The novel “The Oppenheimer Alternative” by Robert J. Sawyer was published for the first time in 2020.
The Manhattan Project was started to create an atomic bomb that was originally intended to be used to strike the Nazi regime. The defeat of the Third Reich shifts the American effort to the Pacific, where the Japanese continue to fight. Only after two atomic bombs hit Japan, the Emperor agrees to surrender.
The use of atomic bombs leads to ethical and moral arguments that are no longer theoretical. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Manhattan Project, still finds himself making choices when the next step could be the development of a thermonuclear weapon. The stakes rise enormously when the analysis of solar activity readings indicates that the Sun will eject one of its layers which will hit the Earth and turn it into barren land.
The development of atomic weapons influenced the subsequent history of the entire world, and their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to be a subject of controversy. The Manhattan project was a key moment in recent history with the employment of some of the most prominent scientists of that era.
Robert J. Sawyer sought to reconstruct the history of the Manhattan Project and in particular the role of its director J. Robert Oppenheimer in what initially appears to be a historical novel. It takes a long time for the uchronic element to become evident. It would be necessary to know very well the history of the Manhattan Project and of J. Robert Oppenheimer to immediately understand where the historical divergence occurs because in the first part of the novel it emerges slowly, in a very subtle way.
Despite the centrality of the scientific element, “The Oppenheimer Alternative” is above all a novel based on the characters and their interpersonal relationships. In particular, Robert J. Sawyer develops the complex personality of J. Robert Oppenheimer showing, among other things, his many and diverse interests. Much room is given to his complicated private life, another important element to try to understand his motivations.
A novel based on real people who often had a significant influence in the field of physics is unusual and certainly, Robert J. Sawyer studied them. Probably, “The Oppenheimer Alternative” contains reconstructions of the events closer to the real ones than many alleged documentaries but it’s difficult to say how accurate they are.
In the end, the uchronic element is almost an extra to a historical novel and my only serious complaint is that it’s too limited, with a hasty ending. The story goes on as we know it, with only a small part kept secret due to the intervention of a group of people who worked in the shadows, again with J. Robert Oppenheimer to coordinate them. In some ways, it seems that the author was interested in finding a way to enable Oppenheimer to redeem himself for his role in the invention of the atomic bomb.
The historical element of “The Oppenheimer Alternative” is central to many discussions among the characters regarding the ethical and moral issues surrounding the development of nuclear weapons. These are discussions that include the situation during World War II before and after Germany’s surrender with President Truman’s decision to use nuclear weapons to convince the Emperor of Japan to surrender. They also include later discussions regarding the hydrogen bombs developed after the beginning of the Cold War.
“The Oppenheimer alternative” offers food for thought about a very dark period of recent history that allow everyone to form an opinion on the decisions taken at the time. This in my opinion makes this novel interesting for anyone who wants to know more about that piece of history regardless of genre labels.
