Review: A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove (Audiobook)

I'm fortunate enough that I can listen to music or whatever at my job. I don't typically listen to audiobooks, but I have become bored with listening to music and I think I have listened to so many podcasts that I have exhausted the catalog. So being an avid reader I decided to give audio books another try.

Harry Turtledove is an author whose books are some that I wanted to check out. I love the idea that he writes alternative histories, and has based whole series on how world events could have happened differently. I won't go into the whole multiverse theory, which is also interesting. Where any number of events could have happened creating a completely different timeline of events.

I decided to listen to "A Different Flesh" by Harry Turtledove which was originally published in 1988. In this novel, the world is very much different from our own in that Homo Erectus did not die off and actually thrived in the New World. In the world of this novel, Homo Erectus crossed the land bridge instead of people from the tundras of Siberia. The sheer imagination of the author to create a world where Native Americans never happened spreads out into changes to everything such as first interactions with Colonials, and even the development of colonial government. But it's not just this species of cavemen that are unique to Turtledove's New World, but there are also other prehistoric creatures such as sabretooth tigers and wooly mammoths that wander the forests.

Turtledove proposes different scenarios as we the reader get to see this new world. He presents interactions between colonists and the native cavemen. These creatures are referred to as "sims" throughout the story. How each is radically different and yet curious and fearful of each other. Turtledove mentions the phrase "beetled brow" and their lack of chins in describing these peoples numerous times. The author doesn't linger too long into each period of America as it develops into the present day but gives us a short glimpse into key events of its development.

These short glances into this world were very interesting and I applaud the imagination of Turtledove to be able to create this world. But I don't think this was his only intention to just entertain the reader with a tale of cavemen interacting with humans in our modern world. I think the author's intention was to point out just how within history we as a society have mistreated those who are different from ourselves and even treated those whose cultures were different or technologically not as advanced as being sub-human.

I will point out that being an alternate history piece that there are some potential triggers for some individuals such as racist language, and graphic descriptions of some events which some may find disturbing. This book is not for everyone. I really enjoyed this and got something out of listening to it. I plan on checking out the rest of this author's works. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com. If you are a fan of historical fiction or science fiction you may too enjoy this book.