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book2004

Fitzpatrick's War

Disciplines:
science fiction
american history/alternate history
science fiction/steampunk
fiction/theodore judson

Summary

Theodore Judson's 2004 alternate history science fiction novel — a pseudo-historical account of a future world in which a civilization (the Fitzpatrick civilization) rises and falls, narrated from within as if by a court historian — exploring themes of empire, charisma, and the reliability of historical narrative.

Core Contribution

Creates a meditation on historiography within an alternate history framework — the unreliable narrator, the court historian compelled to flatter power, and the gap between official history and what actually happened provide a sophisticated reflection on how history is always written by those in power.

Historical Influences

Theodore Judson

Intellectual Lineage

Theodore Judson DAW Books

Allied Works

I Claudius

Contemporaries & Peers

Kim Stanley Robinson

Minds Influenced

Alternate history SFHistory 102

Intellectual Posterity

Fitzpatrick's War

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Fitzpatrick's War

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