From the Ashes
by Sandra Saidak
Genre: Science Fiction, Alternate History
In
a dramatic departure from her popular prehistoric fiction, Sandra
Saidak now offers up her first alternate history novel.
Two
generations after Germany won World War II, a lonely college student
named Adolf Goebbels wanders into a dusty museum and discovers books
and artifacts of a dead race called “Jews”. Although a member of
the Nazi elite, Adolf resents the oppression, fear, and isolation
that are part of daily life in the Aryan “paradise” his
grandparents helped build.
As
he reads the forgotten books, and meets the outcasts who gather at
the museum, Adolf discovers a purpose he has long been searching
for—and danger he has never imagined.
Based
on real-life Nazi plans for museums of dead races, this sprawling
alternate history novel takes the reader from decadent Berlin, the
capital of the Nazi world empire, across the conquered nations of
Europe to uncover the startling secrets at the heart of the worldwide
Reich.
Fans
of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle and Robert Harris’
Fatherland will want to read this new voice in alternate history.
I’ve loved escaping into other worlds for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, through books and movies, I found worlds created by others. Sometimes, I created them myself.
The upside of this quirk was two ready-made careers. The first is teaching high school English so I could share my passion for books and stories with the people I believe need it the most: teenagers. The second is writing, so I could share the worlds I created with everyone.
While not all my fantasy life centers on history, all of my early writing did, probably because of the huge impact Jean Auel and her Earth’s Children series had on me. Despite the rich niche of prehistoric fiction, and authors like Sue Harrison, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Mary Mackey and Michael and Kathleen Gear, I couldn’t get enough of it. More properly, I couldn’t find the exact story I wanted to read.
So, I wrote it. And in 2011, published Daughter of the Goddess Lands, Book 1 in my Kalie’s Journey series. I added alternative history with From the Ashes and That This Nation Might Live, and historical fantasy with The Seal Queen.
This year, I am taking the plunge into epic fantasy, with Songs of Light.
When not writing, I enjoy dancing, music, attending science fiction conventions and hearing from my readers. I live in California with my husband and fellow author Tom, our two daughters, Heather and Melissa, and a cat named Oreo.
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GUEST POST
Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
During the more than 20 years that From the Ashes grew from an idea for a short story to a published novel, I always saw it as a movie. Out of all my books, this one needs the fewest special effects, advanced tech or even the big screen (although I think it would look great on the big screen). This novel, while science fiction, is first and foremost, a drama. A story about people facing terrible truths and being forced to make difficult decisions. While the action spans from Berlin to Finland to Russia (and I’d love to see it filmed on location in all those places) the whole thing could just as easily be shot in Hollywood.
For years, when I was depressed or had a bad day, my husband would always ask, “So, who do you want to play Adolf? (Or Ilsa? Or Sasha? Or Helmut?)” Early on, we both imagined Uma Thurman as Ilsa. Now, Uma is too old, but I haven’t found anyone to replace her. James Woods remains the best actor for Helmut Goebbels in my opinion (although, sadly, not for much longer). And, up until his death in 2019, I still imagined casting Ruger Hauer for various characters. Strangely, the one character I could never cast was the main character. Adolf is still a mystery, for all that I can see him clearly in my head.
I hope someday to see From the Ashes: the movie, but I guess I’ll have to let the director find the actors. Which director you ask? Well, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Ridley Scott are still on the list. And I’m sure there will be more to add as time brings us more up and coming filmmakers.
What kind of world ruler would you be?
Probably not a very good one. You might think that as a high school English teacher I’d be ideal. But unfortunately, classroom management isn’t my strong suit and that, of course, is what ruling the world is all about.
Ideally, a world ruler would be able to address all the anger and divisiveness plaguing the world today, and convince everyone to work together, regardless of differing opinions. I’d have to address the bad behavior of many so-called “leaders” by putting them on time out until they had time to think through their actions, and decide they wanted to do better. Unfortunately, detention could never last for that many years, er uh, decades. Even if we could pay for professionals to stay with them, there would probably be some kind of child endangerment laws or false imprisonment nonsense to worry about.
Then there’s the matter of dealing with everyone’s problems. Constant whining is the hardest part of teaching, and I can only imagine it would be worse on a global scale. With all the rich screaming about having to share their wealth and resources, and the poor complaining I’m not changing things fast enough, I’d get another one of my blinding headaches, slap someone and lose my job.
Oh, wait. That’s teachers who get fired for slapping someone who richly deserves it. That doesn’t seem to apply to the rich, the famous and the ones who run things. With that kind of protection, maybe I could do this job after all.
Or maybe I should stick to doing what I do best: imagining a better world, laying it out in fiction, which doesn’t argue with me (or at least, not enough to keep me from doing it) and sharing it with the world in the hopes that my readers will be inspired to get to work and fix the actual problems that I can’t.
It’s worth a try.
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