Stumbling Towards the Edge: Prelude to War in the South Atlantic

Book : Part of: Timeline 10/27/62

by James Philip

Genres: Historical Fiction; Alternative History sci-fi

Synopsis

‘Stumbling Towards the Edge’ is the first of four novels about the Falklands War of 1969-70.

It is the seventh year after Cuban Missiles war derailed the modern world. In this altered timeline the swinging sixties did not happen and ever since the night of the October War in 1962, the survivors have lurched from one crisis to the next, often looking over their shoulders at the threat of new holocausts.

At last, the worst may truly be over and yet…for the British, having finally begun to take the first tentative steps towards a national recovery, and after many missteps repaired the old ‘special relationship’ with the United States, there remains unfinished business in the South Atlantic.

In April 1964, while British and Commonwealth troops were holding the line, and dying in the defence of Malta, the Argentine had invaded the Falkland Islands.

Over three hundred British service personnel and civilians had died and most of the population of East Falkland – renamed Isla Soledad by the conquerors – had been sent into exile. For years stories of unspeakable atrocities have circulated in the United States and the British Isles, where the government has just been re-elected on a platform promising to resolve the issue of the lost islands...

Can a war 8,000 miles from home for a windswept archipelago of which the bulk of the British people know little, fought in the name of fifteen hundred exiled people – the Falkland Islanders, or ‘Kelpers’ as they prefer to call themselves – ever be a just war?

On the other hand, can the stab in the back of April 1964 ever be forgiven, or its wounds cauterised by any means short of war?

As the country stumbles towards the edge of a war, Peter Christopher and his band of brothers must face up to one last battle; and the women and children they leave behind must pray that somehow, in some way, everything which has been saved from the cataclysm in the last six years will not be sacrificed to the gods of war.

Nobody can have any illusions; those storm-tossed rocks in the South Atlantic will surely be islands of no return for countless friends, and enemies alike.

Author’s note to readers: since the publication of ‘Operation Anadyr’ in October 2014, the Timeline 10/27/62 series has branched into and explored a number of additional narrative arcs and themes, and in several standalone stories.

For my readers who prefer to read the Timeline 10/27/62 books in the chronological order of the overall narrative arc STUMBLING TOWARDS THE EDGE = 30.

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Release date: April 27, 2021

Print pages: 326