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Anarquia

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What if rocket scientist Wernher von Braun hadn't worked for the Nazis before and during World War II but instead had made aerial weapons for the anarchists in Spain? What if, while fleeing Europe and her arms manufacturer husband Fritz Mandl on her way to Hollywood, actress Hedy Lamarr had met, inspired, and become the lover of von Braun? What if, instead of being crushed between the Republicans (Communists) and Nationalists (fascists) during the Spanish Civil War, disparate anarchist factions had successfully linked arms and won out (with the help of von Braun's rockets)?

Those are a few what if's addressed by ANARQUIA, a sci-fi alternate history of the Spanish Civil War by Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent Hastings. I've had a copy of this novel for a few months, and I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it. I'm glad I finally did, because I had a blast reading it. Ever since I first read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" in the seventh grade, I've been fascinated by the idea that if you tweak this or that in a timeline, new paths emerge and things down the pike necessarily change. L. Neil Smith has written some wonderful spins on history (his PROBABILITY BROACH, of course, is a libertarian classic). And Harry Turtledove's made an industry of the alternate history genre.

But ANARQUIA is special in that it covers ground I can't recall seeing covered before. There have been dozens of speculative novels about "what if Hitler had won WWII?" New takes on the U.S. Civil War are pretty common. But the Spanish Civil War is fresh territory, and Linaweaver and Hastings don't waste it. They've stuffed every conceivable "what if" into Anarchía, as well as every possible true-life figure you can imagine: Eric Blair (aka George Orwell), Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Francisco Franco, Louis B. Mayer, G.K. Chesterton, Ayn Rand (and her husband Frank O'Connor, who has an affair with Hedy Lamarr in the book), Konrad Zuse, John Dos Passos, and scores of others. And almost every political stripe is represented: Fascists, Falangists, Carlists, Marxists, Trotskyites, Separatists, Loyalists, Royalists, International Brigades, Comintern members, Syndicalists, Distributists...

Some readers will be annoyed that the dialogue in ANARQUIA often consists of speeches. But that's customary in most philosophical novels (think Rand).

This novel's a must for both history buffs and political junkies.

Anarquia is an "alternate history" with a timeline that initially differs from ours in just two key ways: (1) German rocketeer Wernher von Braun has an accident as a 10-year-old boy that lands him in reform school, and (2) the Agorist school of free-market anarchism is developed in America at least four decades earlier than in reality. These two pivotal differences make all the difference in the world, as they lead the Spanish Anarchists to victory over both the Communists and Fascists in the historic(though often forgotten) three-way Spanish Civil War that preceded World War II.

Although Anarquia's action is centered in Spain, it is not limited to this locale, as scenes also take place in Germany, Russia, and the United States. Indeed, the book does not actually have a "Spanish feel," but a vintage Hollywood instead. The male and female leads are the previously mentioned Wernher von Braun and the big-screen bombshell Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr's characterization is that of a Randian superwoman, and von Braun is her "ideal man" -- all the better since Lamarr meets Ayn Rand in the novel and even has an affair with Rand's husband -- yes, it's that good! Other notable characters include George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway, as well as the fictional Howard Davidson and Chuck Hammil -- the former a composite of American pulp writers of the 1930s; the latter an American businessman and early proponent of laissez-faire minarchy. Oh, and there is G.K. Chesterson, who joins Distributists in an alliance with Anarchists, who are led by Buenaventura Durruti. These Anarchists are not just the Spanish collectivist sort of historical reality, but also individualists from all over the world (mirroring the Communists' aptly named "Abraham Lincoln brigades"), including those anachronistic American Agorists.

Hitler, Stalin, and Franco are also featured; as are John Dos Passos, Fritz Mandl, Louis B. Mayer, Goebbels, and several others in bit roles. Konrad Zuse, the father of modern computer technology, is the only prominent character I haven't mentioned thus far, and when his ideas are paired with those of von Braun and Ms. Lamarr (who in real life had a patent on a frequency-hopping radio secrecy system that is used in PCS cell phones today), it gives the Anarchists the technology they need to win. American Agorists provide the money (as if!). An alliance with individualist Anarchists and Distributists provides the man-power. But again, it is the ideas that are paramount, and the war is won by the side with the best scientific ideas.

Anarquia is a novel about ideas. Scientific ones, as well as political ones. What other novel features characters who are Anarchists (collectivist and individualist), Carlists, Democratic Republicans, Distributists, Fallangists, Fascists, Marxists, Mincarchists, Monarchists, Nazis, Objectivists, Social Democrats, Stalinists, Stirnerites, Syndicalists, Trotskyists, and probably several I didn't pick up on or don't remember. The character George Orwell, a man of ideas, was right at home in this novel, and he took great pleasure in the vibrancy of the varying ideologies present in this world. I especially liked Orwell's distillation of the "new" strategy of Agorism: "The good guys should disappear into the black market and stay there. This would cause serious problems for the bad guys. End of story" Beautiful!

I don't want to spoil too much of the book for anyone, but I must comment on a couple of my favorite scenes before concluding this review. First, the encounter between Ayn Rand and Hedy Lamarr is priceless. Rand is so well written, her voice so pitch perfect, the imagery surrounding the scene so engrossing -- it truly is marvelous. Second, the bull-fight-gone-wrong attended by Ernest Hemingway and the fictional Howard Davidson is an incredibly entertaining scene, both horrifying and amusing at the same time. These are but two of the more memorable highlights of this alternative history, which is written with such vivid attention to detail as to supplant the real history in my own mind: it should have happened this way!

Of course, there is the one great flaw of Anarquia: It's length. The actual novel is finished by page 193 and contains a lot of back-matter. Normally, I admire a novel for being concise and too the point, but Anarquia was such an unadulterated joy to experience, I wish it were another 600 pages long -- and the material certainly exists for this to have been the case. In one of the six afterwards following the conclusion of the story, it is mentioned that a sequel for Anarquia is planned. I hope this is true. I will be the first one to buy a copy!