A New World

by Steven Popkes

On his first voyage seeking the Far East, Columbus finds a new world occupied by intelligent dinosaurs.

The expedition does not go as planned.

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 28, 2022

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded down

The Publisher Says: On his first voyage seeking the Far East, Columbus finds a new world occupied by intelligent dinosaurs.

The expedition does not go as planned.

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Steven Popkes lives in Massachusetts on two acres where he and his wife raise bananas, persimmons and turtles.

He works in aerospace making sure rockets continue to go where they are pointed. He insists he is not a rocket scientist.

He is a rocket engineer.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: A shortish read, novella length, about the very best possible outcome of Almirante Cristóbal Colón's disastrous voyage to the New World: An enemy worthy and capable of resisting the scumdog religious nuts instead of normal people susceptible to diseases the evil bastards miasmically transmitted to them.

It's a lovely thought.

Told from several points of view in its fewer-than-100 pages, it doesn't linger on details or travel down intriguing side paths. That's understandable but regrettable. The presence of a Marrano on the voyage is, I think, allohistorical...but I can't prove that. I enjoyed the different outcome of first contact...not everything going the Spaniards' way...and relished very deeply the hints of complexity in the New World's radically new social structure. I think this is plausible since the asteroid hit the Yucatán in our own timeline by accident; as little as ten minutes earlier or later, the entire history of the planet would certainly have been different.

Would dinosaurs have survived? Would humans have evolved if they had? Sure, why not, this is a story! And a fun one, perfect for #Booksgiving. To yourself, or to others.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 4 out of 5]

E se Colombo avesse trovato qualcosa di inaspettato?

Cristoforo Colombo arriva in America, trova ad accoglierlo degli indigeni... e dei dinosauri intelligenti, che sono i veri padroni dei territori. Cosa mai potrebbe andare male? Questo racconto breve di Steven Popkes è molto divertente, pur lasciando alla fine l'amaro in bocca. Troviamo le liti tra i comandanti delle tre caravelle, l'odio della maggior parte di loro verso l'ebreo convertito Luís che fa da traduttore, le miserrime beghe e un punto di vista molto diverso dal nostro. Ma alla fine non possiamo non affezionarci a Red Eft, il dinosauro protagonista che si trova a dover fare un corso ultraaccelerato di economia e proverà a costruire un rapporto pacifico con alcuni dei nuovi arrivati. Alcune parti (principalmente quelle sugli indigeni) restano collegate non troppo bene, e ho avuto qualche problema a seguire i dialoghi: ma vi consiglio di leggerlo.

[Alison C · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late 1400s, Admiral Colón travels with his ships the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria to find fabled islands, but what he and his crew encounter is something very different. It is up to Luis, a translator and Jew, to communicate with Arun and his savage-seeming people, who themselves are thralls to…. Well, I don’t want to give it away, but let me just whisper that long-extinct creatures are involved. This short novella (some 87 pages) is both hilarious and horrific, depending on the scene, and the open-ended finale leaves plenty of scope for expansion. You can read it in an hour and you won’t be disappointed! I received an e-copy from Library Thing’s Early Reviewers.