A Different Flesh is a collection of short stories set
in the same universe. In the world of A Different Flesh, the ancestors of
the Native Americans never crossed the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age.
However, Homo Erectus did cross into the Americas. Thus, when the
Europeans discover the Americas, they don't find any Native American
civilizations, but they do find tribes of Homo Erectus, whom they refer to as
sims. Also, the Ice Age megafauna of the Americas never went extinct, so
the Europeans also discover a land full of woolly mammoths, sabertooth cats,
giant ground sloths, and giant armadillos among other things.
The stories follow the history of the Federated
Commonwealths of America, this world's equivalent of the United States of
America. Before the start of each story, the mood is set with an excerpt
from a book about the history of the FCA. It also provides great details
about the history of this world that don't quite make it into the stories.
The excerpts also chronicle the relationship between humans and sims.
We're going to take a look at each of the stories
individually, but I'm going to give some overall thoughts first. Well, I
can most certainly say that this book was well worth the wait. Harry
Turtledove says that he got the idea for this series when he read an article by
the late great paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould pondered what
might have happened if John Smith and the Jamestown colonists had discovered
Australopithecus rather than Native Americans in Virginia. Gould
concluded that it would not have ended well for Australopithecus.
Turtledove certainly seems to have come to the same conclusion. One
thing I think he did well was that, though he wrote the sims as sympathetic, he
never made them too anthropomorphized. You can definitely see
similarities between humans and sims, as is to be expected, but at the same
time sims clearly act and think differently than humans.
The first story is called "Vilest Beast" and
is set in Jamestown, Virginia in the year 1610. Without the Native
Americans and their corn, the colonists are having an even hard time than they
did in our world. Despite this, Edward Wingfield and his wife Anne are
making the best of things. Things change when their infant daughter
Joanna is kidnapped by a tribe of sims. Edward must lead a search party
to get her back.
Given what inspired these stories, it's fitting that
the first should take place in Jamestown. Speaking which, we learn how
things went with John Smith and the Sims. It ended badly...for John
Smith. Apparently, the sims killed him in 1607, and his death was a
considerable blow to the moral of the colony. Overall, I would say the
way Turtledove portrays the sims still holds up based on what we know about
Homo Erectus. There's never called Homo Erectus in any of the stories,
but Turtledove has confirmed this is the case in interviews. Also, the
excerpt from the text book mentions that sim fossils have been discovered in
East Africa, South China, and the island of Java. All of which are places
Homo Erectus fossils have been found.
It might come across as a bit silly that they're
called sims, but how was Turtledove to know that there would one day be a video
game called The Sims? These stories were written between 1985-1988, with
A Different Flesh being published in 1988. I'm guessing it was intended
to be short for simians, or something like that.
Also, fun fact, Edward Wingfield was a real person who
existed in our world. I've got to admit, this story hooked me from the
start. I've always been fascinated by the colonization of the Americas,
especially the different ways it often plays out in alternate history.
I'm also a big paleontology fan, so this story was kind of a match made
in heaven. Really, the whole book was kind of like that. I found it
realistic that the colonist struggled more without corn to supplement their
diets. It can't be stressed enough what a difference corn made to the
early colonization of the Americas. Curiously, later stories make mention
of a colony in Massachusetts, which is called Plymouth in this world because Massachusetts
got its name from the Native Americans. Obviously, this means the
Pilgrims still happened, but without any corn they would have been completely
screwed.
Anyway, I loved how the story resolves. Turns
out the sims took Joanna because they wanted to learn more about the colonists
by studying one of their young. By all accounts, the sims treated Joanna
no differently than one of their own young. Edward spends most of the
story viewing the sims as nothing more than wild animals, but after this, he
starts to realize they aren't so different. He even briefly worries about
what's going to happen to the sims as the European continue to colonize the New
World. All in all, "Vilest Beast" is a great start to the
collection.
The next story is called "And So To Bed".
