DBWI: Robert Sobel's "Decades of Darkness"?

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(Inspired by thenewfoundlander1993's thread!)

Well, folks, having recently re-read the first four books of Robert Sobel's Decades of Darkness series, I can't help but say I'm still pretty fascinated by the world that he's built here.

Firstly, I've honestly been fascinated with how TTL's U.S. developed, though I have my questions about certain events in the series; for example, how did the U.S., having been throughly whipped by the Germans in TTL's Great War, manage to not only overrun Peru, Charcas, AND Chile, and still managing to hold them(somewhat) as of 1952? It's kinda hard for me to understand this, given what the Confederacy tried to do IOTL(and failed).
On the other hand, there are certainly plenty of interesting tidbits to read:
On culture: being the Latin jazz aficionado I am, I found the description of *Tropican music to be rather interesting: it kinda sounds like some of the stuff Lou Vega belted out back in the '60s, when my aunt Carrie was growing up, not to mention the rather interesting development of pop culture. but then you have the dark side of America: it's basically what OTL's Confederacy was in many aspects; only not quite every state is favorable to slaveowners, although all full-blacks are definitely enslaved. Sad affairs indeed. Another strange twist is the status of marijuana: Sobel doesn't mention much about the drug laws here, but from what little is mentioned it doesn't seem that marijuana is all that opposed.....possibly. Compared this to the C.S.A., where cannabis was illegal throughout it's entire territory and where slaves were especially harshly punished for even touching the stuff.
And then, perhaps one of the strangest(and frankly, coolest) things I read, was a mention or two of the revival of ringball and other ancient Aztec sports; don't think the Confederacy would have tolerated that, LOL. :p

New England may seem a little alien to some, in certain aspects, especially the Yankees out there. One good example is the state of cannabis: in the 1930s & 1940s of OTL, it was a popular and widely tolerated drug(many Yankee politicians, progressives in particular, fought long and hard to keep the stuff legal, even if only to combat the influence of the Virginian-dominated tobacco above all else in some cases), and only became illegal thanks to Southern pressure. However, ITTL, New England seems to be just coming out of a few decades' worth of total prohibition, in 1953.(And this is a New England which isn't too terribly different than OTL's, on the outside at least). On the other hand, at least it's a pleasant place after the tragedy of the *Fascist rule of Shane Mullins(Sobel does drop a few tidbits about war guilt, but he has yet to expand on that much).

And then there's the strange case of Canada; it became a kingdom, a Windsor kingdom, of all things(which is pretty ironic considering how long Canada's been independent of Britain IOTL and the fact that only a few fringe conservatives of all stripes still cling to Royalism, and that most of the other 99.8% of OTL Canadians love their country the way it is now.), in the 1840s, and somehow became home to a not massive, but still fair number of runaway slaves(Most of OTL's Royalists hated blacks, btw). We also saw the rise and downfall of the monarchy, all within the span of 50 years, and ending, tragically, with the terrible authoritarian misrule of James II.
Sobel also mentioned the development of TTL's Royalists; many of them, originally, weren't so bad. But he also introduced the character of Richard Walker, who was about as close to OTL's Mike Collins as could be; a real xenophobic jerk who hated just about anybody who wasn't Anglo-Saxon and absolutely obsessed with keeping Canada free of "Republican scum". His organization? "The Knights of the Round Table".
And speaking of the Republicans, they, too, are somewhat of a mixed bag; many, like Ellie Booth, and Tom Dombeck, are pretty likable people, whom you could sympathize with. On the other hand, you had the un-named fellow in British Columbia who helped send Daniel Arrington to the work camp in Nicaragua, or the tragic murder of a visiting Australian duke by John Hooper, simply for being a noble.
In any case, it's kinda unfortunate, but Canada isn't mentioned at all after 1939; it's possible that Sobel either intended to cover it in a later book series(which never came), or intentionally left it blank so someone else could fill in the details.

South America doesn't get covered much, other than the various problems in Brazil, the brief history of New Ireland, and of course, the overrunning of Chile, Charcas, and Peru, and I hope that Sobel, or perhaps a fan or two, will fill in the blanks in that regard.

Perhaps the most interesting parts were the description of the start of the ATL drug war, and some other developments outside the Americas, particularly where Australia and Europe are concerned, such as how Australia eventually became the headquarters of the British Empire, and how German & Russian culture evolved over the ~140 year time period.
I also liked what Sobel did with China; I don't think anybody had ever done a successful & plausible Taiping revolution before Sobel thought of it. On the other hand, the breakup of India seems to be a little iffy, as is Syria's friendship with Russia(Syria was a German colony for 50 years up until the end of WWII and many Syrians hated the Russians for what happened in Latakia back in 1880).

All in all, this series does have a few small flaws, but I think it's still one of the great '90s AH classics along with Turtledove's "The Rise and Fall of the South", Matthew White's "1989: Warday" and Jerry Brickley's unique "Lands of Red and Gold".

