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Genesis (novel)

Poul Anderson

Last modified: 2019-02-07 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: anderson (poul) | genesis | england | eagle (yellow) | china |
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Introduction

Genesis is a 2000 hard-SF novel by the prolific U.S. writer Poul Anderson, the 2001 winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The book's action occurs intermittently over a billion years or so, and is a bit hard to explain, but the narrative features several alterna-historical interludes.
Eugene Ipavec 6 Augustus 2010


No-Reformation timeline

One of these alterna-historical interludes involves a timeline in which the Great Schism was resolved in the late 15th century by a decentralization of power from Rome, the upside of which is that there is never a Reformation or a Thirty Years' War, and Germany replaces both France and Britain as the dominant cultural power of Europe.
Eugene Ipavec 6 Augustus 2010

England

[flag in alternative timeline England]
image by Eugene Ipavec 06 Augustus 2010

The scene takes place in a 1904 York, England, as a German-dominated Europe is engaged in a ruinous war against a Russian-led rebellion in the east. Page 194, first Tor hardback edition:

a flag above a post office (?) [sic], fluttering in the wind, displayed a cross of St. Andrew on which was superimposed a two-headed gold eagle.

I guess a German/Scottish dynasty?
Eugene Ipavec 6 Augustus 2010

The irony is that a double-headed eagle on a St Andrew's Cross would make more sense as one of the Russian flags!
James Dignan, 7 Augustus 2010


Chinese America timeline

Chinese horsemen

Another interlude takes place in a timeline where the Americas were colonized by the Chinese. Page 198:

Shaven-headed men in yellow robes walked after, flanked by horsemen from which pennons streamed scarlet and gold.

Eugene Ipavec 6 Augustus 2010