james_davis_nicoll | Swastika Night by Katharin Burdekin

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Swastika Night by Katharin Burdekin

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From:

ba_munronoe

There is a lot of Nazi victory AH, some more or less moored to the realms of the even vaguely possible, but few manage to grasp the really skin-crawling _nastyness_ of Nazi thought. This sounds like it hits the mark.

From:

beamjockey

Also, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, it wasn't "alternate history" at the time it was written.

From:

ba_munronoe

Yes, but anything published after 1945 about Nazi victories is alternate history, so as the overwhelming majority of what's been written it's the genre I'm using for comparison's sake. Do you know of any other "Nazi victory" books written as future rather than alternate history? There certainly were SF short stories written during the war, but I can't immediately think of other novels.

From:

beamjockey

Yes, but anything published after 1945 about Nazi victories is alternate history, so as the overwhelming majority of what's been written it's the genre I'm using for comparison's sake.

Indeed, your original point was clear.

Do you know of any other "Nazi victory" books written as future rather than alternate history?

I do not. I imagine there must be a few; I would guess they are not as good as this one.

From: (Anonymous)

The Sound of His Horn came out in 1952 so it doesn't fit.

There are a few stories written during the war and explicitly referring to it, but all those that I can think of, have the Allies winning.

From: (Anonymous)

The Sound of His Horn came out in 1952 so it doesn't fit.

There are a few stories written during the war and explicitly referring to it, but all those that I can think of, have the Allies winning.

From: (Anonymous)

Only "I, James Blunt", a 1941 short story, and "Swastika Night", are mentioned in Wikipedia as before 1945 spoiled their endings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_Axis_victory_in_World_War_II

I was checking Isaac Asimov's "Living Space", which turns out to be a 1956 story, involving parallel universes and an interval of thousands of years.

In H. G. Wells's "(The Shape of) Things to Come" (1933), it's arguably a draw. The film is possibly easier to take.

From: (Anonymous)

"Living Space" is a such a clever title.

From:

ba_munronoe

If we include short stories, I know of "Pelagic Spark", short story by Anthony Boucher, 1943.

Edited Date: 2021-06-12 05:09 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

That list is missing "Two Dooms" by Cyril Kornbluth, and probably others.

There's one I read where I cannot remember the author for certain (I think maybe Lewis Shiner or Lucius Shepard?), nor the title, nor where I read it (I think F&SF, maybe? It was definitely not a full novel, so part of a magazine).

What I remember of the plot was that is was a far future after the Nazis won, and experiments they had done using magic had unleashed forces that were now damaging/destroying the world.

From: (Anonymous)

"Two Dooms" is 1958 (but is it set in the 1940s?), and they may not consider it "notable" but we'd better not get into that. ;-) (which seems to mean mostly "has its own page"... "Two Dooms" has a review included on the page for "Cyril M. Kornbluth", which mentions also that the "M." may be artistic licence.)

From:

bibliofile

Thanks to whoever sponsored this review: I hadn't heard of the book or the author, before. (1937!?!) Fortunately, my local library owns a copy of The Proud Man; it will take me longer to track down a copy of Swastika Night.