Alternate history novels always start with a “what if” premise. What if Germany won the second World War (Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle) or JFK’s assassination was averted (Stephen King’s 11/23/63.)? In the novel THE ANGELS OF ANTILA, author RG Shacklett poses the question: What if the indigenous people of North America gave Spanish explorers smallpox instead of the other way around? Brother Alonso, an orphan raised by Spanish monks, narrates the story. Alonso’s uncanny ability to translate foreign languages lands him a spot on an exploratory naval mission. Admiral Cristobal Colon (better known as Christopher Columbus) is taking the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria in search of a new route to India and China. Instead, they stumble upon Haiti, Cuba, and the other islands of the Caribbean. Since they find no gold or riches on these strange islands, they round up a group of natives to bring back to Spain as enslaved people. Colon/Columbus can’t return to the King and Queen empty-handed. But it is a doomed expedition from that point on, as the Spanish sailors fall deathly ill with fever and red sores. What is this mysterious “spot fever,” and why are the natives immune to it?
Brother Alonso’s transformation from a meek translator to a seasoned sailor to a leader of men is the underlying journey taken in ANGELS OF ANTILA. The narrative is fast and the action swashbuckling and Shacklett packs his historical fiction with plenty of facts, especially when depicting the cramped and claustrophobic interiors of the Santa Maria, crammed full of dead and dying sailors. Parts of the novel feel like Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, with its quick-thinking fish-out-of-water hero and mutinous subplots. But ANGELS OF ANTILA takes a more spiritual approach, as Alonso’s faith is challenged by corrupt church officials, power-hungry politicians, and greedy seafarers. Still, Alonso and his native bride, Tali, follow a hero’s quest that still feels triumphant despite smallpox toppling the Spanish kingdom. Alonso’s decision to pursue a romance with Tali doesn’t feel like a failure of his holy vows but the fulfillment of a higher calling. Shacklett writes him as a moral man in a dangerous and uncertain world and if there had been more men like him around in 1492, history would have turned out very differently.
ANGELS OF ANTILA is the tale of drama, disease, and murder on the high seas as author RG Shacklett rewrites history in this fun, swashbuckling, alternate history adventure.
~Rob Errera for IndieReader