Making History

Author: Stephen Fry

We all know Stephen Fry is the amusing, articulate comedian. But inside that tart wit is a spectacular speculative fiction. In 1998's Sidewise Award Winner, this story of Michael "Puppy" young revolves around a student completing his PHD on the relationship between Hitler and his mother. Puppy meets Leo Zukerman, a physicist who was the son of a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz. Zuckerman builds a machine that can send items to the past, and send a male contraceptive pill back to the past so that Hitler's father drinks it and becomes infertile. Returning to the present with an English accent, when it turns out he should have had an American accent, Puppy discovers the history of his current time. Though Hitler never came to fruit (hehe), Rudolph Gloder became the Nazi leader, just as nasty and farm more charismatic. Far more successful than Hitler, due to strategic moves, the Nazis gain dominance in Europe, and engage in combat against the U.S. The U.S. remains incredibly conservative, and when Puppy talks to his gay best friend about our real world, he wonders at the gay pride and equality (as it seems). At this time, Michael realizes he is gay, too. Revealing our end will reveal too much, but there is happiness in the bleak dystopian world we are presented with. This book reveals the powerful emotion that Fry has the ability to display, and it shows us a disgusting dystopia that our world could have been. If you're a heterosexual person, and care about people whose lives are different to yours, this novel is a must read.