A Different Flesh
Encyclopedia
A Different Flesh is a collection of alternate history short stories by Harry Turtledove
set in a world in which Homo erectus
and various megafauna
survived in the Americas instead of Native Americans
.
Turtledove was inspired to write the story by a Stephen Jay Gould
article that speculated as to how humanity’s distant cousin, Australopithecus
, would be treated if that species had survived.
is inhabited by Homo erectus rather than Homo sapiens, as well as megafauna long extinct in the known world. Consequently, the colonization of the New World by Europe has been a far more difficult process. As time goes by, various characters debate the nature of the sims (as erectus is known) and their role in human history.
Included with the short stories are quotations from The Story of the Federated Commonwealths. These snippets from an imaginary textbook providing the reader information about what happens during the time between the different stories.
colony, Edward Wingfield must rescue his infant daughter from the tribe of wild sims who kidnapped her.
's diary. Pepys owns several sims and contemplates the origin of the species. By watching these sims, as well as observing various other animals found in North America
, Pepys develops the theory of evolution
.
Only one of the diary's entries in the story has a corresponding entry in the real diary Pepys kept.
and descendant of Edward Wingfield, and his sim companion, Charles, explore the interior of North America. Kenton is after the teeth of the spearfang cat
s that populate the area. He is captured by a group of wild sims, and must hope that Charles will rescue him.
-pulled trains they threaten to replace.
of all human slaves.
, is wounded by a bear and is nursed back to health by sims. While there, he ends up impregnating one of the sims, resulting in a Sim-Human hybrid.
, from a medical lab but fail to take enough HIV inhibitor, which is medicine that suppresses the effects of HIV/AIDS. Eventually, this forces the activists to return Matt to the researchers.
When asked whether the point of divergence
of A Different Flesh being set before human history makes the novel a proper alternate history or some sort of "alternative natural history", Turtledove responded: "They seem like alternate history to me, but I haven't really spent a whole lot of time worrying about how to classify them, I'm afraid."
gave a positive review of the novel and commented that Turtledove left a lot of room open for further stories in the series, but still feels that Turtledove's writing style has changed to the point where future stories would appear out of place. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card
also gave a good review for the novel complimenting Turtledove especially on Freedom for the use of a sims point of view without "sentimentalizing and anthropomorphizing until the true differences between species are erased."
One negative criticism of the novel was made by a reviewer who thought that there was an assumption that the course of history would have gone pretty much as it did with Native Americans here, and felt that this underestimates the impact of Native Americans on our history.
. Freedom was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction
while Trapping Run was written exclusively for the hardcover edition.
Originally published by Congdon & Weed in 1988, it was first published in paperback by Worldwide the following year. In 1994, Baen reprinted the book.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
set in a world in which Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
and various megafauna
Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. The most common thresholds used are or...
survived in the Americas instead of Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
Turtledove was inspired to write the story by a Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
article that speculated as to how humanity’s distant cousin, Australopithecus
Australopithecus
Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that is now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct...
, would be treated if that species had survived.
Plot introduction
The stories give a brief glimpse in this altered American history ranging from 1610 to 1988. The Western HemisphereWestern Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
is inhabited by Homo erectus rather than Homo sapiens, as well as megafauna long extinct in the known world. Consequently, the colonization of the New World by Europe has been a far more difficult process. As time goes by, various characters debate the nature of the sims (as erectus is known) and their role in human history.
Included with the short stories are quotations from The Story of the Federated Commonwealths. These snippets from an imaginary textbook providing the reader information about what happens during the time between the different stories.
Vilest Beast
1610: At JamestownJamestown Settlement
Jamestown Settlement is a name used by the Commonwealth of Virginia's portion of the historical sites and museums at Jamestown. Jamestown was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America...
colony, Edward Wingfield must rescue his infant daughter from the tribe of wild sims who kidnapped her.
And So To Bed
1661: The story is made up of a series of entries in Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
's diary. Pepys owns several sims and contemplates the origin of the species. By watching these sims, as well as observing various other animals found in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Pepys develops the theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
.
Only one of the diary's entries in the story has a corresponding entry in the real diary Pepys kept.
Around the Salt Lick
1691: Thomas Kenton, a scout from VirginiaVirginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and descendant of Edward Wingfield, and his sim companion, Charles, explore the interior of North America. Kenton is after the teeth of the spearfang cat
Saber-toothed cat
Saber-toothed cat or Sabre-toothed cat refers to the extinct subfamilies of Machairodontinae , Barbourofelidae , and Nimravidae as well as two families related to marsupials that were found worldwide from the Eocene Epoch to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch ,...
s that populate the area. He is captured by a group of wild sims, and must hope that Charles will rescue him.
The Iron Elephant
1782: Steam-driven trains first appear, and a race is held with one of the hairy elephantMammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
-pulled trains they threaten to replace.
Though the Heavens Fall
1804: A house-slave named Jeremiah goes on trial for running away, and his attorney presents the argument that with sims, there is no reason for human beings to enslave other human beings. They are successful and the court's decision leads to the emancipationEmancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
of all human slaves.
Trapping Run
1812: Henry Quick, a trapper in the RockiesRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, is wounded by a bear and is nursed back to health by sims. While there, he ends up impregnating one of the sims, resulting in a Sim-Human hybrid.
Freedom
1988: A group of sim's rights activists, including a female descendant of Henry Quick, protesting experimentation on sims "rescue" Matt, a sim infected with HIVHIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
, from a medical lab but fail to take enough HIV inhibitor, which is medicine that suppresses the effects of HIV/AIDS. Eventually, this forces the activists to return Matt to the researchers.
Major themes
The stories explore what makes someone "human". As time passes humans' view of sims generally shifts from seeing them as beasts into seeing them being close to humans and deserving of some rights. Without anthropomorphizing the sims, Turtledove makes clear that although they cannot become humans and enjoy all the freedoms that humans have, they still deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.When asked whether the point of divergence
Point of divergence
In discussion of counterfactual history, a divergence point , also referred to as a departure point or point of divergence , is a historical event with two possible postulated outcomes...
of A Different Flesh being set before human history makes the novel a proper alternate history or some sort of "alternative natural history", Turtledove responded: "They seem like alternate history to me, but I haven't really spent a whole lot of time worrying about how to classify them, I'm afraid."
Literary significance and reception
Steven H SilverSteven H Silver
Steven H Silver is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer ten times and Best Fanzine three times without winning....
gave a positive review of the novel and commented that Turtledove left a lot of room open for further stories in the series, but still feels that Turtledove's writing style has changed to the point where future stories would appear out of place. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
also gave a good review for the novel complimenting Turtledove especially on Freedom for the use of a sims point of view without "sentimentalizing and anthropomorphizing until the true differences between species are erased."
One negative criticism of the novel was made by a reviewer who thought that there was an assumption that the course of history would have gone pretty much as it did with Native Americans here, and felt that this underestimates the impact of Native Americans on our history.
Publication history
Vilest Beast, And So to Bed, Around the Salt Lick, The Iron Elephant, and Though the Heavens Fall were all originally published in Analog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
. Freedom was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov...
while Trapping Run was written exclusively for the hardcover edition.
Originally published by Congdon & Weed in 1988, it was first published in paperback by Worldwide the following year. In 1994, Baen reprinted the book.