Customer Reviews

A Different World: 1961

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With the "Alternate History" genre in vogue I thought I'd pass on what this book is, and isn't. Character development isn't the author's strong suit...but that's not really why you read Alternate History is it? I share the author's joy in the "What If?" of history. The primary character, Ferguson, is a reporter who relays all that happens... An invasion of Cuba... Conflict in Berlin between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which threatens to engulf Europe in nuclear war... and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, pushing ahead without the leadership of Martin Luther King. The events are plausible, and the military battles skillfully & accurately written.

I have several hundred Alternate History novels, short story collections and even magazine articles so I am constantly on the outlook for both alternate history and good fiction. This work is at the top of both lists. First it creates a plausible, well researched and complete alternate history world. Here JFK is killed in the Pacific during WWII allowing Nixon as President in 1960 to escalate the Bay of Pigs, or perhaps professionalize it would be a better description. The author uses several viewpoints, mainly from the ground level (reporter, Marine, lawyer and pilot) but mixes in enough high political drama to keep the reader informed. My only regret is that it seems perfectly set up for a squeal, but to date none has been published that I know of. Get this book.