R.I.P. Harry Harrison (1925-2012)

American science fiction author Harry Harrison passed away today. Born on March 12, 1925, he is best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966); the latter was the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973).

Although he was best known for his general science fiction, Harrison was a prolific alternate history writer. Readers of Weekly Update have heard Chris Nuttall and myself discuss his alternate American Civil War Stars and Stripes trilogy, where the early death of Price Albert removes his moderating influence over the Trent Affair leading to not only British intervention in the Civil War, but also a war to regain the lost colonies.

Now I won't mince words, Stars and Stripes wasn't Harrison's best work, but I also want to go on record and say he was still a good author. My favorite Harrison novel has to be the The Hammer and the Cross. The novel is the first in a series following a half-English, half-Danish bastard slave named Shef who sides with the Vikings invading England to save the woman he loves in 865 AD. He ends up king of a religiously-tolerant and technologically advanced northern England. The sequel novels, which I have not read yet, describe Shef's campaign in Scandinavia and his conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire. I highly recommend the first novel and I hope to share my views of the entire series in the near future.

If you listened to my episode on Dissecting Worlds, you probably heard Kehaar and Matt Farr also mention their own favorite Harrison works (after ripping into Stars and Stripes). I believe they mentioned The Stainless Steel Rat and A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! While Stainless Steel Rat is non-allohistorical series, the second volume of the series (The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World) involves the hero travelling back in time to fix history after discovering a world where Napoleon conquered England. A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! meanwhile, involves a very divergent world that includes an Islamic Spain, an early death for Louis XI and a failed American Revolution. There the main character is trying to build an tunnel connecting North America with Britain and was chosen by you the readers as having some of the best dialogue in alternate history.

Other alternate history novels by Harrison include A Rebel in Time (where a racist army officer goes back in time to help the Confederacy, pre-dating Turtledove's Guns of the South by almost a decade) and the Eden trilogy (where intelligent dinosaurs have colonized the New World only to discover another sapient species already there). Harrison also wrote a lot of short fiction set in alternate timelines including "Letter from the Pope", "Down to Earth", "Run from the Fire" and "The Wicked Flee".

While I might not have always agreed with his speculation about the past, I can't deny that Harrison had a profound affect on the genre. He was a prolific writer who showed that history could be fun and entertaining.  He will be missed by all of us who dream of other whens.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Dissecting Worlds Series 6 Episode 4: The American Civil War

Well it is finally here, my guest spot on the Dissecting Worlds podcast, my first ever podcast appearance.  I join Kehaar and Matt Farr as we look at that popular alternate history setting of the American Civil War. Topics covered during the podcast include:

• Harry Harrison’s Star and Stripes series, the Trent Affair and options for European intervention.
• Harry Turtledove’s TL-191 and the romanticism of both sides of the ACW.
• The appeal (and consequences) of a Balkanized North America and an Anglo-American Union.
• Everyone's favorite winged extraterrestrials and South African Nazis.
• One of my favorite comic books: Captain Confederacy!
• Race in America and its legacy in fiction and reality. I'm calling you out H.P. Lovecraft!

Special thanks to Chris Nuttall, Richard Small and Roger L. Ransom for giving me food for thought while preparing for the podcast.

I hope you enjoy our discussion and remember: feedback is appreciated.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Review: "Stars and Stripes" trilogy by Harry Harrison

Guest Review by Chris Nuttall.

Stars and Stripes Forever
Stars and Stripes in Peril
Stars and Stripes Triumphant

It is quite easy to see why Harry Harrison got published in the first place. His Stainless Steel Rat series remains one of my favourite comedy SF books, although the last one wasn't so good. His attempts at writing more serious novels have generally been flops, although there have sometimes been redeeming features that made up for tissue-thin plots and unexciting characters. Harrison is not cut out for writing serious novels and it shows.

And then there is the Stars and Stripes series.

