The Oppenheimer Alternative is arguably two books in one. A third of the book is a straightforward historical novel about the life of renowned physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer from his early years as a professor at Berkeley to becoming the head of the Manhattan Project, through the explosion of the first atom bomb. This seems like well-researched history, with no divergence from what really happened (beyond the usual license given to historical fiction writers to invite dialogue and motivation). But then, the story shifts to alternate history as the scientists studying fusion discover a problem with the sun. After a letter from Einstein supports a theory of Edward Teller, Oppenheimer determines that instability in the sun will cause an ejection of solar matter that will destroy all life on Earth in 2028.

The rest of the book is devoted to the efforts of the leading physicists of the 1940s and 50s to save humanity while trying to cope with cold war paranoia, scientific jealousy, and questions over control of atomic power. Oppenheimer becomes head of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ which he rapidly turns into a think tank for exploring options to save the human race whether by shielding the Earth from the sun, colonizing Mars, or some other crazy blue-sky idea.

But the core of the book is Oppenheimer's loss of the love of his life, Jean Tatlock, who twice turned down Oppenheimer's marriage proposals but continued an affair with him after his marriage. Their secret trysts become evidence for his untrustworthiness in a postwar hearing revoking his security clearance. It takes Oppenheimer years to get over her suicide, if he ever really does (as the ending makes clear). Sawyer contrasts this with Oppenheimer's relationship with his alcoholic wife, who is bitter over having given up her own potential scientific career. Sawyer's minor characters also have strong characterization with scientists frequently acting out of petty jealousy and annoyance.

Much of the historical detail rings true. Distrust of the Soviet Union and communism takes place even while the U.S. is allied with them. The book has occasional bits showing how common anti-Semitism is among the characters. For instance, there's a nice scene where General Groves yells, "God, how I hate pushy Jews like you!" only to stutter "I didn't mean you," when confronted with Albert Einstein. Although nearly all the characters are scientists and frequently talk about science topics, Sawyer does an excellent job communicating scientific ideas clearly.

There are some writers who, even if they do not write the same book over and over again, write very similar books. Not so with Robert Sawyer, a Guest of Honor at Capclave 2019, who pairs an enormous imagination with extensive research. Whether writing about a dinosaur Galileo, atheist Neanderthals, or a self-aware World Wide Web, Sawyer makes his characters, and the world in which they live, come alive. If there is one thing Sawyer's books do have in common, in addition to their overall excellence, it is his concern for morality and determining the right thing to do. In this book, this concern is reflected in discussions over the nuclear bomb and later keeping the end of the world a big secret from ordinary people.

The publication of The Oppenheimer Alternative is especially timely. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of the Atomic Age with the Trinity Test, the first explosion of an atomic bomb on July 16th 1945, which is shown in the book.

It may be worth noting that although Sawyer has won the Hugo and Nebula awards and had one of his novels adapted for television, this novel was published by a small press, Arc Manor's CAEZIK imprint, in trade paperback and ebook formats. Sawyer retained audiobook and ebook rights. Sawyer has said he wanted the book to go to market quickly, to coincide with the anniversary, and the big publishers were not "nimble" enough to do that.

Fans of historical novels set in the recent past will love The Oppenheimer Alternative. Fans of alternate history who are willing to wait a while for the speculative content will find their patience rewarded. Readers interested in science, and how scientists interact also will find much to enjoy. However, this is not an action-driven book; those who want battles and fight scenes should look elsewhere.

Great book, but the pacing felt slower than Sawyer's usual. Thoughtful, well-realized characters, with good insight into the minds of historical characters coming to grips with their actions.

This was a perfect fit to bridge my personal interests in physics wunderkinds and in save-the-world scenarios in science fiction. Here we first linger with the wizards of the age who during WW2 work at Los Alamos on inventing nuclear weapons under a terrible moral context. Oppenheimer leads and inspires the best and the brightest in physics and engineering to beat Hitler to the first fission bomb, only to have it used on Japanese civilians under the shady justification of saving more lives in the long run. To this day, many argue that a demonstration would have sufficed and that the second bombing (of Nagasaki) was brutal overkill (in several senses).

Soon after the war, as the scientists try to recover their souls or fight over whether to support pursuit of fusion bombs, Sawyer brings us to a big what-if. Namely, what if they got a chance to work together again on something important, and this time less muddy on doing good for humanity. How about an impending apocalypse to put their thinking caps back on and brew up their problem solving juices? The residents at Los Alamos who were experts in solar physics (as relevant to work on fusion) happen to make some spectral analyses at different times and discover the sun will undergo a cataclysm that will slag Earth and the inner planets around 90 years hence (around 2028). Boy howdy, talk about Mission Impossible!

