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The Iron Dream

created by Quizro

(thing) by Quizro (2.2 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Fri Jan 26 2001 at 20:01:22

1972 science fiction novel-with-a-novel by Norman Spinrad. The premise is that one is reading a book titled Lord of the Swastika by the beloved SF author Adolf Hitler, who emigrated to the United States after World War I. This conceit allows Spinrad to satirize the fascist and racist elements of much popular SF and fantasy.

The hero, Feric Jaggar, is the type of steely-eyed and mighty-thewed superman often found in the genre. He strides manfully across the blasted landscape of a future world ravaged by nuclear war, where the small remnant of genetically pure humans is menaced by hordes of evil mutants and their masters the Doms, who possess the power of mind control. Jaggar finds a long-lost (and blatantly phallic) ancient weapon of enormous power, the Steel Commander. Jaggar's ownership of this legendary truncheon marks him as the destined ruler of his people; he leads them to victory over the mongrel races and enacts a plan to clone the most physically perfect members of the human race and send them out in rocket ships to colonize the stars.

The events in the book parallel the events that mark Hitler's rise to power in our own world. The American Nazi Party, who may not have gotten the joke, named it the Book of the Year when it came out.


printable version
chaos

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