Change fascinates me - the way people change and how that sometimes changes society and sometimes doesn’t. It is a theme that runs through most of the stories I write. This morning, in the aftermath of a general election here in the UK, I thought I’d share some thoughts about this theme and the Gas-Lit Empire.

There seem to have been periods in history when stasis ruled. During the cold war, for example, the USA and the USSR spent forty-four years arm wrestling with each other through proxy conflicts and propaganda. Dramatic things did happen in that time. But the basic structure of power blocks remained.

Individuals gave their lives to spying, to fighting on battlefields, to the space program, to assassination attempts, to protests and to the propagation of social and economic theories, all in the effort to gain influence for one side or the other. But the political map of the world remained frozen.

The end of the Cold War gives us an example of something different - seemingly innocuous events precipitating a huge shift in the tectonic plates of history. The Berlin Wall had stood for decades as the most tangible symbol of the intransigence of Cold War politics. Then, quite suddenly it was gone, but not through any of the battle scenarios the generals had war-gamed. On the day, it happened because some border guards refused to use lethal force.

Of course, that isn’t the whole story. If a border guard had disobeyed orders a year earlier, he might have himself been shot. But something had happened to bring the political balance close to a threshold where change was possible. So close, that even a small push would be enough.

Some moments seem to be endowed with a particular capacity. At those times, the actions of a small group of individuals can literally change the world.

The alternative history of the Gas-Lit Empire examines two such moments. The first happens in...


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