"The Road Not Taken" is an alien invasion story with a twist. Your usual alien invasion takes place; the aliens land their starship on the White House lawn, pile out, declare their superiority and intention to conquer the world ... and are promptly taken down by the Marine Corps guards. It turns out that FTL travel is easy -- so easy that almost every sentient species develops it before they get the steam engine! Humans are an anomaly, having failed to get interstellar flight we've put huge amounts of energy into exotic high-tech stuff ... like gunpowder and internal combustion engines. (Our surviving alien is left contemplating what will happen when the invincible human starships with these repeating guns and "missiles" get out into the galaxy, with terror.)
(I've not directly avoided him, he's just never been thrust into my hands, and my reading time is insufficient to read all of the stuff that is, let alone the pile on my Amazon wish list)
A better fit is Ben Jeapes's New World Order in which high tech Neanderthals from a parallel universe provide Oliver Cromwell with the means to win the Civil War early.
Interesting, I've not read either of these but now want to. My mind went to a similar image (different era though) from Howard Waldrop's 'Custer's Last Jump'
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andrewducker) wrote2010-03-10 08:22 pm
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"The Road Not Taken" is an alien invasion story with a twist. Your usual alien invasion takes place; the aliens land their starship on the White House lawn, pile out, declare their superiority and intention to conquer the world ... and are promptly taken down by the Marine Corps guards. It turns out that FTL travel is easy -- so easy that almost every sentient species develops it before they get the steam engine! Humans are an anomaly, having failed to get interstellar flight we've put huge amounts of energy into exotic high-tech stuff ... like gunpowder and internal combustion engines. (Our surviving alien is left contemplating what will happen when the invincible human starships with these repeating guns and "missiles" get out into the galaxy, with terror.)
no subject
(I've not directly avoided him, he's just never been thrust into my hands, and my reading time is insufficient to read all of the stuff that is, let alone the pile on my Amazon wish list)
no subject
no subject
My mind went to a similar image (different era though) from Howard Waldrop's 'Custer's Last Jump'