Last modified: 2019-02-07 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: anderson (poul) | genesis | england | eagle (yellow) | china |
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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
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
![[flag in alternative timeline England]](../images/f/fic_gnen.gif)
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
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