| "In the Shadow of the Great Days" | |
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| Author | Harry Turtledove |
| First Appearance | The Reinvented Detective: Tales of Futuristic Crimes & Mysteries Beyond Time |
| Collected | No |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction, detective story |
| Publication date | December, 2023 |
"In the Shadow of the Great Days" is a science fiction detective short story by Harry Turtledove, first published in The Reinvented Detective: Tales of Futuristic Crimes & Mysteries Beyond Time (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo, eds) in December, 2023. [1]
In the 21st century, climate change and overpopulation caused the collapse of society, with the United States balkanizing into hundreds, if not thousands, of independent political entities. A few centuries later, civilization has crawled back to something resembling functionality. Dr. James Cabot of Boston, where the USS Constitution still patrols the harbor, autopsies a sailor who died in his sleep from an unknown cause.
The Reinvented Detective is a follow-up to The Reinvented Heart: Tales of Futuristic Relationships (2022) by the same editorial team, whose content was limited to stories by female and non-binary authors. A third volume, The Reinvented Coin, dealing with futuristic monetary systems, is teased in the afterword of Detective, but has not been officially solicited, nor have any of its authors been named.
Similar works by Turtledove[]
Turtledove has used a balkanized United States as the setting of the Crosstime Traffic volumes The Disunited States of America and The Valley-Westside War, the shared universe stories "Precious Treasure" (set in Robert Adams' Horseclans) and "Topanga and the Chatsworth Lancers" (set in S.M. Stirling's Emberverse), and the standalone works "Half the Battle," "Secret Names", "Manuscript Tradition," and Powerless.
"The Breaking of Nations," set in a shared universe initiated by Turtledove, depicts the beginning of a balkanization process, which is elaborated upon in sequels by other authors.
In "Les Mortes d'Arthur" and Supervolcano, the US has been weakened by natural cataclysms, but without any stated loss of territory.
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