The nexus at Los Alamos was so critical to the history of the world and to the weighing of humanity of humans that it persistently sparks my interest in stories that delve into the secret and productive ecology there. Such as the great movie “Fat Man and Little Boy”, with Paul Newman playing General Groves, the military disciplinarian who was the Army commander of the whole project (I forget who played Oppie). As a fan of the eccentric and brilliant physicist Feynmann , I also appreciated amusing tales from his memoirs and two biographies about his time there (especially his pranks like secret safecracking). I also loved two spy thrillers set there, Martin Cruz Smith’s “Stallion Gate” and Joseph Kanon’s “Los Alamos”, which brought out the reasonableness of sympathies for our Soviet allies in the war to gain access to the secret designs.

Thus, I was well primed to tune into Sawyer’s insightful portrayal of Oppenheimer as a people manager and a formative influence on key scientists such as Leo Szilard, Hans Bethe, and Eduard Teller. Oppenheimer is famous for a mystical pronouncement at the desert bomb test site called Trinity, quoting the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Until revisiting this here, I hadn’t realized this was part of the Hindu god Vishnu’s efforts of persuasion of the general and prince to do his duty and proceed with a critical battle despite his doubts about the virtues of war. In fact, Oppy does his perceived duty and officially supports the first Japanese bombing while Szilard and Teller are clear on their misgivings. Getting them back together despite extreme divergence on positions on the Cold War and the nuclear arms race is only possible with an even bigger compelling threat.

Imagine Oppy harnessing the pool of geniuses from Los Alamos, and even picks from those who served Germany in the war, to work full-stop on far-fetched ideas of messing with solar processes, building space habitats, and Mars colonization. And all in secrecy. Instead of the remote New Mexico site, what a great choice for Sawyer to select Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Studies as a hub-site for allowing them to hide in plain sight for their desperate efforts. It was especially thrilling to me for a turning point to be spawned by Feynmann breaking into the sacrosanct walks between Einstein and Gödel: (featured in the title essay for Holt’s marvelous collection, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2631042350">When Einstein Walked with Gödel</a>) to fruitfully engage them on some of his wild theoretical ideas relevant to a radical solution to avert Armageddon.

Although I don’t generally love alternative histories to read, they do render some special pleasures in bringing together historical figures in unexpected configurations and contexts. In my view, Sawyer’s reshaping of the special teamwork at Los Alamos to the challenges to escaping apocalypse from an astronomical threat was brilliantly conceived and well executed in that regard.

This book was provided by the publisher for review through the Netgalley program.

The adventure between the pages of The Oppenheimer Alternative truly amazed me from start to finish. The backdrop of the Red Scare and the incredible characters, based on real people no less, makes for a great, thrilling read. Rather than fall into typical doomsday fiction tropes and narratives, the dialogue and historical influences on this story's central figures make it feel more real than other historical fiction or alternative history works. Fans of Sawyer will find a story on par with his other popular works and one that I think might be his finest output yet.

I received an this as an e-book from netgalley to review.

I’ve read a few of Sawyer’s previous works and enjoyed them, so I was tempted by this one.

I wasn’t really aware of much of the history behind this book: I knew the name Oppenheimer; knew what the Manhattan Project did and knew the Los Alamos connection. So it was a learning experience!

To be honest, I’m not really convinced by this book. It was definitely not written for me. The links to science fiction/fantasy that I’ve enjoyed in his previous works are just not there. This is too much focussed on the history of one man and his doings. Yes we have some of his feelings, his guilt about the bomb etc but that is not really the point of the novel. It is all about the imaginary discovery of something that must be kept secret.

The thing is what they discover is much more interesting that detailed information about deep scientific details about precise concepts that I didn’t need to know about and don’t add to the story. In a lot of ways it seems Sawyer is showing off his skill in understanding all this complicated physics but that loses the normal reader. The thrust of the story - the way to find the key to the dilemma they’re faced with is ignored with mentions of McCarthyism and arguments between the scientists. And the last chapter explains the most exciting bits, in summary and a rushed way so that the stuff that could make this a fascinating book are just skipped over at the end.

If we have a green Mars is it still called Mars? But we don’t get the answer to that question that he lines up for us in the last chapter.

Also Oppie isn’t that likeable of a character. He’s not a good friend, he’s sleeping with one woman whilst claiming to be in love with another (and trying to marry her!) and ends up getting that woman pregnant so he has to marry her. And then carries on an affair with the woman he loves so much. He then says he can’t be attached to his children and even offers to give one away. I guess we just don’t care enough to want there to be an alternative for Oppenheimer.

