.jpg) First edition | |
| Author | Ben H. Winters |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Oliver Munday in collaboration with Keith Hayes |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Mulholland (Hachette) |
Publication date | July 5, 2016 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 327 |
| ISBN | 978-0-316-26124-1 |
Underground Airlines is a 2016 science fiction novel by American writer Ben Winters, set in a contemporary alternate-history United States where the American Civil War never occurred because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated prior to his 1861 inauguration and a version of the Crittenden Compromise was adopted instead. As a result, slavery has remained legal in the "Hard Four" (a group of Southern states that have kept slavery): Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and a unified Carolina. Its name evokes the Underground Railroad in relations to its setting. The novel attracted praise for exploring racism through the alternate-history mechanism.