I've read and re-read this one and I'm re-reading yet again. To be honest, many of Harry Turtledove's alternative universe books confuse me, with the multiple viewpoints; this is one of a number that only have two viewpoints. In this case, the viewpoints are those of William Shakespeare, living in an England occupied by the Spanish when the Armada succeeded, and Lope de Vega, a playwright who was Spain's answer to Shakespeare, who, in this novel, is one of the occupying soldiers. Shakespeare has been commissioned to write two plays - one by the Spanish, who want him to do a biography of King Phillip, who is dying, one by the British underground, led by Lord Burleigh, allowed to live free while Elizabeth is in the Tower. The theme is not unlike that of a British TV mini-series called "An Englishman's Castle" which I saw many years ago, set in a post-war Britain occupied by the Nazis.

I loved the way it read like a perfectly good historical novel - in a history that never was. There's none of the SF elements that were in the also-wonderful "Guns Of The South". In this world Christopher Marlowe is still alive and has written many plays he never did in our own world, but those who assassinated him in our world are still around also. Love it, love it!