Fábio Fernandes's Reviews > The Alteration

I can't believe I never heard of this book before. I always liked Kingsley Amis' novels, but apparently I hadn't read too many of them. Early this week I found it in a bookstore here in São Paulo and I was amazed by the synopsis - and by the William Gibson introduction (you can't go wrong with such a recommendation). So I bought it, naturally.

I read it in three days - and that's because I had work to do, alas. The Alteration is Alternate History of the best kind. Imagine PK Dick's The Man in the High Castle or Keith Roberts' Pavane. Dick, by the way, considered The Alteration "one of the best alternate-worlds novels in existence". The story takes place at the same time it was written, 1976 - a world almost entirely dominated by the Catholic Church, where the point of divergence was the promotion of Martin Luther to pope in the 16th Century. In this world, not much has changes since them, including in technology, where just now cars and planes are starting to appear - and electricity, though well-known, isn't used and is considered a luxury, or something from a TR, or Time Romance (the Science Fiction of this universe). A special treat for the reader (no spoilers here, I promise) is the alternate novels Amis invents for our delight. The reader will recognize many authors that exist here but will see many of his novels that they never wrote in our world.

The prose is also admirable, and the plot is convolute as it should, regarding a subject so delicate as the life of a young singer whose life is to be altered (in more than one way) forever by the will of the Church. This is not a book to be missed.