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3.0étoiles sur 5
A Sadly Poor Expansion of a Good Novelette, Janv. 10 2010
I approached "Bring the Jubilee" as one of the classic works of sf in general and alternate history in particular. I came away with a vague sense of disappointment. Perhaps the defects register with me more because I read the book length version first, and only later found the original (and far superior) novelette. This may have brought the difference in quality into sharp relief.
The story is set in an alternate world where the South won the civil war. As a result, the defeated North suffered a hyperinflation similar to 1920s Germany, which aborted the industrial expansion and scientific progress of the later 19th Century. Three generations later, the "rump" United States is a backward, rural country very much akin to William Faulkner's South, whose people are similarly fixated on "The War" which ruined everything for them. In this world the North, not the South, is where the lynchings are (negroes have been scapegoated as the cause of the war), where the poor folks live by share cropping or indentured labour, and the Grand Army (read "KKK") engages in terror tactics. Its women still don't vote. The Confederacy, OTOH, is booming, prosperous and has expanded over the Americas into a vast Empire, whose non-whites are humanely treated but denied full citizenship.
Well, fair enough, even if debatable, as far as the United States is concerned. But Moore doesn't leave it there. The United States' backwardness has somehow "infected" the whole world. The telephone was never invented (they use morse code telegraphy instead) and heavier than air flight is still a dream. The dirigible balloon is the latest thing. Such cars as exist are steam-powered, and of limited value due to the lack of roads. Electricity has never been harnessed, though the biggest cities have gas lighting. This could do with explanation. Men like Bell and Edison were already well into their teens in 1863, and even if they couldn't pursue their careers in the ruined US, could they not have done so in Canada or elsewhere? And even if they did not, could the same or similar inventions not have been made in Britain, or Germany or even France, all of which made important contributions to science and technology in this period? Germany, in particular, turned out scientists and technologists by the busload, despite having a social system in which Jefferson Davis would have looked like a dangerous radical. 19C America was no doubt a land of opportunity, but the only one? If this Limey may be so bold, that is surely carrying American exceptionalism a bit too far.
Thus the novelette. Despite the grumbles above, it made an interesting yarn and would probably merit four stars if not five. But the book is another matter. It has been "padded" out to novel length and the padding shows. It is clumsily done in a manner sometimes inconsistent with the original material. Perhaps the most glaring example is the Holocaust. In this world, Germany is booming and powerful, with none of the traumas of our 20C which brought Hitler to power, yet the Holocaust still happens (and still in Germany, not the more probable Tsarist Russia), and indeed contrives to happen a generation earlier, when Hitler, if born at all, would be still an adolescent. This might be ok if some rationale for it were offered, but we get none - just the bald statement, totally without explanation. The problem is compounded by our being told, some chapters earlier, that the Confederacy welcomes immigrants. Why did the Jews not flee there? Perhaps the welcome did not extend to Jewish immigrants, but again we aren't told so, and it is not obvious that the country which had Judah P Benjamin in its Cabinet would take such an attitude.
To crown it all, mention is made of a parallel genocide of Chinese and Japanese Americans, of whom apparently only a handful survive. Yet California, where the vast majority of them lived, is in the Confederacy, where such things allegedly didn't happen.
Moore's problem, I suspect, lay in trying a bit too hard to make the alternate world unmistakably worse than ours, as indeed, in many ways it is. But if its defects were offset by not having the Holocaust, then our world's superiority would be far less clear cut. Moore, I think, avoided this at the expense of consistency and credibility.
One final complaint. Apart from its own defects, this new material is added at the expense of useful parts of the novelette, which included helpful information about the growth both of the CSA and its rival, the German Union, and about the recent Emperors' War. In the book, these omissions make the history harder to follow.
Sorry to be so negative about what is, overall, a fair novel, but that's the problem. It is only good when with a bit more work it could have been great. My advice would be to get the novelette (in "The Fantastic Civil War" and maybe elsewhere) and go on to the novel if you're a completist.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
Searching For A Better Alternative, Nov. 18 2001
Ever since the American Civil War ended in victory for the South, the Northern states have been a poor, backward region, largely populated by impecunious yokels. Hodge Backmaker is a country boy with less practical skills than his fellows; someone more at home with books than the outdoor, workaday environment.In "Bring the Jubilee" Backmaker recounts his life, describing his move from Wappinger Falls to a squalid New York, where he works in a book shop for a few years. After some uncomfortable dealings with an underground army he then becomes involved with the intellectual thinktank at Haggershaven, where his fascination for history eventually leads to academic prestige. Ward Moore has written an interesting scenario here. Along with the rewrite of American history, passing references are made to men like Carl Jung and Picasso, their destinies skewed by the differences that make alternate worlds possible. While taking part in the first experiments in time travel, Hodge Backmaker will unwittingly change their lives when he makes a field trip to Gettysburg in 1863... There's no doubt that alternate histories are a fascinating subject for writers to tackle. So many of them have fun changing history, usually making our world look like the better one. Maybe it helps us forget the reality of our own problems; taking solace in the fact that there's always someone worse off than ourselves. A number of people have compared "Bring the Jubilee" with "Pavane", the praise for both books being fairly equal. It's hard to say which is better, since they deal with two different periods of history. Like most novels, they both have their share of romance, which almost seems a requirement for the protagonist. Nevertheless, they both come highly recommended.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
A Classic Tale of A Confederate Victory, Aoû 1 2000
Written decades before Harry Turtledove's Civil War alternate history novels, Ward Moore's 'Bring the Jubilee' is the story of an America divided. In 1863, the Union loss at Gettysburg paved the way for southern independence and left the United States a backward, third world country. The novel's protaganist, Hodge, leaves his rural home for what he hopes will be a better life in New York City and eventually finds himself in a community of scholars where his final destiny awaits him. The characters, situations and philosiphies of 'Jubilee' remind the reader of another great Science Fiction author, Robert Heinlein. Moore has the same wonderful ability to convey the complex ideas of life and society that make Heinlein's novels so compelling. Also wonderful is Moore's explanations of temporal theory and his understanding and presentation of the Battle of Gettysburg. If you enjoy alternate history then 'Bring the Jubilee' will not disappoint.
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