Back in the USSA

by Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929480848
• ISBN13: 9780929480848
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Mark V. Ziesing
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.9" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Dardevil Tweaking

Some reviews below may be missing the point here. This isn't intended as a hard core alternate history tale (actually several tales adding up to a schmorgasboard). I think Newman and Byrne wrote BACK IN THE USSA to have FUN with the WHAT IF? concept, and taken at this face value, the book is a playful hoot and a half. Other tales have a deeper soul. If you're up for some fiendishly sly and clever REMIXING HISTORY Funky Dub fun, then this may be your speed. Very creative, very clever, highly recommended. If you liked the "spot the reference" sense of humor in Newman's DRACULA CHA CHA CHA (aka JUDGEMENT OF TEARS in the US), you'll have no prob "getting" this book. It's not just a lark, though. The tales all have something interesting to say about human nature, hippocracy and the American spirit.

Dark satire on US/UK culture

While it's adequately believable as alternate history, "Back in the USSA" is primarily satire. The role reversal between USA and USSR puts a mirror to the real world: to especially telling effect when there's no change. For instance, "In the Air" has a lot to say about the double standard that makes people see identical behaviour - platoons of children in military uniform honouring war heroes, and saluting the flag - as healthy patriotism in their own country, but sinister militaristic indoctrination in another. Other targets are the US Vietnam movie mythos ("Teddy Bears' Picnic" features classic English comic characters conscripted to a British Indochina war); British royalty ("Abdication Street" is a bad-taste mimic of the Charles/Diana wedding); and the late tycoon Robert Maxwell. This may not be to your taste; many of the TV and movie in-jokes are far more accessible to UK readers. But if it is, you'll find it a wonderfuly dark and witty take on the major events of this century.

the best Alternative History since Guns of the South

This novel is a complete trip thru the history of the United Socialist States of America. You heard me correct, Eugene Debs lead a revolution and established a socialist republic during WW1. Byrne and Newman paint a vivid picture of an America that could have been. Their use of characters both real as well as fictional is incredible. This is a must read for anyone interested in Alternative History. It is much more than a novel. This book deals with British and Russian involvement in the Vietnam War, the Great Purges of Capone's dictatorship, to the creation of the Common Wealth of Independent North American States. I highly recommend it to anyone.

An Excellent Alternate History

This book is the most I've enjoyed an alternate history since reading Turtledove's "Guns of the South." Byrne and Newman do an excellent job on extrapolating from their premise of a United States gone communist. The one flaw with the book is that the authors go a little heavy into the "oh, so that's what so-and-so is doing" alternate history scenarios; some of the "real" characters seem to have little purpose more than just to be mentioned in the book. But this is only a trivial flaw.

Back in the USSA is a hip alternate history ride.

The premise is that Teddy Roosevelt was assassinated by Annie Oakley after a successful presidential win by the Bull Moose Party. His Vice President, millionaire Charles Foster Kane (yes, watch out for the fictional characters who appear in the narrative as well as the historical ones who appear in new personnas), plunges the USA into a disastrous early entry into the Great War. This leads to a violent Revolution and the establishment of of a new Socialist state in America, while Russia evolves into a constitutional monarchy.This is quite a trip! The book is told in the form of separate narratives, from the young Buddy Holly under the regime of Chairman Capone (the USSA's Stalin), a wonderland mirror version of the Untouchables and the Grapes of Wrath, a tale about Ed Gein coldcut supplier to the Party big-wigs, the British experience in the Vietnam War ("Teddy Bears Picnic" -- a wonderful sequence), television under the csar during a Royal Wedding, and much more. Newman and Byrne are mishugah, and I like it.