mass market paperback
English language
Published May 1, 1986 by Spectra.
Norman Spinrad's 1972 alternate history, gives us both a metafictional what-if novel and a cutting satire of one of the 20th century's most evil regimes . . .
In 1919, a young Austrian artist by the name of Adolf Hitler immigrated to the United States to become an illustrator for the pulp magazines and, eventually, a Hugo Award-winning SF author.
This volume contains his greatest work, Lord of the Swastika: an epic post-apocalyptic tale of genetic 'trueman' Feric Jagger and his quest to purify the bloodline of humanity by ruthlessly slaughtering races of the genetically impure - a quest Norman Spinrad expertly skewers through ironic imagery and over-the-top rhetoric.
Spinrad hoped to expose some unpalatable truths about much of SF and Fantasy literature and its uncomfortable relationship with fascist ideologies - an aim that was not always apparent to neo-fascist readers. In order to make his aims clear to the …
Norman Spinrad's 1972 alternate history, gives us both a metafictional what-if novel and a cutting satire of one of the 20th century's most evil regimes . . .
In 1919, a young Austrian artist by the name of Adolf Hitler immigrated to the United States to become an illustrator for the pulp magazines and, eventually, a Hugo Award-winning SF author.
This volume contains his greatest work, Lord of the Swastika: an epic post-apocalyptic tale of genetic 'trueman' Feric Jagger and his quest to purify the bloodline of humanity by ruthlessly slaughtering races of the genetically impure - a quest Norman Spinrad expertly skewers through ironic imagery and over-the-top rhetoric.
Spinrad hoped to expose some unpalatable truths about much of SF and Fantasy literature and its uncomfortable relationship with fascist ideologies - an aim that was not always apparent to neo-fascist readers. In order to make his aims clear to the hard-of-understanding, Spinrad added an imaginary critical analysis by a fictional literary scholar, Homer Whipple, of New York University.
Congratulations, Mr Spinrad. You can write disgusting fascist dreck. That it is faked doesn’t mean it’s not disgusting. So, yeah, important point to make about the stuff Cambell had published, but really, wouldn’t a short story have been enuf to make that point‽
What if Hitler had written science fiction?
This is the question that Norman Spinrad asks in The Iron Dream, and one I can't say I'd ever thought of exploring the answer to before. This story within a story contains an entertaining, homoerotic exploration of a post-Nuclear future where the quest for human genomic purity is centred by a Hitler self-insert. The satire of Nazism simply doesn't miss, even as we have passed the Cold War context in which it was written. Highly recommend giving it a shot if weird/bizarro fiction ever floats your boat.
Full review here: specual.me/posts/theirondream/
What if Hitler had written science fiction?
This is the question that Norman Spinrad asks in The Iron Dream, and one I can't say I'd ever thought of exploring the answer to before. This story within a story contains an entertaining, homoerotic exploration of a post-Nuclear future where the quest for human genomic purity is centred by a Hitler self-insert. The satire of Nazism simply doesn't miss, even as we have passed the Cold War context in which it was written. Highly recommend giving it a shot if weird/bizarro fiction ever floats your boat.
Full review here: specual.me/posts/theirondream/
