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->''"Nowadays the world is filled with people who have killed in the war. None of them ever feels guilty, however they wouldn't hesitate to report a fellow men if he were to cheat at cards. I am a peoplekiller. I've tried to feel guilty, but I can't seem to make myself. I would feel very guilty if I cheated at cards."''
-->-- '''Dahl''', on the "Supermen", i.e., soldiers around the world

''Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen'' is a 1948 Science Fiction novel by Creator/RoaldDahl, and quite possibly ''[[UrExample the]]'' first post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII novel to address the shiny new possibility of full-scale nuclear war.[[note]]Though shorter stories had been doing that since at least 1946 - see [[https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/177714340341 this]] [[ComicBook/CaptainMarvel Captain Marvel]] comic, for one.[[/note]] The plot is divided into two parts, the wartime adventure of RAF pilot Peternip during the [[UsefulNotes/TheHomeFront Battle Of Britain]] and the plan of the Gremlin Leader to outlive humanity in an alternative UsefulNotes/ColdWar. It is the most obscure of Dahl's books, but still can be found in some libraries in the U.S and Britain.
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!!Tropes featured in ''Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen'' include:
* AlternateHistory: The UsefulNotes/ColdWar went boiling hot in this one, folks. WorldWarIII (and IV!) broke out, and no country was spared. In-between the two World Wars, the Gremlins make the following survey:
** [[RussiaTakesOverTheWorld The Soviet Union was the material winner of the war]], and despite [[WeHaveReserves 30 million]] or so casualties, [[DayOfTheJackboot has occupied most if not all of continental Europe]]. (Britain and the nearby islands are implied to be such an ash-heap that nobody has even bothered claiming them.)
** The UsefulNotes/UnitedStates was also badly battered (21 million casualties), but remains too big and distant for any other nuclear power to feasibly occupy, giving it all the time in the world to (re)build its own arsenal for retaliation.
** UsefulNotes/{{India}} sustained relatively light casualties, got united under a [[TheTheocracy theocratic]] [[GodEmperor dictator]], and became Asia's rising star along with...
** UsefulNotes/{{China}}, now controlled by a dictator with hypnotic speaking skills.[[note]]Possibly an homage to Literature/FuManchu's hypnotic eyes; further details are kept vague because the UsefulNotes/ChineseCivilWar was still ongoing in real life, and few - especially in the West - were willing to call a winner.[[/note]]
* ApocalypseHow: Long paragraphs are used to describe the atomic flash and shockwave, plus the sensation of burning.
* TheCakeIsALie: {{Downplayed}}. The Gremlin Leader promises his scouts Snozzberries [[FromMyOwnPersonalGarden from his personal orchard]] as a reward for the aforementioned survey of post-World War III humanity. After they successfully do so, he has to be prodded into keeping his word; and as soon as the scouts are out of sight, he [[KickTheDog tells his steward to give them slightly higher-quality berries from the public orchards instead]].
* CrapsackWorld: If you are not a Gremlin after the shift.
* DecoyProtagonist: The humans.
* {{Expy}}: There is a character named Stuffy who's completely an Expy of a character with the same name from Dahl's previous child-friendly Gremlin book, ''The Gremlins''. It's the same with the other two protagonists: Peternip is Gus, Progboot is Jamface. In fact, this book itself is a DarkerAndEdgier version of it.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: In the book, there is a kind of virus that targeted only designated victims.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: ''{{Inverted}}'', if you can believe it. Initially it's not clear if the Gremlins are real or just the pilots' imaginations and superstitions (the scene where they all discuss the various "types" of Gremlins, in particular, sounds a ''lot'' like a tall-tale contest fueled by lingering adrenaline on one hand and [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy tons of beer on the other]]), but about halfway through the story starts being told from the Gremlins' perspective, revealing they're RealAfterAll... until the last few chapters, where it turns out they need human imagination to exist. So: magic ''and'' mundane?
* MythologyGag: The main food of the gremlins are snozzberries. They are later referred in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' and ''Literature/MyUncleOswald''. This word means "head of dick" in the latter.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The pilots are addressed exclusively by their call-signs, in both dialog and narration (a good deal of these are [[IronicNickname ironic]], like the most boyishly handsome of the squadron being called "Ugly") -- even after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ends and they return to civilian life.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Roald Dahl is in fact the first person to suggest that radiation can make people mutate into zombies. Though he is NotUsingTheZWord, just wrote that people became mad when they are exposed to radiation. Later, there are some virus developed to drive people mad and bite each other until death.
* PuffOfLogic: The Gremlin leader finds out if there's no humans, no one can imagine Gremlins, and so they cease to exist. Poof.
* ShownTheirWork: Roald Dahl describes a nuclear blast in a surprisingly detailed and graphic way and [[spoiler:[[CruelAndUnusualDeath how it "broiled" the protagonist]] alive]]. Also, he predicted the inventing of "dirty" neutron bombs.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The Gremlin Leader did create a peaceful world without class, money or machinery among gremlins after there are no humans.
* UrExample: The first book to suggest humanity can end the world by themselves.
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