What do you think?
Rate this book
The Emu Conquest: An Alternate History of Australia
In 1932, Australia fought their own Great War... against the Emus.
Convinced of an easy victory, the Army quickly learned not to underestimate their flightless foes.
The emus formed alliances with other birds and kept advancing, gaining a near-human sentience after the nuclear testing of 1952-54 (We told the Poms and the Pollies that was a bad idea...)
Come 2019, the east coast cities are the final hold-out against Avian Conquest of the Sunburnt Country, and it's Magpie season...
Convinced of an easy victory, the Army quickly learned not to underestimate their flightless foes.
The emus formed alliances with other birds and kept advancing, gaining a near-human sentience after the nuclear testing of 1952-54 (We told the Poms and the Pollies that was a bad idea...)
Come 2019, the east coast cities are the final hold-out against Avian Conquest of the Sunburnt Country, and it's Magpie season...
51 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 4, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2021
I love that this isn't another tired rehashing of WW2 where the Nazis win. The Emu War was already amazing so I had high hopes for this book and it exceeded all of them. Some of the insults in this book are top-notch. Even the sillier plot points work because people's reactions to them are believable. We know so little about human intelligence that I'm sure we know a lot less about avian intelligence than we'd like to admit. I've long thought that Alternate History books would be more interesting if people picked different places and times to change things from and this book proves it. If you want to introduce people to the Alternate History genre you should start here.
June 12, 2021
Latest in the “destroy Australia” sweepstakes. Ray Bradbury “atomized” it. YEAR OF THE ANGRY RABBIT unveiled … well, those rabbits were dynamite! Colin Mason’s publisher gave it away by putting “The Hostage is the continent of Australia.” Then we had the night when the war began. And not one, but two documentaries where the cane toads strike back.
This one envisions a skewed, gonzo timeline where the Emu War takes a more disturbing turn and Australia (and it is implied the rest of the world goes to the birds. Were they reading Aristophanes? Overseas readers may be impelled to delve further into the background of events twisted in this world.
Oh, Muslims do not “pray to the Prophet”, praying to anything but God is a great sin. Thar irritated me just at the climax.
This one envisions a skewed, gonzo timeline where the Emu War takes a more disturbing turn and Australia (and it is implied the rest of the world goes to the birds. Were they reading Aristophanes? Overseas readers may be impelled to delve further into the background of events twisted in this world.
Oh, Muslims do not “pray to the Prophet”, praying to anything but God is a great sin. Thar irritated me just at the climax.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews