Liberating Earth

Liberating Earth is a Faction Paradox short story collection published by Obverse Books in 2015 and edited by Kate Orman. Liberating Earth is notable for being the first Obverse published anthology to be written and edited entirely by women. It takes the form of a series of altenative histories created by members of Faction Paradox.

Concept
In the 1953 short story  The Liberation of Earth  by William Tenn, two warring alien species take turns “liberating” planet Earth from each another, until the planet is wrecked and its inhabitants are doomed. Tenn was satirising the cold war, and the way the superpowers, vying with each other for territory, insisted that it was all for the inhabitants’ own good.

This anthology pits two Cousins from Faction Paradox against each other. As members of the Faction, the Cousins, named Tefen and Triphis, have the ability to travel in time and change history. Tefen alters Earth’s reality, so that it has been conquered and colonised – a definite improvement, according to Tefen. Triphis thinks she can do better; she alters the planet’s reality once more, so that a different set of conquerors rules the Earth.

Tefen and Triphis continue to take turns, creating one alternative reality after another, trying to best one other – so that in each story, we visit an Earth on which human beings are at best second-class citizens and at worst slaves.

Blurb
“ The human race had every opportunity. We blew it, darling

Take two Cousins from Faction Paradox.

Give them a world – the Earth, for example – and give them the power to change that world's history as they see fit.

Then stand back and watch what happens…

Just what would happen if a couple of Cousins used our planet as their personal game board? As they create one alternative reality after another, twisting history and reality into knots, only one outcome is sure: whoever wins, the human race loses.”

Contents
Dreamer in the Dark by EH Timms

Annie’s Arms by Xanna Chown

The Mountains are Higher at Home by Juliet Kemp

Judy’s War by Rachael Redhead

Red Rover Red Rover by Q

The Vikingr Mystique by Dorothy Ail

Life of Julia by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Project Thunderbird by Kelly Hale

Playing for Time by Kate Orman