Jared Diamond's Collapse inspired this alternate history that takes
place during the Americal Civil War, and tells the story of eight
people who come together after the battle between the USS Monitor
and the CSS Virginia. Using the money they earned by tricking the
U. S. Government into buying more Monitor-class ships, they attempt
to escape the war and retreat to "paradise," Easter Island.
However, this paradise has been transformed by the natives into a
human ecological disaster and monument to pagan fertility rights
and even cannibalism. Through the inventiveness and labors of the
main characters, the fanatical Bird Man cult is finally banished,
but not before many people have died as a result.
James Musgrave
(a.k.a. Efraim Zimbalist Graves) is an author and college educator
in San Diego, California. His recent non-fiction title, The Digital
Scribe: a Writer's Guide to El More...
