Remembering L. Sprague DeCamp.

Who?

Only one of the forgotten greats of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

"Lest Darkness Fall" sparked my nearly encyclopedic interest in the Ostrogothic Kingdom. DeCamp was one of the classic science fiction writers who actually knew what he was writing about. Unlike the execrable Dan Brown, you could rely on DeCamp to give you good history, as well as some good plots and funny lines.

I still remember his character - a 20th Century man mysteriously translated back to 6th Century Italy - explaining to the religiously-mad inhabitants that he was a Methodist, which was a lot like an Arian, Nestorian, Montanist or whatever sect the person that he was talking to happened to be.