A World of Difference: A Novel

By Harry Turtledove

Book Overview

When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva was destroyed, sending back one last photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth were flabbergasted. And so a joint investigation was launched by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345360761
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Del Rey
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

A fatastically simple and entertaining story

As far as storytelling goes, this is Turtledove at his best. The idea in this book is a fresh one, departing from the usual fantasy worlds and civil war epics the author is known for. What initially grabbed me about this book was the orginality of concept. Replace Mars with an Earth-like planet named Minerva, keep the rest of Human History the same (at least pre-1990 history) - and you have a believable, yet entirely fantastic story. Humans travel to Minerva to follow up on a lost probe sent by the Americans. That probe, Viking I, landed on Minerva and snapped a picture of a seemingly intelligent alien before being destroyed by said alien. Naturally, this kicks off a space race between the Americans and Russians (still Soviets in this timeline) to see who can get to Minerva first. As fate would have it, they both land at the same time, but on opposite sides of an impossibly large canyon separating two nations of Minervans about to go to war (in all their 12th century techno-level glory). Americans side with good Minervans, Russians with Bad guys. Like I said, simple. However, it's drawn very well. The Minervans are described very well, giving the reader a sense of their radical differences from humans. In fact, it's the gradual understanding of the Minervan culture that makes this book a true science fiction classic. Few authors have pulled off describing a truly alien civilization so well. But beyond that, the human characters are done decently enough to keep the reader from rolling their eyes. Another reviewer here compares them to characters in an Analog short story. That's a good description. They are real, but the way a plastic toy is real. I think most readers will forgive this simplicity in order to tell a bigger story. Overall, the book is extremely fun to read. It's not too scientific (which saddened me, as a hard sci-fi fan), not too deep... but it's just, well, COOL. The story is cool. In the end, you'll honestly wish we had a Minerva in our skies instead of boring old Mars. I just wish Turtledove would have continued this book instead going crazy with WWII Lizards and 1960's Confederate America...

A Different Mars

"Alternate Histories" can by be fascinating and nobody does it better than Harry Turtledove but most suffer from a seemingly insoluble problem. From the point of departure from "recognized" history, the stories of necessity diverge more and more. In this book Turtledove gets around this problem in a novel way. He moves it off planet. In this story, earth history is just like we all know right up until the Viking lander. In this universe, though, Mars is not our planet. It is more massive, it has an atmosphere and intelligent life. It is also called Minerva. The last photos taken by the Viking lander on Minerva are of a native Minervan attacking it. This naturally spurs all sorts of efforts to send a manned mission. Since the period is the 70s, the cold war is in full swing and the Soviets and Americans are determined to beat each other. They land at different but nearby sites and befriend tribes antagonistic towards each other. The cold war has moved to the red planet. The story is interesting enough but Turtledove's real talent is to present ideas in new and differing ways. The Minervans of this story are utterly strange and different from humans. Still, he manages to convey their alien sensibilities in a credible, believable and understandable manner. He also makes us laugh at ourselves. This is an excellent story and lots of fun.

Sci-fi like only Harry can do

I absoluetly loved this book. So very realistic and compelling. The characters, both human and minervan, are engaging and well devloped. The story could very easily be considered both alternate history or straight sci-fi. This book has been overlooked by many sci-fi fans by Turtledove's more well-known books. That to me is a shame. I would love to see a sequel to this book to see how Earth and Minerva grow together and how each affects the other's societies.Read this book once and then read it again. You will enjoy it from cover to cover. This book is proof that Harry Trutledoveis one of the masters of Sci-fi/Alternate History.

Turtledove can write straight sf, also

"Mars is boring. Turns out it's too damn small. But what if it weren't. . . " That is speculation which begins Harry Turtledove's novel A World of Difference. Turtledove, therefore replaces Mars with Minerva, a planet similar to Mars except for the existence of water, atmosphere and life. Upon arriving on Minerva, the Viking lander transmits tantalizing pictures back to earth, ending abruptly after sending the image of an alien's limb. A joint American-Soviet manned mission is launched to explore the strange world. Of course, everything goes wrong when the American and the Soviet spaceships land on opposite sides of a deep trench. Physically cut off from each other, each team makes contact with a difference group of Minervans. The Minervans are radially symmetrical on an hexagonal model and are perhaps Turtledove's most successful attempt at alien construction. Unlike humans, Minervans have little sense of the individual. Minervans discovery of the individual forms a major plot point of the novel. An important aspect of Minervan physiognomy is that female Minervans always die of blood loss when giving birth. Naturally, this fact affects their society in very basic ways. The ruler of the Minervans befriended by the Americans, Reatur, has recently impregnated his favorite wife and looks to his American friends to help find a way to save his wife. A World of Difference is much more than a story of the discovery of a new race. In addition to seeing both Americans and Soviets deal with the Minervans, Turtledove also shows, in detail, the two political enemies working together and against each other throughout the novel as political and environmental changes occur. Despite basic ideological differences, the joint mission to Minerva began as a collaborative effort and the two crews make attempts to cooperate even as their instincts tell them not to. Turtledove also treats the reader to a guided tour of Minerva, which is strikingly Mars-like. However, because he has created a new planet, Turtledove can make alterations to Mars so the planet suits his and his characters' purposes better than the planet which so many authors have described. In many ways, A World of Difference feels like an extended Analog story. The characters are well drawen, but not particularly realistic. They are, generally likable and interact well with each other and with the Minervans. Turtledove gives them obstacles, political, environmental and racial, to overcome and they deal with those obstacles in a very Campbellian way. Although Turtledove slips in a few alternate historical moments in the novel, alternate history, for which Turtledove is justifiably well known, is a minor part of the novel. Human history has gone on nearly the same path as it did in our Minerva-less solar system. A World of Difference serves as a reminder that Turtledove has written a lot of non-alternate history works and has proven himself adept in straight science fiction.

Turtledove's Alternate History of a "Mars" with life

While Harry Turtledove is far better known for his fantasy novels (eg. The Videssos novels) and his alternate histories (see the WorldWar books), included in his canon is this what-if with a subtler premise--what if Mars had, when it was formed, coalesced into a larger planet--called Minerva in this history, and supported life, including intelligent life. Add in rival Soviet and American missions to the large fourth planet, not to mention the interesting biology of the aliens themselves, and you have A World of Difference. Even though the Soviet-American "cold-war" relations may seem dated in this era of Yeltsin, the premise still holds up rather well. Even better are the aliens themselves...technologically inferior to their visitors, their attempts to manipulate their new friends into sharing their power and technology (most especially weapons) are all too reminiscent of the history of third world peoples on our own planet who tried the same to their European visitors.