The Oppenheimer Alternative
2020 novel by Robert J. Sawyer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oppenheimer Alternative is a 2020 science fiction and alternate history novel by Canadian writer Robert J. Sawyer. It was first published in June 2020 in Canada by Red Deer Press, and in the United States by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy,[1] 75 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.[2] The novel was nominated for The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association's 2021 Aurora Award for Best Novel.[3]
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Author | Robert J. Sawyer |
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Language | English |
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Published | June 2, 2020 |
Publisher | Red Deer Press (CA) CAEZIK SF & F (US) |
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Media type | Trade paperback |
Pages | 374 |
ISBN | 978-0-8899-5617-9 (CA) 978-1-64710-013-1 (US) |
The Oppenheimer Alternative explores J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his subsequent security clearance hearings in the mid-1950s. It also tackles his handling of the fictional discovery that the Sun's core is unstable and will shed its outer layer in the late-2020s, engulfing the inner Solar System, including Earth. Sawyer stated that many of the events that take place in the novel are factual,[1] and most of the characters are dramatizations of historical figures, including Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and Wernher von Braun.[4]