Literature (1983: Doomsday)
From Alternative History
The following is an incomplete list of literature published after Doomsday.
Contents |
[edit] Fiction
[edit] Southern Cross Trilogy
The Southern Cross trilogy is an alternate history/techno-thriller series by Australian author John Birmingham. The novels focus on a world in where Doomsday never happened. Instead the Soviet Union has become the world's sole superpower as the United States of America has fallen apart due to internal infighting. To prevent Communism from spreading across the entire world, Australia takes up the mantle as defender of the free world. Birmingham uses various characters of different backgrounds to showcase the action taking place in the book.
- Island Getaway (2004): Australia intervenes in a civil war in Indonesia between the Soviet backed Communist guerrillas and the Indonesian government.
- Tropic Thunder (2005): The Soviet Union convinces Argentina to launch an attack on Australian controlled Falkland Islands.
- Summer in Oceania (2007): Soviet and Australian agents race to take control of a rogue American nuclear submarine.
The series has spawned a large amount of controversy. Many critics find the novels to be a "dangerous fantasy" and warn people that it is not healthy to read novels that showcase a world in where the greatest tragedy in world history did not happen. Others, however, have found the novels to be well-written and an excellent portrayal of the little known sub-genre of science fiction that is alternate history. The series is also responsible for the explosion of alternate history novels that have been written since 2004.
As of 2009, Birmingham has not returned to alternate history, though he has stated in an interview that he has a new idea called a "double blind what if." He describes the process of people in an alternate history attempting to guess how history would have turned out if things had actually happened as they did in our reality at the divergence point.
[edit] L'ombre de Demain (The Shadow of Tomorrow)
The Shadow of Tomorrow (2009) is a horror-thriller by French writer Jean Burnel; sometimes called "Lovecraft's successor." It is a bestseller in the Francophone territories, although a fanbase is growing in both the ANZC and the SAC.
The novel is focused primarily on a covert squad of French soldiers sent to explore old Paris. Initially sent to catalog and recover any relics and documents, they soon find strange signatures within the Louvre ruins: survivors of a pre-Doomsday experiment. The soldiers, however, witness more than they bargained for. The experiment, as it's revealed, turned out to be an attempt to weaponize ancient relics from the Old Ones; recovered in the years leading up to Doomsday. Vivid descriptions are presented on how the researchers shut themselves in their demented work; so obsessed that not even the bomb stopped them...at least not immediately. What follows is a journey into the dark bowels of madness as they attempt to seal and escape the titular "Shadow of Tommorow."
French publications - both print and online - hail the novel as a masterwork of horror, and "hopefully" the first in a wide spanning series. Already "fan debates" are emerging between those of Burnel and Lovecraft. The book is currently distributed internationally, in both local languages and French.
[edit] Non-fiction
[edit] World Factbook
The World Factbook (also known as the League of Nations World Factbook) is a reference resource produced by the League of Nations with almanac-style information about the current number of survivor nations existing in the world since Doomsday. It was first published on August 17, 2009. Its purpose is to inform the world population about what is happening in other parts of the world, especially whether any new nations have been discovered in the devastated Northern Hemisphere. It provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of LoN-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world. Its meant to be used a reference guide for world leaders, but already their are orders for copies from universities and major bookstores.
With continual reports from both foreign governments and the WCRB, there is concern on the Factbook becoming outdated fairly quickly. Plans are underway to release The World Factbook Online Database, as well as a 2nd print edition by at least 2010.
[edit] WCRB Records: Recovered Media from the Far East
Recovered Media from the Far East (2008) is a collection of WCRB journal-reviews and reports on media from Martial Law-era Philippines and Japan. The former concerns the discovery of underground press works - poems, recorded broadcasts and books - that were hidden from Ferdinand Marcos during the "Indefinite Emergency (the post-Doomsday purges)." The works reveal both startling brutality and amazing insight into an awakening Philippine psyche. Annotations are provided by Diaspora scholars to provide context on the chaos that preceded the Bloodless Coup of '87.
The latter is derived almost entirely from the notes and sample "recovered material" of Col. Zakharov of Socialist Siberia, during the 2004 Reopening of Japan; later given to the WCRB. The media are a mixture of pre-Doomsday works - including tapes of the unknown 1979 TV series Mobile Suit Gundam - and more contemporary novels and so-called manga. Included are segments of the manga Barefoot Gen, a traumatic tale of the first atomic strike in Hiroshima; and an early warning of the horrors of Doomsday. It provides light into a culture that, for much of the world, seemed to vanish into oblivion when the bombs fell.
When it was first distributed to bookstores in the ANZC and Tonga, there was little in the way of advertising. Only through word of mouth did it begin to gain attention out of the academe into the mainstream. In 2009, requests are made on a possible Second Volume; due to popular demand.
[edit] Walking Alone On Hell’s Highway
Walking Alone On Hell’s Highway (1993) is a book based off the personnel diary of Larson Miller, as he trekked to a mythical land where America was said to still exist. He must deal with the wild animals that now live within the urban jungle, including an escaped African elephant, and hide from the bandits that still patrolled those areas at the time. It would take him almost three years before he reached the undamaged city, which the inhabitants called Mackinaw.
Many criticize his work as not being plausible, especially considering that he was the only survivor of his town following Doomsday, that he would likely not have had the physical strength to carry out many of the actions within the book, and no way to back up his story. The only part specifically proven was that he entered Mackinaw City on June 8th, 1986, due to existing government records within the Republic of Superior.
Despite these criticisms, the work has gained a large following, considering it a guide or viewpoint into the lives of refugees during the dark first years Post-Doomsday. Though its popularity is mainly confined to the Republic of Superior, it has since 2007 begun publications elsewhere.
[edit] The Last American President
The Last American President (2000) is a biographical history of former American President George H. W. Bush, by now critically acclaimed historian William Feston. It is to date one of the most successful books in the former American states of Hawaii and Alaska, and, upon its expansion into the North American continent in 2008, has become a bestseller within the Republic of Superior and Aroostook.
The story itself begins with a brief summary of what could be established as the former President’s early life, given that all records had been destroyed during Doomsday, or were unattainable. This was, as a result, largely written from the memories of the surviving Bush family members, and cannot be considered totally nonfiction.
The book itself starts on the first chapter with the George Bush landing in Australia, patiently waiting for next air craft that will never come. Even as he was sworn in, he held out some hope that Reagan was simply secluded upon the Hawaiian Islands, or possibly on an island in the Pacific. Those hopes die hard as the years past, and it has only been recently that he has openly accepted that Reagan was truly dead.
His Presidency would only be surpassed by that of Franklin Roosevelt, though he had only been elected once. His attempts to hold together what was left of the United States of America, though noble in purpose, would ultimately fail. Realizing this, he would formally order the disbandment of the American Provisional Government in 1995.
At the request of George H. W. Bush himself, all proceeds from the books sales, including his own royalties, go to fund the United American History Museum, which details the complete and total history of the United States of America, or at least what can be pieced together at the time.
[edit] See also
| ||||||||||||||||||||
