprises.
    Strange and Sons is one such business, a shipping firm which hauls its goods over the English countryside in six- or ten-car rail-less steam-powered trains. The Lady Margaret is the magnificent engine being driven by Jesse Strange, owner of the company, on the last run to the coast for the winter season. Jesse’s father, Eli Strange, has recently died, and with the death of one driver, the firm is shorthanded; Jesse himself must make the final trip. The hauler’s twin enemies are the cold and the Routiers , Norman bandits who roam the countryside looking for easy prey. But Jesse is intensely loyal to the ideals of hard work, tradition, and responsibility to his company, and he pushes on in spite of the danger and harsh conditions. Near the end of his journey he is attacked by the brigands, led by one of his old school chums; Jesse lets them have the last carriage in line, thereby saving the rest of his train. As he drives off through the night, the darkness is lit by a flash of light and a loud explosion: the bandits have been destroyed through their own greed.
    The second