A Different Flesh (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Harry Turtledove
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—alternate history
- Time of Work: The seventeenth century to the twentieth century
- Setting: An alternate Earth
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Alternate history
- Subjects: Race, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Eighteenth century, Seventeenth century, Prehistoric humans, Evolution
- Locales: Earth, alternate versions of
The Plot
In his preface to this novel, Harry Turtledove reveals that the idea for it came from an article by Stephen Jay Gould speculating about how humanity’s distant cousin, Australopithecus, would be treated if that species had survived. Turtledove decided to use a nearer cousin, Homo erectus, in his story. The short answer that he provides to the above question is “not very well.”
The story begins with an entry from a fictional reference work that establishes that the novel takes place in an alternate reality, with the difference that the New...
[The entire page is 964 words long]
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