FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

by Terry Bisson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 20, 1988

From the author of the promising fantasy Talking Man (1986), an alternate-world yam in which the American Civil War never happened, the States never united, benevolent Marxism found favor--and African astronauts land on Mars in the 1980's. The turning point in Bisson's history is 1859. John Brown's famous abolitionist raid on Harper's Ferry succeeds, defeating the Virginia militia and throwing the country into turmoil and confusion. One aspect of the story is related by old Dr. ""Ayrab"" Abraham, as he recalls his youth as an educated slave, the exciting and frightening arrival of Brown's raiders, and the bloody and astonishing development of the revolution--which results in an independent, black, socialist South, known as Nova Africa. Abraham's sparkling narrative is interspersed with a variety of letters by and to Dr. Thomas Hunter, a white abolitionist physician--Abraham eventually becomes his apprentice--who will join Brown's company and ultimately die in his service. Meanwhile, in the present, Abraham's granddaughter, Yasmin Odinga, struggles to come to terms with the death of her astronaut husband in the first, abortive attempt by Africans to reach Mars, just as a second expedition safely touches down on the red planet. Civil War alternate worlds are far from new (cf. Ward Moore's well-known Bring the Jubilee, in which the South is victorious), but Bisson's approach is original, fleshed with vivid detail and peopled with utterly convincing characters and incidents. Much less plausible, however, is the alternate present Bisson derives from that past. So: might-have-been history brought stunningly to life, even if the modern upshot leaves one wondering how we got here from there.

Pub Date: July 20, 1988

ISBN: 1604860871

Page Count: -

Publisher: Arbor House/Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION