Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, this story is certain to bring a smile to your face and help you take the coming political fight a little less seriously.

Rodham rides a rocket
Lest you think Pamela Sargent thrusts her rapier wit only at Republicans, Fictionwise.com simultaneously released her story, "Hillary Orbits Venus," proving Sargent is an equal opportunity satirist. In this story, the current First Lady and Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the first astronaut to visit Venus.

Again, this story was inspired by a real life event. At age 15, young Hillary Rodham wrote to NASA asking how she could become an astronaut. NASA reportedly replied, "Females need not apply," which was the policy at that time. The rest is history, as they say. However, Sargent's fertile imagination shows us how things might have been, had young Hillary been allowed to pursue her dream.

In Sargent's alternative history view of this episode, the letter to Hillary still says, "The current policy does not allow females." However, unlike the real life letter, it continues on: "but that [policy] could change in years to come." The imagined letter then goes on to encourage her by suggesting which courses of study to pursue.

This story is, by design, not as comical as "Danny Goes to Mars," but it does have its moments. The crew of the space ship is composed entirely of women, and Sargent explores the comedic aspects of the different point of view such a crew of space explorers might have. For example, one of the astronauts comments on the strange planetary motion of Venus (its day is longer than its year) by saying "A seriously weird cycle… the whole damned planet has a major case of PMS."

This story also explores the relationship between Hillary and her father, and it even takes potshots at the whole political system, much as "Danny" does. In this story, you see, Hillary doesn't marry Bill Clinton, rather she weds physicist Richard Feyman. But don't think for a second that Sargent leaves it at that!

All in all, I'd rank "Danny Goes to Mars" as a better all-around story than "Hillary Orbits Venus," but both are well worth reading. They're filled with wit, twists, turns, and the kind of speculation that only alternate history stories can provide.

Bundled reading
Fictionwise has also created a special "bundle" of political alternate history stories to celebrate the election season. The bundle includes the two Pamela Sargent stories, as well as Mike Resnick's "Bully!" It's a story about former president Teddy Roosevelt that was nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula Award. The bundle also includes Nick DiChario's acclaimed, Hugo Award nominated story, "The Winterberry," which is about former president John Kennedy.

Craig is a consultant who has been using Palm devices since 1996. He is the author of over 150 articles on all facets of computing. Craig can be reached at Cbobchin@csi.com.