It is set in 1661 and is told in the form of the diary of Samuel Pepys.
He's a figure from our world, a great English statesman, and the Pepys of
our world is indeed famous for his diary. In the world of A
Different Flesh, however, Pepys' diary holds a different significance.
He notes that there is a clear link between chimps, Sims and humans.
He wonders if there's some process that slowly changes life over
time.
This was one of the weaker stories, but it has some
interesting ideas. It makes sense that the Theory of Evolution was
developed earlier. Sims are an obvious link between humans and animals.
It was also fun to learn about a historical figure I'd never heard of
before. Well, anyway, moving right along.
The third story is titled "Around the Salt
Lick". It takes place in the year 1691 and follows a scout named
Thomas Kenton and his loyal sim companion Charles. Thomas is hunting
spearfang cats for their valuable fangs. Spearfang cats have gotten a bit
rare in Virginia, so Thomas and Charles have had to push into the frontier to
find the bounty. However, things get a bit complicated when they come
into conflict with a tribe of wild sims.
This one was maybe not my favorite, but not too bad
either. I did find it funny at the end where Charles turns out to be
snobby towards wild sims. He views them much the same as humans do.
We learn that sims can communicate via sign language, but not vocal
speech. The excerpt from the history book provides more worldbuilding
hints. Apparently, England adopted the Divine Right of Kings model of
government. People who objected to this moved to America in droves.
This would suggest that the English Civil War never happened in this
world. Well, that or maybe the Royalist won. Also, apparently Spain
had a much harder time colonizing the New World without the Aztec and Inca to
conquer. By the time of "Around the Salt Lick" they've only got
two successful colonies: Argentina and New Grenada.
Argentina makes sense, because it has a fairly
European climate, but New Grenada? That was in Colombia, Venezuela and
Ecuador in our world. Unless it was somewhere else, that makes a bit less
sense, especially since it is said Spain struggled to colonize the tropics
without any corn. Also, without Aztec and Incan gold and silver, Spain
would have a harder time financing their wars in Europe. That would
potentially mean the European History took some very different turns. Of
course, that might explain what happened in England. Turtledove is mostly
focused on stories about the sims, but he's certainly lead tantalizing hints at
a wider world.
The fourth story is titled "The Iron
Elephant" and is set in 1782. Hairy elephants play a major role in
the Federated Commonwealths of America. They haul passenger carriages and
freight cars all across the nation. However, this time-honored
institution is facing competition from the new invention of steam-powered
locomotives. A race has been organized between a team of mammoth drivers
and a train engineer. Can flesh and blood triumph over iron and steam?
Yeah, this one is sort of an alternate history
retelling of the legend of John Henry. John Henry is my favorite American
Folk Hero, so I'm not complaining. We get even more worldbuilding here.
Apparently, in order to tame the wooly mammoths, America started
importing elephant trainers from India. The protagonist of the story,
Premier Chand, is descended from these. Also, the Federated Commonwealths
got their independence in 1732, so the American Revolution happened earlier.
This story appear to be set in Illinois based on mention of Cairo
(pronounced Kay-Roe) and the New Nile is obviously the Mississippi River.
Again, no Native Americans, so it isn't called Illinois. I guess
that means Chicago, if it exists, is named something else as well. It's
kind of amazing how many places in America get their names from the Native
Americans.
As fascinating as the world of A Different Flesh is,
not sure I'd wanted to live there. True, I'd get to see all sorts of Ice
Age animals, but it would be a poorer world without the richness of Native
American culture. Also, I have a small amount of Native American
ancestry, so I would not exist in the world of A Different Flesh.
It's interesting that this story features sims the
least of all the stories in the collection. Oh, but they're not absent
from this story. The sims appear towards the end of the story, and
they're are the ones who get the last laugh in the big race. Without
giving too much away, I can say it shows that sims are smarter than they are
given credit for. "The Iron Elephant" is another great story in
the collection.
