A Different Flesh
A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove, published by Open Road Integrated Media on May 29, 2018, is a science fiction novel that delves into an alternate history of America. This edition spans 300 pages and presents a world where Homo erectus survives alongside Homo sapiens, reshaping the continent’s evolution and societal structures. The narrative explores the implications of this twist in prehistoric evolution, focusing on the interactions between these two species as European colonizers encounter the primitive Homo erectus.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of invented history that unfolds over three centuries, featuring events such as the Jamestown colonists’ search for a kidnapped human infant and a competition between steam-engine trains and elephant-drawn models. The story also addresses themes of rights and humanity, particularly through the lens of sim-rights activists in 1988 who attempt to rescue a biped subjected to experimentation. Turtledove’s work invites exploration of complex societal hierarchies and the essence of what it means to be human in a world where the past diverges significantly from our own.
Official synopsis Publisher
This novel by the New York Times-bestselling “master of alternate history” explores an America reshaped by a twist in prehistoric evolution (Publishers Weekly).
What if mankind’s “missing link,” the apelike Homo erectus, had survived to dominate a North American continent where woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers still prowled, while the more advanced Homo sapiens built their civilizations elsewhere? Now imagine that the Europeans arriving in the New World had chanced on these primitive creatures and seized the opportunity to establish a hierarchy in which the sapiens were masters and the “sims” were their slaves.
This is the premise that drives the incomparable Harry Turtledove’s A Different Flesh. The acclaimed Hugo Award winner creates an alternate America that spans three hundred years of invented history. From the Jamestown colonists’ desperate hunt for a human infant kidnapped by a local sim tribe, to a late-eighteenth-century contest between a newfangled steam-engine train and the popular hairy-elephant-pulled model, to the sim-rights activists’ daring 1988 rescue of an unfortunate biped named Matt who’s being used for animal experimentation, Turtledove turns our world inside out in a remarkable science fiction masterwork that explores what it truly means to be human.
Author
Publisher
Topics
FAQ
What is “A Different Flesh” about?
Who is the author of “A Different Flesh”?
When was “A Different Flesh” published?
What is the ISBN for “A Different Flesh”?
What are the book details (language, pages, edition)?
