In their heavily regimented Communist country, the biggest excitement for a group of friends is a wargame shop called The Gladiator. When the store is shut down for teaching counterrevolutionary tactics, only one staffer remains--a time trader, who had been accidentally left behind.

Reviews

Set in a future world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, Turtledove's absorbing fourth Crosstime Traffic novel (after 2005's In High Places) is the best yet in this SF series with substantial YA crossover. The two main characters are particularly well drawn: 17-year-old Annarita Crosetti and 16-year-old Gianfranco Mazzilli, students at Enver Hoxha Polytechnic in a Milan that's part of the quasi-Stalinist Italian People's Republic. Gianfranco is a fairly hopeless student, until he discovers a new game shop called the Gladiator, where he's delighted to play a game, Rails Across Europe, that improves his algebra scores. When the security police close down the shop for teaching capitalism, the head clerk, who's a friend of Gianfranco's and a marooned outtimer, goes on the lam. Fans of Turtledove's unambiguously adult alternative history (Days of Infamy, etc.) will find this effort up to his usual high standard. (June) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"One of alternate history's authentic modern masters."
-"Booklist"

"Turtledove has proved he can divert his readers to astonishing places...I know I'd follow his imagination almost anywhere."
-"San Jose"" Mercury News"

"Readers nostalgic for the SF novels of Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton will find much to enjoy...This is a rousing story that reminds us that 'adventure' is really someone else in deep trouble a long way off."
-"Publishers Weekly" on "Gunpowder Empire"