- Terraplane (novel)
Infobox Book |
name = Terraplane
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = Paperback cover
author =Jack Womack
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United States
language = English
series = Dryco series
genre =Speculative fiction ,Dystopian novel ,Alternate history novel
publisher =Grove Press
pub_date = October 1988
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover &Paperback )
pages = 227 pp (Hardback )
240 pp (Paperback )
isbn = ISBN 1-555-84165-1 (Hardback )
ISBN 0-802-13562-5 (Paperback )
preceded_by = Ambient
followed_by =Elvissey "Terraplane", published in 1988, is a
Jack Womack science fiction novel. The Terraplane is a 1930sautomobile , which plays a significant role in this novel. It is also atime machine from the corporate-dominated future of DryCo, a manipulativemultinational corporation in "New"New York , 2033 CE. In this future,climate change has resulted in rising sea levels, and would have inundated the original city if it had not been for the massive construction of a giant seawall, and New New York on higher ground. Altogether, Jack Womack set four novels in a quartet series in this future world, and itsalternate history liaisons.Plot summary
DryCo has sent two operatives, retired
African-American general Luther and his white bodyguard Jake, topost-communist Moscow , where rivalmultinational corporation Krasnaya dominates Russian society through consumer capitalist mass production of products. However, Luther and Jake discover that Krasnaya has two highly advancedquantum physicists under duress, Oktobriana Osipova and Alekine. The two Dryco mercenaries manage to abduct the physicists, but their escape sends them back to 1939 in aconservative alternate history.In this world,
Abraham Lincoln was killed by aBaltimore pro-slavery mob in 1861 CE, so theAmerican Civil War never happened, andTheodore Roosevelt abolishedslavery in 1907 due to European pressure onJ.P. Morgan , who feared loss of his European financial assets. In 1932,Giuseppe Zangara assassinatedFranklin Delano Roosevelt , andWinston Churchill died from a car accident. As a result of Roosevelt's premature death, it is noted thatJohn Nance Garner proved to be afiscal conservative , leading to a situation where much of the western United States had to threaten civil war to obtain economic relief from the ongoing Depression. As the novel progresses, Alekhine, actually a Krasnaya operative, abductsJoseph Stalin fromMoscow , to be transferred to Krasnaya custody and kept in adacha , in a future which has abandonedcommunism and uses the image of "Big Boy" as nostalgic consumer iconography. When this world eventually does undergo itsWorld War II , there will be no effective opposition toNazi Germany as a result.Luther and Jake make the accqaintance of Norman Quarles, an
African American doctor and his wife, Wanda, but their presence attracts the suspicions of (unseen)J. Edgar Hoover , who sendsFBI agents in pursuit. During the chase, Norman is killed, and Oktobriana contracts Dovlatov's Syndrome, a mutatedinfluenza virus that emerged inIrkutsk ,Siberia in 1909, and led to the deaths ofQueen Alexandra , US House SpeakerWilliam Dean Howells ,Charlie Chaplin ,Christy Mathewson , French PremierClemenceau ,Claude Debussy ,Guillaume Apollinaire andAmedeo Modigliani , amongst others, during the ten year space of this epidemic. Ultimately, Luther and Wanda return to Dryco's future, while Oktobriana and Jake are lost in the interdimensional void.As an aside, Luther notes that there are sects described as the
Albigensian Church of Jesus the Light, Reformed and the Valentinian House of God in this world, which implies the survival ofgnosticism has occurred in this timeline. Amongst the books cited in theAlbigensian Bible are theGospel of Matthew ,Gospel of Mark ,Gospel of Luke and theActs of the Apostles , but this gnostic bible also includes theGospel of Thomas ,Gospel of Truth , and theHymn of Light . The latter revelation will play an important role in Womack's next novel,Elvissey .Publication history
* 1988, USA, Grove Press ISBN 1-555-84165-1, Pub date October 1988, Hardback
* 1988, USA, Grove Press ISBN 0-802-13562-5, Pub date April 1998, Paperbackources, references, external links, quotations
* [http://www.enotes.com/salem-lit/terraplane Review by eNotes.com]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=NUaHNfCekXAC&printsec=frontcover Preview on Google Books]
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