This bit, though: "Stonewall Jackson fails to die as a result of his injuries at Chancellorsville, a turn of events that has left the Civil War raging back East some fifteen years."
Shows a dreadfully poor conception of ACW history, though. You could stretch possibility to say that Jackson's survival allows Lee to win at Gettysburg and he then takes D.C, leading to a settlement and cold war, but the idea that one crazy general could hold off the Union's disproportionate strength in a 15 year stalemate just won't fly.
-Kle.
Any novel that bends history in order to make a plot point out of my former office building (the Smith Tower, which in reality went up a few years after it's depicted in the book) gets a gold star from me.
I miss working in my little antique skyscraper. *nostalgic sniffle* ;)
I was very interested in this book, I love the idea of it, but when I went to pick it up, the print is all in sepia! My eyes would be bleeding after that! Gah! ::shakes fist at the heavens::
Alt history or no, Washington State in the 1860s would have been so sparely populated it hardly makes sense that people would choose to remain in a zombie-infested, poison gas-filled walled city. Most likely, they would move 5 miles down the road and start again. (Of course, I haven't read the book--there may be a very good explanation for this.)
On the other hand, I love the author's use of the word blight, the term usually invoked in eminent domain cases when a city want to demolish someone's neighborhood to build a freeway or a shopping mall.
@Spaceboy: I'm having bad luck lately with new sci-fi and fantasy books...very few of the ones I want to read are coming in ebook format. I use Mobipocket on my smartphone and it's a pain to find new sci-fi for it. Guess I'll swing by the bookstore tomorrow and grab this and The Quiet War.
One would assume that sci-fi authors would generally be more tech savvy and more open to publishing their stuff in ebook format. Maybe it's just the opposite and they know how frequently they're pirated or maybe the publisher has the final word. :shrug:
This book was fantastic. My vote for an io9 Book Club discussion. Plus, Cherie is internet-savvy and sociable, maybe she would be down for a Q&A session.
@thefirstbardo: I agree, could be an interesting choice - I probably wouldn't get around to reading it otherwise, but sounds like a fun book to have discussions on.
10/13/09
This bit, though:
"Stonewall Jackson fails to die as a result of his injuries at Chancellorsville, a turn of events that has left the Civil War raging back East some fifteen years."
Shows a dreadfully poor conception of ACW history, though. You could stretch possibility to say that Jackson's survival allows Lee to win at Gettysburg and he then takes D.C, leading to a settlement and cold war, but the idea that one crazy general could hold off the Union's disproportionate strength in a 15 year stalemate just won't fly.
-Kle.
10/12/09
I miss working in my little antique skyscraper. *nostalgic sniffle* ;)
10/12/09
10/12/09
On the other hand, I love the author's use of the word blight, the term usually invoked in eminent domain cases when a city want to demolish someone's neighborhood to build a freeway or a shopping mall.
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
One would assume that sci-fi authors would generally be more tech savvy and more open to publishing their stuff in ebook format. Maybe it's just the opposite and they know how frequently they're pirated or maybe the publisher has the final word. :shrug:
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09