Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro has degrees in Electronic Engineering and Astronomy by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He was the only Brazilian author that published two stories in Brazilian's edition of *Asimov's*: hard SF novelette "Mythological Aliens" (1991) and alternative history novelette "The Ethics of Treason" (1993). The latter one was the very first Brazilian AH story published in science fiction market. Gerson had several of his AH and SF stories published in several Portuguese and Brazilian anthologies and magazines. Some of those were also published in France, Germany and Argentina. Two of his AH & SF short story collections *Other Histories...* (1997) and *The Vampire of New Holland* (1998) were published in Portugal by Editorial Caminho. His AH novelette collection *Other Brazils* (1999) was published in Brazil by Papel & Virtual. As editor and publisher, Gerson launched two theme anthologies by Editora Ano-Luz: *Phantastica Brasiliana* (2000), on AH and historical fiction, and *How Luscious My Alien Girl Was!* (2003), on erotic SF. From 2004 onwards, he is working to Hoplon Infotainment as consultant and writer, a company that is producing *Taikodom*, the first Brazilian science fiction MMOG. Besides creating Taikodom fictional universe specs & plots, Gerson already wrote about 160,000 words in several fiction pieces, including a novel in that universe. The game will be launched in December. If you wish to feel how Taikodom is, take a look in its site in www.taikodom.com.br

How's the situation in Brazil concerning science fiction and alternate history?

We don't have any science fiction magazine running at the newsstands right now and there are no Brazilian publishing houses launching science fiction titles by foreign or Brazilian authors on a regular basis. Many Brazilian science fiction and fantasy writers are succeeding in publishing their books only in print-on-demand system. Publishers usually prefer to launch new titles by well-known Anglo-Saxon authors. In the alternative history front, Brazilian publishers simply don't know what this subgenre is. They usually confuse it with historical novels. My former literary agent gave up after trying to present my alternative history works to several Brazilian publishers for about one year. She couldn't explain to them what AH is. The funniest thing is, charming and intelligent as she was, I suspect she never understood this concept herself. As far as I remember, only six AH novels were published in Brazil so far: Dick's The Man in the High Castle; Spinrad's The Iron Dream; Deighton's SS-GB: Nazi-Occupied Britain, 1941; Koontz's Lighting; Harris' Fatherland; and Roth's The Plot Against America. Besides these six Alternative World War II novels, Brazilian mainstream fantasy writer José J. Veiga published a AH novel, A Casca da Serpente (The Serpent's Skin). That novel proposes the survival of Antônio Conselheiro, the leader of the Revolt of Canudos, the first major Brazilian civil rebellion against republican rule in the end of the 19th century. Although the proposed divergence was cute and original in itself, in my opinion, the plot was utterly implausible and poorly developed. I had my own alternative history novelette collection Outros Brasis (Other Brazils) launched in 1999 by print-on-demand publishing house Papel & Virtual. Besides, I had one novella in my Three Brazils ATL, Traição de Palmares (Treason of Palmares), published by print-on-demand publishing house Writers in 2000. In that same year, Carlos Orsi Martinho and I organized an alternative history anthology Phantastica Brasiliana to Ano-Luz, a now defunct publishing house that was specialized in science fiction, horror, alternative history and fantasy.

What is the most popular theme in Brazilian alternate history, nowadays? And in South America?


There are two main alternative themes in Brazilian AH: Alternative Empires (of Brazil) and Fragmentation of Brazilian Territory (resulting from wars or invasions). In our timeline, before becoming a republic, Brazil was an empire for 67 years, from 1822 to 1889. So, Alternative Empires' main proposal is: what if the Empire of Brazil had survived until today. The fragmentation of Brazil in several countries is the alternative result of a Portuguese or Brazilian defeat in a military conflict that they had really won in our historical timeline. Let me employ the War of Paraguay in order to illustrate this kind of divergence: it was the greatest conflict Brazil had ever fought in all time. Empire allied itself to Republic of Argentina and Republic of Uruguay to wage war against Paraguayan dictator Solano Lopez. That huge military conflict lasted from 1864 to 1870. As a result of the Triple Alliance's victory, Paraguay lost large chunks of its former territory, suffered severe postwar military occupation and had most of its male population killed. Now, let's imagine an alternative result of that conflict: what if Brazil had been defeated in the War of Paraguay. Probably, Empire of Brazil would lose territory to victorious Paraguay. Perhaps the Empire could even break in several countries. Would those countries be more prosperous or poorer than our timeline's Brazil? What about Brazilian revanchism? So, it seems that, for Brazilian readers, the implications of such fictional defeat sound as appealing as a hypothetical Confederate victory in the American Civil War for Anglo-Saxon readership. On Hispanic America's AH, besides the fact that Mexicans do appreciate scenarios that imply the alternative survival of Mesoamerican cultures and one single Argentinean short story on Alternative Peronism, I really don't know much about Hispanic American alternative history.

