Pavane

Keith Roberts' very highly regarded but mostly now-neglected alternate history (fix-up) novel depicts a world, specifically southwestern England, where the Catholic Church rules supreme. Technology remains at an industrial revolution stage of advancement; steam trains charge across the landscape and semaphore towers send messages to other parts of the country.

This is a slow-moving and thoughtful book; very literary and sublimely written. The English countryside - specifically of Dorset - is clearly a significant source of inspiration and plays a huge part in the overall mood of this novel, which I would describe as melancholic and faintly nostalgic. The attention to detail is excellent and the characters sympathetic, focusing on the everyday struggles and concerns of the people in this alternate timeline rather than the action-laden, wide but shallow approach taken by many other alt-history narratives.