On the positive side it was easy to read; the whole Manhattan project was interesting to think about even if the deep physics did leave me a bit cold and I liked reading about Einstein.

Overall a bit of a disappointing book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for sending me an ARC of The Oppenheimer Alternative in exchange for an honest review.

Years ago, I read Mr. Sawyer’s Flashforward, which I really enjoyed and which I thought struck the correct balance of sci-fi, personal narrative, and plot. Also, I’ve also read several books about and set around the Manhattan Project, such as The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Los Alamos. So when I saw this book on NetGalley, I was happy to request and review it.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. The first third or so sets out backstory on the main players of the Manhattan Project, but it lacks much drama because it focuses largely on the personalities without dwelling much on the science of it. Just as WWII is ending, we hit the alternative history part as the scientists learn that there’s an extinction-level event set to happen to the earth about 100 years in the future. While there is some discussion of the science behind the problem and possible solutions, much of the remainder of the book was about score-settling between the scientists, and the sad treatment of Dr. Oppenheimer in the 1950s. And the resolution of the crisis is shockingly far-fetched for a book rooted in a historical scientific event.

It’s not a bad book by any means. It’s well-written, and the pacing is solid. Though there are a lot of characters, they are distinct and well-drawn. In the end, I thought there was way too much personal narrative, and not enough sci-fi or plot. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

The Oppenheimer Alternative was impossible to put down. This is my second book by Robert and it will not be my last. Part sci-fi and part speculative fiction, this book blends historical facts and natural human drama with what could have been. I LOVED THIS BOOK!

As with Quantum Night, I was blown away by the Robert's ability to write such phenomenal scenes.

The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer is a highly recommended alternate history science fiction novel.

"While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a bomb based on nuclear fusion —the mechanism that powers the sun. Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system—including Earth. As the war ends with the use of fission bombs against Japan, Oppenheimer's team, plus Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun, stay together—the greatest scientific geniuses from the last century racing against time to save our future. Meticulously researched and replete with real-life characters and events, The Oppenheimer Alternative is a breathtaking adventure through both real and alternate history."

This is an alternate history of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer from Hugo and Nebula Award–winner science fiction master Robert Sawyer. In this alternate world Oppenheimer has an opportunity to use his genius to save the world. The Sun has an unstable core and scientists need to figure out how to shield the Earth and see if humanity can flee to Mars to find refuge. Sawyer uses plenty of scientific and historical details to support his novel. The plot itself is well done as everything hinges on decisions and discoveries that are made by the characters. As expected, the quality of the writing is great.

Obviously Oppenheimer is a well-developed character. Sawyer did a lot of research into the person and it shows in his depiction of Oppenheimer. The science is definitely present in the novel. Although his romances detract a bit form the story, they do add an additional layer to the characterization of the man versus the scientific genius. For history buffs there are a lot of historical rt of the novel where details that enhance the story. The first part of the novel follows history more closely before the second half where Sawyer becomes the "what if" part of the novel where he delves deeper into science fiction.

Sawyer includes a bibliography at the end to direct people who are interested to his research into Oppenheimer's life. This will help those who need it uncover what is fiction and what is fact. For those who know Oppenheimer's story, this is a fascinating take on an alternate history of the life of a fascinating man during an historic time and a supposition of what might have been.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of CAEZIK.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Robert Oppernheimer, who led the Manhattan Project during WWII, resulting in the development of the atom bombs that were used against Japan, is the protagonist of Rob Sawyer's interesting new book that masterfully straddles science fiction and science fact. In addition to the historical knowledge base of Oppie's career as a physicist, Sawyer takes a long look at his personal life as well, and it's not just for character development, it comes full circle quite satisfactorily in the end.

The end. That's what really brought this book together. As I was nearing the end, I started to feel that that was going to make it or break it. Everything to that point had been excellent, worthwhile, well crafted. But to what end? Well, no spoilers, but it does indeed come together, working beautifully.

Based on exhaustive research into Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues -- including famous names who are full fledged characters in this novel as well as numerous real-life scientists who may only be famous within their respective fields -- and the science that went into their work. In this book, most of that work was real, plus there is an alternative historical thread that takes things firmly into the realm of science fiction.

