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Author: John Barnes
ISBN: 0812571452
Publisher: TOR Science Fiction
Details: 303 pages, 18 cm. December 1999.
What's this? A United States conquered by the Nazis in 1944? A kingdom of Australia? Yes, this book takes place in an alternate universe, where the Nazis developed the atomic bomb and used it to force the United States to capitulate. Wielding this horrible weapon, the Nazis have established other Reichs, in Holland (and her East Indian territories), and 10 others. Those living outside the Reichs were handicapped technologically. Non-citizens did not have access to the best in technology nor were they allowed to enter space, where the Nazi orbiting cities lay in geosynchronous orbit.
During the interview with the company's chairman, Peripart discovers that there are anomolies in history, something that the chairman, Geoffrey Iphwin, keeps bringing to the fore. For example, no one can remember the last time they had received any news from the United States. Or for that matter, the idea that there was a United States becomes a hard to grasp and hard to understand concept. Iphwin hires Peripart, and the love of Peripart's life, historian Helen Perdida, to explore these anomolies through a science that Peripart has developed called abduction. Things seem to be looking up for Peripart -- his girlfriend is waiting for him in the Japanese controlled city of Saigon and he's about to "pop the question" to her. But when his jumpship tells him that he flew to Saigon with an unknown passenger while he was in fact at the interview, much of his happiness disappears. Of course, being physically assaulted by Billie Beard, the Political Offences Section Gestapo agent would tend to dampen one's happiness. But the questions she screamed at him during the ad-hoc interrogation frightened and disturbed him more than the assault did. Something -- lots of things -- just weren't right. And just when he thinks he's got a handle on the entire situation, his demure historian fiancee turns out to be an assassin. Or is she? And just how many times can a Gestapo agent get killed and keep reappearing?
Score: 89 out of 100. A bizarre story with more twists and turns than you can manage to follow. What has happened to the United States, and what does that have to do with everything seeming to turn inside out? What you know to be the truth can, within seconds, be proven to be a poorly-crafted hoax. An excellent read, with, what I consider to be a somewhat disappointing ending. Definitely worth reading.
STC