Swedin, Eric G
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1965- ) US author whose first novel, When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (2010), is an alternate world Future History of America from the Jonbar Point which engines it – America's failure to detect Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba sets off World War Three – and through the Post-Holocaust period immediately following the devastation. It won the Sidewise Award for 2010.
Swedin's next novel, Anasazi Exile: A Science Fiction Novel (2011), after a scene set in mediaeval times during which First Contact occurs, focuses on the implications for Homo sapiens of discovering, in an Anasazi archaeological site, evidence that we may have evolved under the control of Secret Masters. A mild sense of Time Abyss enlivens Fragments of Me: A Science Fiction Novel (2012), whose protagonist discovers that his ability to engage in Identity Transfers has ancient roots; Seeking Valhalla: A Retro Science Fiction Novel (2013), a Science Fantasy tale set just after the end of World War Two, traces a quest for a rationalized version of Yggdrasil, the world tree, where revanchist Nazis must be thwarted. Though his writing style tends to blank briskness, Swedin is an author of strong imagination. [JC]
Eric Gottfried Swedin
born Salt Lake City, Utah: 22 January 1965
works
- When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books, 2010) [hb/]
- Anasazi Exile: A Science Fiction Novel (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/Borgo Press, 2011) [pb/]
- Fragments of Me: A Science Fiction Novel (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/Borgo Press, 2012) [pb/]
- Seeking Valhalla: A Retro Science Fiction Novel (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/Borgo Press, 2013) [pb/]
nonfiction
- Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2011) with David L Ferro [nonfiction: pb/]
links
- Alternatives: Histories of the Past and Future (blog)
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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