For me, the overall rating is 4 1/2 stars -- as much as I liked it, and as much as I prefer to have healthy doses of science fact in my science fiction, I felt there was a lot of scientific banter that went over my head. Since I can't give it 4 1/2 stars, I feel I have to come in at 4 rather than 5, with the expectation that this quality will be more of a problem for some other readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

About 40 years ago, I entered a sci-fi contest in the Village Voice in which contestants had to write stories of exactly 250 words. I was one of ten weekly winners. It was the only work of fiction I have ever had published (other than self-publishing). A few years ago, I discovered that Rob Sawyer was one of my fellow winners, and that it was his fist published work. He has since gone on to a long illustrious career as a writer -- I have read enough of his work to attest to that. Kudos on another fine entry into your canon.

I have been a big fan of Robert J. Sawyer for a long time, ever since I read his WWW trilogy and then proceeded to read everything he's ever written. This book doesn't disappoint. The way he has written science fiction has always made it easy to read for non-scientists and this one is no exception. What drew me to this book (besides the author!) was my personal interest in Oppenheimer. I read 'American Prometheus' a few years ago and was blown away by all the things I didn't know about him. For a Canadian, it was not part of our history beyond he was the man who created the atomic bomb. This book took 'American Prometheus' (and many other Oppenheimer biographies) and added a science-fiction twist (NO SPOILERS!). The mashing of historical fiction with science fiction is a new favourite genre-bender of mine and Robert does it right.

This is quite good, although not a light read. Sawyer has been around a while and has written quite a bit of SF. He is a solid writer, and obviously did a lot of research here. I suspect some readers will be a little distracted trying to figure out which parts are true vs fictional, which may be take away from the enjoyment, but may also make the book more memorable. The book is a little technical at times, but it's good tale, especially for hard scifi fans. Recommended.

Thank you very much for the ARC for review!!

A good book but not for the average reader. Not knowing a whole lot about the events that take place in this novel I thought that this would be a great opportunity to learn something that I wouldn't otherwise take the time to dive into. There is a lot of jargon in this book, that's not a bad thing mind you, it's simply a statement of fact. The jargon heavy sections literally put me to sleep, and not just the times I would read right before going to bed, this includes the times in the afternoon while sitting down with a coffee. The synopsis states that some of this book is fact and some is fiction and not knowing a lot about these events I found myself wondering, "is this part the fictional part?" or "maybe this is the fictional part?". My best guess is that only 10%-15% of the book is fictional and that fictional part creates a paradox that isn't addressed in the earlier portion of the novel and that's ultimately why I'm giving it only three stars. There is a bibliography at the end to show that the author spent a great amount of time creating a very well thought out story. With that said I liked the book and the parts I'm assuming are true were good, if not a touch dry.

“What if?” is the most potent concept in all speculative fiction. Alternate history, while not exactly science fiction, does ask the question too. What if at some pivotal Point of Departure (POD), history diverged? What if during the US’s secret 1940s Manhattan Project, observations of the Sun’s nuclear fusion revealed an unexpected anomaly? That is Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer’ POD in his new alternate history novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative. In it, he focuses on the lives and personalities of key real-world scientists of the time, especially J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer. The POD comes about a quarter of the way into the novel, and after that the divergence is almost entirely among members of the research team and their families. Remember, these are mostly THEORETICAL physicists. I was waiting for major historical deviation, but many 1950s and 1960s events seemed to continue at the expected dates. Only near the end, an additional theoretical discovery makes for a heady and unexpected turn of events.

Overall, the chain of alternative events struck me as less plausible than in Gregory Benford’s 2017 The Berlin Project, also an alternate history of the Manhattan Project. In that story, the POD is that the initial choice for separating U235 is high-speed centrifuge, rather than gaseous diffusion, accelerating the creation of the world’s first fission bomb by about one year. Sawyer even acknowledges that critical issue, although it does not play into his own alteration of history. Benford has the credibility of having had his father-in-law, Karl Cohen, actually be a scientist involved with the project.

I learned all kinds of things about the person of Oppenheimer, such as his politics, his early love interest Jean, his wife Kitty, and his education at the Ethical Culture School in NY - with which I am familiar. A few of the things portrayed about his life struck me as extremely private, so I’m not sure if they are all legitimate, but it made things more intriguing. What I didn’t learn much about was nuclear physics as it is addressed somewhat simplistically. So, a good story, but disappointing to my hard-sf sensibilities.

I received this advance reader copy from SFWRITER.COM (Canada) through netgalley, for purposes of reading and publishing a review on my blog and other social media. It is due to be published June 2, 2020.

Nowadays a lot of SF books are not very different from fantasy - i.e. we have a science fictional setting, but it is used only as a background for the story - there are no scientific ideas explored or in any way used in the book. While it's not bad per se, I still like the books, which really put science in science fiction. And here Sawyer does it in spades, not only does he have science front and center in his story, but he also puts greatest minds of the 20th century in it!

