That's all very fine, but what about the book itself? I've already said I loved it, and I think I liked it even more upon rereading. It's an Alternate History (a genre with which Sanders is very comfortable), the historical divergence in this case occurring in the 13th century when the Mongols continued into Western Europe and laid it to waste, leaving a century or so later. As a result, Europe remained a backwater, and North America was separately colonized on the East Coast by Islamic people, and on the West Coast by the Chinese. (Also, Islamic weapons helped the Aztecs forge a more powerful Empire in Mexico.)

This book is set in the late 17th century. The hero and narrator is an Irishman, Finn of No Fixed Abode, who has to leave Ireland in a hurry, having knocked up the High King's teenage daughter. Finn is an appealing rascal, with the expected inconvenient (to him) sense of morals which messes him up just when he doesn't need it to. He ends up on an Arabic slaver, headed for Kaafiristan (the Arabic name for their portion of North America), upon which he meets a Jew named Yusuf and an Englishman named Alfred. Escaping the slavers, the three find their way (along with a beautiful redhead named Maeve) to the Great Plains, and decide to head for the Chinese colony, called Fusang. But fate, as it were, has different plans for them, and Finn and his friends first have to deal with a mad Cossack bent on taking over the Continent.

The plot is clever enough, involving and nicely worked out, but it's not the point of the book. The book is simply a pleasure to read: very funny throughout. Sanders has a great raconteur's style, such that each individual scene is a story within a story, and fun to read, as well as humorous and clever. Finn's misadventures are believable, arising sometimes from his own mistakes, and either good or bad luck, and sometimes from his attempts to do good. But even while the general tone of the novel is very comic, the horrors of life at that time, especially the specific horrors of slavery and the mad Cossack's war, are not painted over, so that despite the comedy there is real passion and the reader is quite moved on occasion.

Sanders also makes much of the opportunity to compare the standard prejudices of his alternate history with those of our real history, to the detriment of unthinking people in both timelines, and demonstrating once again what silliness racism is based upon. Finally, Sanders takes delight in cute pop culture references, such as his alternate Will Shaxpur's version of the Tempest, which bears a suspicious resemblance to Gilligan's Island, or Finn's mule, which looks like it could almost talk, and which he calls Francis. These bits are interlarded throughout the story, but they do not become intrusive. They are just extra fillips.

I enjoyed this novel immensely, on my original reading, and rereading it now. Highly recommended for those who haven't encountered it yet. Even if you have the original book, this is a good chance to reread it in a larger edition, with some extra scenes.