The World’s Other Side

 

The World’s Other Side

Creating the future is a rich culture’s game; poverty can only re-create the past.
—Lois McMaster Bujold

 

George Boatman trained to be a priest, but his people need a criminal. Five centuries after the advanced Gondwanan civilization invaded the Northern Hemisphere, George leads a gang of thieves and smugglers in an alternate Chicago. It’s a bloody job, but the tiny ghetto of White-town needs the help. Or perhaps the vengeance.

His cause comes under threat when George’s family welcomes a Gondwanan exchange student into their home. Decadent, arrogant, and seductive, Bounce Nakmara is eager for an opportunity to study George’s “bizarre culture.” George finds himself growing attracted to the foreigner, but her inquiries threaten to expose the murder of a rival gang member. Menaced by drug dealers, the local police, and international religious extremists, George must choose between protecting Bounce and the continued existence of his community.

Excerpt:

“What are you doing?”

George pulled back and looked at her, struggling to think. “Kissing you?”

“Is that what you call it?” The jaguar spots that spangled her forehead and cheeks rippled. The soft lips stretched in a glorious smirk. “And it wasn’t some Native Eurasian death ritual, or how you clean each other’s teeth or something? That was supposed to be erotic, right?”

“Supposed to be?” George cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“Freaking finally,” said Nakmara.

See also an audio sample and commentary on Chapter 3

Gallery of Gondwanan art

Bibliography (works referenced)

“ILINWA” (based on the Miami-Illinois people of the area around Chicago and now Ohio)

Etymological information on the name “Illinois” here and here

This excellent ethno-linguistic map

The websites of the modern-day Peoria Tribe and Miami Tribe, of which more information is available at The Myaamia Project, Miami-Illinois Stories, and the Myaamia (Miami language) online Dictionary.

Historical information on the “Illinois Confederacy,” the “Illini Confederation,” Illinois History at the Illinois Museum,  “the Tribes of the Illinois Confederacy,” Languages of Illinois, and Tribes of the Region at First Contact (1673)

Historical documents: The Illinois Indians , The Geographic Location of Potawatomi Bands: 1795 to 1846. The Inoca Ethnohistory project was an invaluable source of original documents on dealings between the Europeans and the Illinois people, especially Father Dablon’s 1670 record, and the journal of Father Marquette.  The Illinois listing in the Charlevoix Histoire is another excellent source.

Daryl Baldwin Myaamia: Beliefs and Culture, Evolving Concepts. click on eekootoonkia (Exhibit) and then Auditorium (on the bottom left)

A Discussion of Early Myaamia History. A conversation I had with George Ironstack, Assistant Director/Program Director of Miami University.

 The Catholic Calumet: Colonial Conversions in French and Indian North America by
Tracy Neal Leavelle

The Miami-Illinois language by David J. Costa.

Native American Place-Names of Indiana by Michael McCafferty

And anything by Charles C. Mann

“GONDWANANS” (entirely fictious)
Cousins to the Gondwanans in our timeline such as theBaruya, Fuegans (also here and here)

Calendar converter

A Map

Gondwanan biology (piebaldism), agriculture (here, here, here, here, here, here,here,here,here,here,here,here,here,here,here,here, and here)

This map of pre-contact Australia

Observant readers will find a nod and a wink to Jared’s “Lands of Red and Gold.”

And this awesome counter-colonial map of Africa

“CHRISTIANS” AKA “Blanks” AKA “Whites” (the English-speaking minority of the Republic of Ilinwa)
More maps
Christian Invaders

15th century marriage

Peter L. Bergen’s Holy War, Inc.

Jessica Stern’s Terror in the Name of God

Kristen Ghodsee’s Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe.

Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers