A review by rick_k
Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess

3.0

Famous Men Who Never Lived has a great premise - 150,000 people appear from a parallel universe that took a different trajectory out of the industrial revolution into the information age. Unfortunately the execution feels like a short story which when growing into a novel just got wider and slower, rather than casting a more ambitious arc. The social response also seemed one note. While prejudice could be a possible outcome, I think the academic community would embrace and absorb this small population of individuals. The scientific merit of even the most simplistic understanding of technology, medicine, physics, art, political and social theory, and every other human pursuit would be an unimaginable treasure trove. The analogy to contemporary political refugees is appropriate but the context is so huge here that it can't be a simple substitution. I think the small personal investigation to rediscover one individual's missed destiny and its effect on the world would feel more precious and poignant against the huge backdrop of innovation and discovery which would be proliferating every corner of science and society.