Alternative (and real) history from one of SF’s best authors
In The Oppenheimer Alternative, Rob Sawyer treats the familiar SF theme of a group of brilliant scientists working to save humanity from some impending natural disaster. In this book, though, the “brilliant scientists” have names like Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, von Neumann, and, yes, even Einstein.
This is an impressive work. The amount of research that Sawyer did (and documents for the interested reader) would do an academic proud. The vast majority of the book is historical fiction about the real lives of the scientists, the important events that gave them renown, and especially the relationships among them. There is affection, dislike, competition, and cooperation, and these relationships led to significant consequences. It is an interesting read on that basis alone. Into that history, Sawyer cleverly drops his one big element of fiction (At least I hope it’s fiction!) and speculates on what his characters might do in response. In a work like this it is natural for curious readers to want to know what is true and what was the product of the author’s imagination. I certainly had a lot of questions, for example, about details of the security hearing the Atomic Energy Commission had to decide whether to deny Oppenheimer a security clearance as well as his personal life. Sawyer has provided answers to all my questions and many others on his website, a link to which will be included in the published book. The answers are arranged by chapter so that you can look up items as you read without spoiling the suspense. Thank you, Rob!
One aspect not covered on the webpage is the humdrum of life in the 40s and 50s. As someone who can remember the 50s, though, I can attest to its feeling of verisimilitude, e.g., General Groves taking out a Hershey bar and munching on a square during a meeting.
Despite the historical emphasis, this is hard SF, and there is a LOT of physics included,much more than in most of Sawyer’s work. After all, these were the top minds of twentieth-century physics, trying to save the United States and then humanity. What would you expect them to talk about? For some readers there may be more physics than they want to see, but you can skip a paragraph or two and just trust that Sawyer has done his homework. Or you can peruse it more carefully, and you might learn something!
The obvious amount of time spent on the background of science and history did not come at the neglect of the writing. Each chapter is headed by a quote from one of the participants in the book that is relevant to the chapter, like the quote from Enrico Fermi during the hearing on Oppenheimer’s clearance: “What a pity they attacked him and not some nice guy like Bethe. Now we all have to be on Oppenheimer’s side.” Sawyer’s own writing is also enjoyable, often reflective, such as this: “At the end of a life, Oppie supposed, that’s all there was: regret”. Just to reassure you, though, the book is not all gloom, and there is also the fun description of the three teams working on the project to save humanity from the solar explosion. Whereas two of the teams are ordering truckloads of scientific journals, the “pie in the sky” team gets complete runs of science fiction magazines like Amazing and Astounding.
If you like to read about history, real or alternate, and interesting people and can tolerate an occasional physics lesson, there is a lot to enjoy in The Oppenheimer Alternative.
If humanity is, indeed, not wiped out by 2030 for whatever reason, I hope Rob Sawyer will still be around to produce more science fiction for his many fans. If he does, I plan to be around to read it.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher far an advance review copy of this book.

This book is actually two books in one. Most of it is a well-done biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer and history of the Manhattan Project. It adheres closely to the record except when the author strays into Oppenheimer’s inner angst over his relationships. The other much smaller part, however, is a brief foray into an alternative history.

The alternate story line posits that continuing research after the development of the atomic bomb reveals to physicists an instability in the core of the sun. The numbers predict a photospheric ejection within eighty-some years that will obliterate the inner solar system, destroying everything out to earth’s orbit. Many of the Manhattan Project team of physicists form another secret team to figure out ways to save the people of Earth. Oppenheimer, again in charge, establishes three divisions: one dealing with solar physics; an engineering team to figure out how to get space travel going to evacuate the population or as much of it as they could; and a team that would wrestle with “unconventional ideas.”

I found the historical part of the book to be much better than the rest. Sawyer’s handling of the science was excellent, and he included plenty of the quirkiness and humor that in real life characterized the interactions of the prominent physicists involved. The alternate story line got short shrift, and left a lot of questions and holes, especially as he sets up a “grandfather paradox” and then doesn’t tackle it at all. Finally, he could have omitted all the parts about Oppenheimer’s obsession with his early love interest, Jean Tatlock. I thought that subplot was tedious and diminished Oppenheimer’s character unnecessarily.

I don't usually read alternative history but given the current COVID-19 lockdown I was looking for something new to read. I've read a few Sawyer titles and enjoyed some of them. In this case I didn't find the story engaging enough to hold my attention. Part of it is that I don't know enough about the details of Openheimer's personal life to know what's the same and what's different. Students of physics history and WWII buffs might know enough (or be willing to get past that).

It was probably a good marketing idea to title it like a Big Bang Theory episode.