Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
Read other letters about this article
Guerrillas rise up in Nazi-occupied Britain
A haunting new alternative history imagines an invading German army living alongside the natives in rural Wales.
By Laura Miller [2008-03-18]

  • Points of Interest

    This has been some week for Salon letter-writing SF aficionados, with the death of Arthur C. Clarke [and the subsequent great essay/eulogy from Andrew Leonard] and, now, this sub-genre alt-history novel [even though its premise, as some writers have taken care to point out, is similar, partly, to an event which actually took place].

    Points of interest: I'd always thought the first notable literary work to devote itself to an alternate history of the American Civil War was "Bring the Jubilee" by the great SF master, Ward Moore, in the very early fifties. I'm surprised that Churchill may have beaten him to it. The black filmmaker, Kevin Willmot, was inspired, I believe, by Moore's work when he made 2005's "C.S.A."

    Likewise, I'd been under the impression that the somewhat [undeservedly] obscure British SF/fantasy writer, Sarban, with his "Sound of his Horn," was one of the first writers to tackle an alternate outcome to World War II followed by the American Masters, C.M. Kornbluth's "Two Dooms" and, of course, as Laura Miller has mentioned, Phil Dick's "Castle."

    Lastly, would anyone know if it's possible to obtain the long out of print "Jubilee"?

    -- Rocky57
    [Read Rocky57's other letters]
    Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:21 AM
Read other letters about this article

Letters Help