A World of Difference (Harry Turtledove)
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A World of Difference is a 1990 science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove. The book begins with a space voyage that departed Earth in an alternate 1989. In the universe of the book, the fourth planet from the Sun, in the orbit occupied by Mars in our reality, is named Minerva, which is similar in size and makeup to Earth. Minerva has an atmosphere similar to Earth's and breathable by humans, and liquid water exists in significant quantities on the surface. The planet's mean atmospheric temperature is lower than Earth's due to the greater distance from the sun, although the greenhouse effect of its thicker atmosphere means that it is not as cold as our universe's Mars. The ancient astronomers of the novel name the bright blue/gray planet Minerva after the goddess of wisdom. When the Viking 1 space probe lands on Minerva in 1976 it takes a picture of a native Minervan wielding a primitive tool; proving the existence of intelligent life on other worlds.
Minervan animals (including the sentient Minervans) are radially symmetrical and females give birth to litters that consist of one male and five females, and the females always die after reproducing because of torrential bleeding from the places where the six fetuses were attached; this gives a population multiplication of 5 per generation if all females live to adolescence and reproduce. This makes females considered expendable and traded as property. The Minervans live in a neolithic feudalist society. The main action of the story involves separate American and Soviet missions, who both pay lip service to non-interference with Minervan society, but in the course of their research, the teams' respective political ideologies inevitably come to the fore. This leads the teams and their commanders back home to use the Minervans in a transparent analogy to Third World Cold War proxy conflicts on Earth. One of the Americans saves the life of a female Minervan after she gives birth. Eventually Minervans get their hands on high tech items like steel hatchets, rubber rafts, and finally AK-74s, which severely disrupt their way of life.
In addition to the existence of Minerva the book alludes to a variety of subtle differences between its history and ours. The most significant of these being the antagonism between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in what we would think of as the Glasnost era. In the book's history Mikhail Gorbachev led for only nine months before dying from a stroke (though there are rumors of a secret assassination).