The fifth story is titled "Though Heavens
Fall" and takes places in 1804. From the textbook excerpt we learn
that Americans used sims as laborers on plantations and farms. This
blunted the Transatlantic Slave Trade to a large extent, but didn't completely
prevent it. Africans were brought to America as slaves, but most of them
wound up as house slaves. Sims make terrible housekeepers, apparently. The story follows a slave named Jeremiah. He's
got a pretty good life on the Gillen plantation in Virginia. Still, he
dreams of the day he saves up enough money to buy his freedom.
Unfortunately, the sims have recently come down with an illness, and Jeremiah
gets sends to the fields to supplement the work force. After a day of
hard labor he decides to make a run for it try his luck in Portsmouth,
Virginia. He takes up residence with lawyer Alfred Douglas, and together
they set out to put the institution of slavery on trial. The outcome of
the trail will impact not just Jeremiah, but Black Americans as a whole.
I think this was possibly my favorite story of the
bunch. Well, "Vilest Beast" was pretty good too, but it is tied
with "Though Heavens Fall". I think the way slavery was
depicted made sense. Slavery has existed as far back as Ancient
Mesopotamia, and I don't think sims would completely element it. The
Greeks and Romans believed in human-like creatures such satyrs, cyclopes, and
centaurs, yet they still had slavery. Still, as is noted in the story,
people would have to recognize that a white person has far more in common with
a black person than with a sim.
Even before the trails you can kind of see that the
characters have kind of figured this out. Mr. Gillen treats Jeremiah
almost like an employee rather than a slave, and seems almost apologetic when
he has to send Jeremiah to the fields. Still, the overseer makes it clear
that he has nothing but contempt for Jeremiah, and black people as a whole.
Moreover, Jeremiah is under no delusions that he is anything other than a
slave. On the flip side, I enjoyed how Jeremiah and Alfred's relationship
developed. They start off as employee and employer, but soon develop a
genuine friendship with one another.
We also get a glimpse into the legal and political
system of the Federated Commonwealths. Apparently, courts use three
judges, one senior judge and two junior judges, for trials. Two of the
three judges must agree for a verdict to pass. Also, the government of
the Federated Commonwealths is bi-cameral legislature divided into the Popular
Assembly and the Senate. Popular Assembly is directly elected by the
people, while the Senate is made of former governors and censors who serve lifetime
terms. At the top of the government are the two censors. They are
elected by the people and serve a single five-year term. The thinking is
that they'll keep each other in check, especially if they're from opposing
parities. As you can see, the Conscript Fathers of the Federated
Commonwealths modeled the nation very closely on the Roman Republic.
I also noticed some similarities to British
Parliament, but that makes sense. We know that America got a lot of
political refugees after England adopted the Divine Right of Kings. That
means that ideas of parliamentary government were floating around in America.
Some of those ideas probably got incorporated into the fabric of the
Federated Commonwealths. It also turns out that sims can speak, but it
takes a considerable amount of effort, and they can only say like one or two
simple words at a time. This is why they use sign language.
There's a really great scene at the end where Jeremiah
is mean to sim that bumps into him on the street. He knows he's being
kind of a dick, but he also knows that blacks would be at the bottom of society
if the sims didn't exist. All in all, a really great addition to A
Different Flesh.
The penultimate story is titled "Trapping
Run". It is set in the Rocky Mountains in 1814 and follows a trapper
named Henry Quick. During a trapping run he gets attacked by a bear, but
fortunately, a tribe of sims find him and nurse him back to health. Quick
has always though to the sims as nothing more than animals, but spending so
much time with them allows Quick to see them as something almost human.
This one took me a but to get into, but I did enjoy it
once it took off. I guess you could say that Quick was really having some
Dances with Sims after his leg healed. Also, from this story we learn
that sims and humans can indeed have hybrid children. I really did enjoy
how Quick came to view the sims as more human as the story went on. He
apparently goes on to become the founder of the Sims Justice Movement. As
we learn in the next story, Henry Quick became quite famous among the sims
because of this. Well, I think that's enough for this one, let's move on.
