Waldrop, Howard. "The Lions are Asleep This Night"
Divergence: c 10,000 BCE
What if: Columbus found the Americas uninhabited. Later, African slaves imported to mine
Peruvian gold rebelled, leading to white decline worldwide.
Summary: In 1894, an African boy writes a play about an African king while reading a
history of the fall of Europe.
Published: In Omni, August 1986;
All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past: Neat Stories,
Ursus 1987 (0942681002);
The 1987 Annual World's Best SF
(eds. Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha), DAW 1987;
Strange Things in Close-Up, Legend 1990 (0099644401);
Strange Monsters of the Recent Past, Ace 1991 (0441160697);
Future Earths: Under African Skies
(eds. Mike Resnick and Gardner Dozois, DAW 1993 (0886775442);
Omni Visions Two
(ed. Ellen Datlow), Omni 1994 (0874553083);
and
Things Will Never be the Same: A Howard Waldrop Reader: Selected Science
Fiction, 1980-2005,
Old Earth 2007 (1882968360BUY, 1882968352BUY).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Pierre K. Ray and Jacques Chambon as
"Ce soir dorment les lions", in
Ces chers vieux monstres, Denoël/Presence du Futur 1990 (2207305139).
Translation: German by Michael Nagula as
"Nachts schlafen die Loewen", in
World's best SF 6
(eds. Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha), Bastei-Lübbe (3404240960).
Translation: Italian by Giampaolo Cossato and Sandro Sandrelli as
"Stanotte i leoni dormono", in
Il meglio della Fantascienza 1987
(eds. Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha), Armenia 1987 (8834402391).
Awards: Nominee: 1986 Nebula for best short story.