I shall be blunt. The series is completely without a single redeeming point at all. The level of research demonstrated by Harrison is roughly on the same level as a primary schoolchild writing his first short story. The characterisation is pretty much non-existent. The understanding of contemporary issues (in the United States, Confederate States, Britain and Ireland) is very limited. His grasp of military affairs...I’m speechless.

Having vented my opinion, I shall now proceed to outline the plot. The Trent Affair, as in OTL, results in a major diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain. On the verge of resolving the crisis, Prince Albert drops dead, ensuring that the hostile atmosphere is never dispelled. (To be fair to Harrison, this POD is actually a very good one.) Another crisis leads to an exchange of fire between the US border forces and British troops in Canada. Britain declares war and invades the United States. Though a major navigational mishap, Britain accidentally invades the CSA as well. The CSA offers an alliance between the two Americas to throw out the British. The Bold Noble Yankees evict the Murdering Pillaging Redcoats. Washington is burned by British troops (again). The British commit more blunders. Noble Valiant Americans liberate Oppressed French Canadians from British oppression. (Canada accepts US statehood.) The CSA agrees to return to the Union and free the slaves. Book one ends.

Book two opens with the Dastardly British launching yet another Cunning Invasion Plan. This time, they’re building a road across Latin America for reasons that don’t make sense even in the book. It ends with a completely implausible invasion of Ireland by the USA.

Book three opens with the British still having failed to learn their lesson (or improve their tactics, for that matter.) It ends with Britain being invaded by American forces, to the cheers of the grateful population. Oh, and the Americans invent tanks.

I’m not sure where to begin when it comes to demolishing these books.

Let’s start with the characters. There are no standard POV characters running through the book (Harrison must have made this deliberate because in some of his earlier work, he has actually mastered this.) Events are seen through the eyes of whoever was there at the time. If you happen to be American, you will probably love the descriptions of Americans mouthing politically correct platitudes and being Noble Valiant Etc. The British characters are...well, the kindest thing I can say about them is that they’re stereotypes, twirling their moustaches as they tuck into roast beef and potatoes in very hot climates. Every character in the series would have to go through a lot of development before they could be called one-dimensional. General Lee is particularly annoying in this respect. He isn't the sober Virginia Gentleman of OTL, but someone who could give MacArthur a run for his money as an egoist. He’s also given to quoting himself time and time again.

And then there’s the slavery issue. The slaves get freed...WTF? Harrison, I suspect, didn't want to face up to the truth – that white Americans generally thought of blacks as an inferior race at the time, and accepting black equality would have been hard for them. Sure, Harrison is right – slavery was a great evil – yet dealing with it took more than just a civil war. And then there’s Harrison’s complete lack of understanding of 1860s Ireland. He took the politics of 1970 and pushed them into 1860s.

(Apparently, the Irish would be fine with being invaded by the US, provided the regiments involved were a mixture of Catholics and Protestants. This might be explained by the fact that the British have invented the Holocaust 150 years early and are apparently killing off the Irish as fast as they can.)

The military issue...well, one is left wondering how any semi-competent editor could have passed the book, because Harrison’s mistakes know no bounds. American troops routinely perform operations that would have daunted their present-day forebears. (Sherman and Lee march several thousand miles in three days!) His descriptions of British units, weapons and tactics show very little research past stereotypes. There is no clear explanation as to how a British sailing fleet (!) could move right up to Washington and burn the city, when the city was VERY well defended. He loses track of what ships are where, or what has happened to them. He failed to study the weaknesses in the early American ironclads and allowed them to be portrayed as an invincible weapon.

And then there’s the whole intelligence issue. The Americans (and Irish) gather intelligence in a manner that wouldn't work against the Keystone Cops. They blunder around blabbing their plans to all and sundry, their incompetence only matched by that of their British enemies – who are Evil and therefore must fail at every opportunity, despite the help of their foes – and...oh, I can’t go on. Its intelligence gathering that makes the German infiltration program of 1940 look competent.

I could go on, but I'm not going to bother.

Don’t buy this series. Just don’t.

A military analysis of the series is online here and here.

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Chris Nuttall blogs at The Chrishanger. His books can be found on Amazon Kindle.