USA dictator lives degenerate life on New York while the green puts cities underwater

[Teiman]

You guys are my last resort, tried to find this 1000 times, and nothing.

The novel or sort story is about a alternate present where USA is governed by a nasty dictator that live a degenerate life, with prostitutes, drinking, etc... He lives in New York (I believe) and the green effect (that they nickname "the green") make so the sea levels have raised making so some cities are underwater.

This dictator say to have setup the red button that would trigger the nuclear war in a random device (like opening the 'wrong' door). Everybody lives in terror all the time, with militar forces patrolling and killing people for minor things like speaking in any other language than the official one.

I may be wrong about a few details, my memory is not very good, but this is what I remember.

 

[Danny McG]

Hello @Teiman
It would help a bit if you can remember approx when you read it, was it a new book at the time etc?
Please have a look through this to see if anything comes up in your memory

Book Search Requests - PLEASE READ FIRST

We welcome requests for stories' names and authors to but to help us with your query please try to provide as much information as possible: ## Questions must have as much detail as possible, including: Media (short story collection, magazine, novel, website) Original year of...

www.sffchronicles.com

And welcome to SFF Chronicles

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Just a wild stab in the dark but Mike Resnick compiled an anthology by other authors called Alternate Tyrants. It was part of a series of anthologies. One of the others was Alternate Presidents.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Teiman]

Just a wild stab in the dark but Mike Resnick compiled an anthology by other authors called Alternate Tyrants. It was part of a series of anthologies. One of the others was Alternate Presidents.

Woah, is this a cool collection of stories. Must read!.

• Media (short story collection, magazine, novel, website)
• Original year of publication/airing, or at least when you have read/seen this work of fiction. "Read when I was a child" is not as useful as "Read when I was a child (early 1980s)"
• Major themes
• Plot (as much as you can remember)
• Setting
• Characters (names, descriptions)
• The language you read or heard the story in
• Details about the cover, if applicable
• Target audience/age group
• Ideas that you have already ruled out (for example, if you know the story was not written by Asimov, then tell us so that we can save time) #

Aargh... I wish I could provide more info. I don't know if it as a novel or a short story. It was probably from the Golden Age of science fiction, because thats 90% what I read, but I am not sure.

 

[Matteo]

It's ringing a bell - maybe something I read in an Ace Double book (two stories in one book, one being upside down to the other). There was a computer/doomsday device underground. Does that ring a bell for you?

 

[Teiman]

It's ringing a bell - maybe something I read in an Ace Double book (two stories in one book, one being upside down to the other). There was a computer/doomsday device underground. Does that ring a bell for you?

Could be. Somewhere there where a device to destroy the world. Thats part of the despair of the setting, any action, even a random one, can trigger the destruction of the world. I will try to search that direction.

 

[Astro Pen]

A list (long) of the ace doubles
You can search 'sf' in your browser for a familiar title, there are about 300 so you will need the patience of yoda

List of Ace double titles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Matteo]

Sorry, it may be an Ace Double, but not the one I was thinking of - I had a look through my shelves and I was mis-remembering Ultimatum in 2050 AD by Jack Sharkey which does not fit your description.

 

[Teiman]

*falls to the floor dead*. this is worse than having a popular pop song stuck on your head