Lord Darcy

These are, I believe, all the genuine Lord Darcy stores (there have been imitations). Lord Darcy was one of the pioneers of the fantasy/mystery combination which has since become popular, The stories actually got printed in Analog despite its "hard sf" reputation. The argument, I suppose, is that

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magic in these stories operates by clear rules, so arbitrary solutions are supposedly ruled out.The setting is an alternate history in which Richard the Lionhearted recovered from his wound (which judging from accounts would have been medically possible, if he had refrained from sex) and went on to settle down to be a wise ruler for many years and turn over his throne to his nephew Arthur, who again turned out to be a wise ruler (rather contrary to his hot-headed adolescence in real history) so the line of Prince John never got the throne. There is a reference to as great king RIchard in the fifteenth century who might be equivalent to RIchard III, though of course the real Richard III descended from John. The Angevin Empire controls Britain, France, Ireland, and colonies in America, but is engaged in a cold war with Poland which apparently stayed at its late medieval/early modern height (how is not explained, but one hint is that its crown is apparently hereditary, not elective as in the declining days of the real Poland).

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