What I want to know is, what do you think?

OOC: This idea was inspired by thenewfoundlander1993's thread, in which Isaac Asimov writes an alternate 1984.

The universe I set this in, btw, is based on a thread in which I asked: "What if Douglas had won in 1860, instead of Lincoln?" Also, please keep in mind that this hypothetical ATL DoD is slightly different from OTL's: as far as I'm aware, neither John Hooper nor the aforementioned duke which he assassinated, existed in OTL's canon, nor does New Ireland(OTL Uruguay, btw).

(I'm also thinking about doing a "review" of an ATL TL-191 equivalent, if anyone's interested.....)
 
Reasons why this thread doesn't have much attention:
Its detailed, people don't really like reading long posts.
Normally DBWI Book Reviews are reviewing OTL, not another alternate universe, so it has less grounding in reality (1984 was our 1984 from the 1984 universe so it was understood well by everybody).
Most people don't read a tonne of threads, so there is a big chance they don't have any idea what you are talking about or are concerned they might go against an established fact in your other thread.
 
OOC: Was it something I wrote? :( Or is it just the luck of the draw?

Dear Caliboy2881,

Please stop incessantly trying to bring up Decades of Darkness in every single possible thread imaginable, or worse, in this instance, creating what amounts to fan DBWIs(already an insufferable "genre" in AH circles) based on Decades of Darkness.

So, in short, yes, it is something you wrote. Hope we can chat again in the near future, ostensibly to discuss non-DoD related AH topics. I know you have it in you. Good luck!

Love, your friend,

A concerned member of the AlternateHistory.com community.
 
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Reasons why this thread doesn't have much attention:
Its detailed, people don't really like reading long posts.
Normally DBWI Book Reviews are reviewing OTL, not another alternate universe, so it has less grounding in reality (1984 was our 1984 from the 1984 universe so it was understood well by everybody).
Most people don't read a tonne of threads, so there is a big chance they don't have any idea what you are talking about or are concerned they might go against an established fact in your other thread.

OOC: Yeah, perhaps so. Maybe I could have thought this out a little better.
Anyway, appreciate the tips.

Dear Caliboy2881,

Please stop incessantly trying to bring up Decades of Darkness in every single possible thread imaginable, or worse, in this instance, creating what amounts to fan DBWIs(already an insufferable "genre" in AH circles) based on Decades of Darkness.

So, in short, yes, it is something you wrote. Hope we can chat again in the near future, ostensibly to discuss non-DoD related AH topics. I know you have it in you. Good luck!

Love, your friends,

A concerned member of the AlternateHistory.com community.

IC/OOC: Okay, man, seriously. Get a grip. :mad:
This was just something made, for fun, inspired by another user's idea. :(
 
OOC: Yeah, perhaps so. Maybe I could have thought this out a little better.
Anyway, appreciate the tips.



IC/OOC: Okay, man, seriously. Get a grip. :mad:
This was just something made, for fun, inspired by another user's idea. :(

Alrighty, then. Now that my admittedly loud laughter's subsided, and can type without any problems, I'll properly respond.

First off, it's downright hilarious your only comeback to being called out on yet another barely veiled(and completely unnecessary) criticism of DoD is - as highlighted in the quote box - "get a grip"? I'm not the one who mentions Decades of Darkness in random, non-related-to-DoD threads. That's you, Cali. I'm not the one who took an already middling idea and somehow in the process turned it into tired rehashing of criticism of a work by now you have severe issues with, making the original idea appear absolutely genius by comparison. Again, no surprises here - it's all you, Cali.

By the way, use of the "mad" face at the end of "get a grip"? Really made the day. Keep up the excellent work being AH.com's greatest unintentionally comedic poster.
 
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OOC: Yeah, perhaps so. Maybe I could have thought this out a little better.
Anyway, appreciate the tips.



IC/OOC: Okay, man, seriously. Get a grip. :mad:
This was just something made, for fun, inspired by another user's idea. :(

Alrighty, then. Now that my admittedly loud laughter's subsided, and can type without any problems, I'll properly respond.

First off, it's downright hilarious your only comeback to being called out on yet another barely veiled(and completely unnecessary) criticism of DoD is - as highlighted in the quote box - "get a grip"? I'm not the one who mentions Decades of Darkness in random, non-related-to-DoD threads. That's you, Cali. I'm not the one who took an already middling idea and somehow in the process turned it into tired rehashing of criticism of a work by now you have severe issues with, making the original idea appear absolutely genius by comparison. Again, no surprises here - it's all you, Cali.

By the way, use of the "mad" face at the end of "get a grip"? Really made the day. Keep up the excellent work being AH.com's greatest unintentionally comedic poster.

Both of you behave yourselves or I'll knock your heads together.
 
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