Book of the Week: The Berlin Project.

Gregory Benford’s The Berlin Project asks the question: What would have happened if my* father-in-law had had the chance to have the high-speed centrifuge method be chosen as the Manhattan Project’s primary method for uranium enrichment? And the answer is apparently We would have had the Bomb in time for D-Day.  Which is arguably true, and certainly interesting. And probably a better situation all around, assuming that you weren’t living in… well, read the book.  Although you’ve probably guess what happens, just from the title.

And so, adieu to The Weapon Shops of Isher.
Continue reading Book of the Week: The Berlin Project.

Wait, Gregory Benford’s got an alternative WWII book out today?

The Berlin Project. Hypothesis: they got lucky and figured out how to get an atomic bomb up and running by 1944.  What’s the result?  I dunno, Gregory Benford hasn’t told me yet.  Honestly, what’s concerning me is that there’s an alternate history novel written by Gregory Benford out today and I somehow missed it.  In a properly well-run universe, I pre-order books like this and they arrive the day it comes out, thus allowing me to give pitying smiles to all those unfortunates who must trudge down to an actual bookstore and acquire their copy.

:pause: Continue reading Wait, Gregory Benford’s got an alternative WWII book out today?