No Spot of Ground by Walter Jon Williams (General Poe, CSA)

[Electric Monk]

Anybody read this? It's a nicely sized novella by Williams that supposes Poe (that is, the poet Poe) becomes an excellent Southern General and amateur cryptographer.

This does not, particularly, change the course of the war. The novella is set outside Richmond as Grant bulls his way forward, Longstreet is in the hospital, Stuart is dead, and Lee is sick and making mistakes (delaying his attack for 24 hours). It covers alt-Poe's background, the slight differences in the course of the war, and of course the battle itself.

It's really rather good, and I'd recommend it to anybody who likes alternate history or, in fact, solid literary work.

 

[darthbalmung]

How is Poe still alive?

 

[Electric Monk]

How is Poe still alive?

POD is before his death (as in alt-Poe has a different enough career so that he lives and becomes a soldier) which makes him fifty-five at the tail end of the Civil War.

 

[darthbalmung]

POD is before his death (as in alt-Poe has a different enough career so that he lives and becomes a soldier) which makes him fifty-five at the tail end of the Civil War.

I got that, I should've phrased it better in what is the POD and how does it keep him alive, unless it's a spoiler for the story somehow.

 

[fortyseven]

I've read it. It was very good.

 

[Ghost 88]

I got that, I should've phrased it better in what is the POD and how does it keep him alive, unless it's a spoiler for the story somehow.

It has been suggested that Poe died of Rabies instead of acoholism( a John Hopkins Doctor was given Poe's autopsy,without knowing who's it was and concluded that the cause of death was Rabies). If this theory is correct then having Poe miss contacting Rabies should give you the needed POD.

IIRC I heard it on NPR.

Disregard I forgot what forum I was in.

 

[Greg Grant]

I've read it. It is well written. Not a lot of allo-historical content, but the writing is sharp and good. Also, Poe is well presented as a complete character, from odd quirk to odd quirk and his good side and his bad side. The POD is that due to a different set of circumstances regarding his romantic associations, Poe stays out of Baltimore and lives more the life of a country squire with a notable literary career.

When the Civil War starts, he joins the Confederate side from a romantic notion (and petty bouts of racism). Since he is still Poe, he of course does not get along well with anyone in the officer cadre, gets into idiotic squabbles, and creates suspicion and imagines rivalry where there is none.

A wound sends him home, IIRC, and Lee is more than happy to see him off. But when he recovers, Poe rejoins the army and since at this point the Confederacy is collapsing, Lee can't turn down a man who is willing to fight, and reluctantly places him back in his rank of Brigadier General.

On the eve of battle, from Poe's POV, Lee dawdles, but a closer read shows that Poe is really losing touch with reality and is exaggerating his own sense of military skill and thinks he knows what the enemy is going to do and what Confederate army should do to respond to it. He gets pissed when Lee ignores him and concentrates on his own plan.

The writing leaves it up to your own feelings on who is right, and it is pretty open ended to interpretation whether Lee is losing it - Lee is deteriorating because all of his famous subordinates are either dead or injured at this point, and he can see that there is really no hope for victory - or whether Poe - who is drinking again, and lashing out at people for no good reason - is totally not getting what Lee is trying to do.

The story stays true to the characters of the men. It won't change your life, but it is well written and worth a look.