The final story is called "Freedom" and is
set in 1988. Over the years, sims have been used in all sorts of scientific
research, including AIDS research. The story follows a sim named Matt.
He's a teat subject at the AIDS research center in Terminus, Georgia.
Overall, he's got a pretty cushy life with plenty of food, females, and
regular injections of HIV inhibitor than suppress his symptoms and make him
feel like he doesn't have HIV at all. Maybe he's not technically free,
but he's not complaining. However, a group of sims rights activists
disagrees and decide to kidnap him to set him free. Of course, as they
soon discover, this is easier said than done.
The collection began on a strong note, and it
certainly ends on a strong note as well. A recusing theme throughout A
Different Flesh is about what it means to be humans. Sims are far more
intelligent than most animals, but aren't quite at human levels of
intelligence. This certainly creates a moral conundrum about their place
in society. Even the sims rights activists acknowledge that sims will
never, for example, be elected to public office. Before we get to
anything else, let's address the city name. Terminus is the A Different
Flesh version of Atlanta, Georgia. It might seem odd that this is the case, given that Atlanta is from Classic Mythology, and wouldn’t be impacted by the lack of Native Americans. However, Terminus was indeed the original name of the city. It was changed in 1732, when the colonial governor of Georgia renamed the city after his daughter. We know that the alternate American Revolution happened in 1732, or else that’s when America officially became independent. So, that means the rename never happened. That, or the Americans refused to acknowledge the name change.
Anyway, the Sims Rights activists kind of reminded me
of certain more extreme animal rights groups. I'm talking PETA and their
ilk. Given that this was written in 1988, I can't help but wonder if
Turtledove had that in mind. The activist are certainly well intentioned,
but they clearly didn't think things through, and you know what they say about
the road to hell. They have a hard time convincing Matt not to have sex
with other sims, lest he give them HIV, and they don't bring nearly enough HIV
inhibitor. So, in the end, they have to return him to the AIDS research
center.
From the excerpt we learn that sims were used as slave
labor in factories, and that many displaced factory workers lead sims rights
movements. However, they did this less because they cared about sims, and
more because they didn't like that the sims were taking their jobs. It's
interesting that they helped the sims, but not necessarily for altruistic
reasons. Also, apparently the FCA equivalent of NASA used sims to test
their spacecrafts.
Another theme in this story is about how a freedom is
relative and subjective. The activist think they're freeing Matt, but
they're way more restrictive and stifling than the institute ever was. In
the end, Matt's happy to return to the institute. I especially liked the
end where the other sims ask him what it was like outside. He says that
it isn't like on TV, and that the activist are like all the other humans; they
only care about sims when it serves their personal goals. The story ends on a
bittersweet note. Matt is happy and back home, but the future of sims
remains uncertain. True, it is mentioned that there are three major
reserves the size of moderate sized states, but the sims are also losing their
habitats to development and the continued encroachment of humans. And, as
mentioned, there's the question of just how do that fit into society.
Both issues have been pretty consistent across all the stories, and I guess it
just goes to show that, the more things change, the more they stay the
same.
Ending on a bittersweet note seems pretty realistic to
me. A lot of times, bittersweet is the best you can hope for in real
life. But hey, that's history for you.
Before we wrap things up I've got to talk about the audiobook edition that is here at long last. It is narrated by Paul
Woodson. He's equally adept at pulling off both British and American
accents. I also closed how he gave the sims a distinct accent of their
own. What can I say? The audiobook was worth the wait.
Well, I think that does it for this review. I
absolutely loved A Different Flesh, and I hope that more classic Harry
Turtledove novels get their audiobooks. Hey, we've already got Agent of
Byzantium and The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, things are really looking up
for alternate history audiobook lovers. And yes, my review of Agent of
Byzantium will be here before you know it.
For now, however, I will see you all next time.
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