Which are your favorite topics in AH?

In Brazilian AH, besides Empire's defeat in the War of Paraguay, I appreciate divergences that turn Brazil into several smaller countries, like my Three Brazils alternative timeline, in what I had written twelve works so far. In that scenario I propose a split of Brazil circa 1680 among three factions: Portuguese; Dutch (who really invaded Colonial Brazil in our timeline and stayed there for thirty years); and Palmarine (formed by African ex-slaves, who really existed as a sovereign state inside the colonial territory of the Portuguese Crown). In foreign AH, I love divergences that occur in: Ancient History - Like Turtledove's "Counting Potsherds" and his Agent of Byzantium stories; Steven Barnes' Lion's Blood and Zulu Heart; Pohl's "Waiting for the Olympians"; Silverberg's Roma Eterna stories; Kirk Mitchell's Procurator and Somtow's Aquiliad trilogies, among many others. Alternative Pre-Columbians - Like John Maddox Roberts's King of the Wood; Thomas Harlan's Wasteland of Flint series; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "An Exaltation of Spiders"; Christopher Evans' Aztec Century; among others; and Alternative Natural History - Like Harrison's West of Eden and Sawyer's The Neanderthal Parallax trilogies; Turtledove's novel A World of Difference; his novelette "Down in the Bottomlands" and his fix-up A Different Flesh.

Which is the difference between Anglo-Saxon AH and Latin one?

American and British AH writers seem to think they live in the best of the possible worlds, because they almost always tend to propose pessimistic alternative scenarios: ATL in what historical events hadn't occurred in such an advantageous way to the U.S. and the U.K. On the other hand, we Latin AH writers do feel we don't live in the best of the worlds (After all, neither Italy or Spain is a huge superpower, nor Brazil has the largest GNP of the world, right?), so our divergences tend to produce more optimist alternative scenarios than the Anglo-Saxon ones.

People discuss in Italy about AH novels about fascism. It seems as if talking of a surviving fascism means the author's a nostalgic. Do you agree with this point of view?

I think this feeling of nostalgia for Fascism depends on the standpoint the author adopts towards Mussolini and his minions. If Alternative Italy in his survival of Fascism scenario seems bleaker than Italy in our OwnRealWorld™, then that scenario will not sound nostalgic to its prospective readers. However, if Fascism survival implies a fictional country that sounds somewhat better than the real one, then that alternative scenario would be at risk of being considered nostalgic or desirable by its readers.

How much do South American authors know about Italian AH?

We don't know much about Italian AH down here. Of course we know about its existence from Uchronia Alternate History List (www.uchronia.net) and Eric Henriet's remarkable encyclopedic book L'Histoire Revisitée - Panorama de L'Uchronie Sous Toutes Ses Formes, but Italian AH stories and novels themselves didn't cross the Atlantic Ocean yet.

Harry Turtledove is known as the indisputable master of AH. Would you agree in considering his series as a modern epical literature?

In truth, I prefer Turtledove's stand-alone AH novels (such as The Guns of the South; In the Presence of my Enemies and his excellent Ruled Britannia), fix-ups (A Different Flesh and Agent of Byzantium) and short fiction (some of his best AH stories can be found in the collections Kaleidoscope; Departures and Counting Up, Counting Down). Albeit their superbly detailed plots, I consider both WorldWar and American Civil War AH series rather boring. As an AH buff, I felt obliged to read most books of those series, even though I didn't enjoy them much.

What are you writing at the moment?

Presently, I am writing a hard science fiction novel in Taikodom™ (www.taikodom.com.br), a fictional universe I created to the first Brazilian science fictional M.M.O.G. (massively multiplayer online game). Now I am acting as science fiction & fact adviser and writer to Hoplon Infotainment, the Brazilian company which is producing Taikodom™. This novel will be published (I hope!) when the game itself will be launched, perhaps next December. Earlier this year, I submitted an alternative history fix-up on my Three Brazil ATL to a Brazilian publishing house.

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