Alternative History Books You Have Read

[picko]

one of my favourite Alternate Histories is Resurrection day

it is an alternate history set ten years after a Cuban missile crisis gone nuclear. Basically the soviet union is a radioactive wasteland and most of America's major cities are in ruins with the country under martial law. The story deals with the attempts by Boston Globe reporter Jack Landry to discover what really happened in those fatal weeks of October 1962.Along the way he uncovers a nefarious plot by elements of the UK Peacekeeping force and must fight against it.

it also has probably the greatest tag line ever

"everyone remembers where they were when President Kennedy tried to kill them"

[David Floyd]

In my opinion, some of the best AH is on the following website:

http://p076.ezboard.com/TBOVerse-Stories-/fhistorypoliticsandcurrentaffairs68862frm25

Click on the topped out link, TBOVerse Story Index, and get started. If you want to understand the complete story thread, start at the beginning. If you just want the WW2 AH, start with "The Eye of Odin".

The story continues on after an alternate WW2, with a Point of Divergence in 1940, through the rest of the 20th Century and beyond. If you haven't already seen this, definitely check it out.

Warning: It's very American-centric, but it's very well written, and the author is very well versed on military science and technology. Also, unfortunately, the author has decided to publish two of the best stories, "The Big One" (upon which the whole series is based), and "Anvil of Necessity", which is also outstanding.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

At the start of Australian author Birmingham's stellar debut novel, a United Nations battle group, clustered around the U.S.S. Hillary Clinton (named after "the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States")

That's a gorgeous premise.

Well she got assassinated in "their" history, if that's any consolement.

I rather liked that series, but it was horribly biased towards the western allies.

Turtledove's World War series was fun enough to read... He must really hate those two lizards, the pilot and the driver...

[Darsnan]

Fredreick Pohl's The coming of the Quantum Cats is a very good story about one alternate-reality U.S. invading another parallel universe.

D

[lord of the mark]

Speaking of Stirling, Ive just started "Peshawar Lancers"

[Kuciwalker]

Cryptonomicon seems to be technically classified as an alternative history novel, though none of the departures are macroscopic (that seems like the right word). It's fantastic

[Ramo]

No. "Alternate history" as a genre is ****ed. They all are terribly written, gimmicky mind candy with basically no reward at the end (except having to read another book in the series to see what happens next - for some reason, all of the authors are fairly prolific). Masochism.

"Historical fiction" is much more fertile ground. Reading "The Last Witchfinder" by James Morrow right now, which is vaguely Pynchon-esque...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
No. "Alternate history" as a genre is ****ed. They all are terribly written, gimmicky mind candy with basically no reward at the end (except having to read another book in the series to see what happens next - for some reason, all of the authors are fairly prolific). Masochism.

If youre at all interested in the concept, but dont like commercial AH, you might enjoy some of the stuff thats been posted on Soc.history.what-if, which leans more toward rigourous historical discussion.

(BTW, I confess to enjoying Stirling, but dislike Turtledove, and havent really read any other commercial AH lately)

[Ramo]

Sounds interesting, will have to check it out.

The most recent AH that I've read is Eric Flint's 1632 series. Utter crap (but I can't stop reading them).

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
Sounds interesting, will have to check it out.

The most recent AH that I've read is Eric Flint's 1632 series. Utter crap (but I can't stop reading them).

Oh, be careful then, SHWI is addictive. Use Google groups and search for topics of interest, as the place is much less lively (like all of USENET) than it used to be.

[Tingkai]

Read a few Turtledove books, definitely could be 95% shorter without losing anything. Lots of dialogue that all sounds like the same person is talking. No development of characters. No plot. No insight into the society around the character. Lots of missed opportunities. And why is it that people like Turtledove are incapable of writing a book with an actual ending rather than an endless progression of a series.

Just read Stirling's Conquistidor. Starts off strong, then bogs down in endless pointless description of the landscape. Also fails to develop obvious subplots and telling the entire story from one POV limits the tale.

The Roma book and The Years of Rice and Salt demonstrate the effectiveness of using short stories to explore AH. Both are good reads.

[Eli]

I just finished the last Draka book. The first three books were good but the fourth one with the multiple-dimensions was simply ridiculous.

There are a few huge leaps in the premises, but I don't really care about that as long as the books are enjoyable.

[Andemagne]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Lots of dialogue that all sounds like the same person is talking.

I have the same feel.

Lots of missed opportunities.

tell me more about these.

And why is it that people like Turtledove are incapable of writing a book with an actual ending rather than an endless progression of a series.

its because life is like that, it goes on with no end.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Eli
I just finished the last Draka book. The first three books were good but the fourth one with the multiple-dimensions was simply ridiculous.

There are a few huge leaps in the premises, but I don't really care about that as long as the books are enjoyable.

"Ten li Draka" eh?

Im reading them too now. Almost done with Marching Through Georgia. Plenty of huge leaps ( a world with no Adowa, no Fashoda, no Morocco crisis, still gets WW1 right on schedule with the same line up? just for one) I think of it as more musing on a theme than a real AH.

[Andemagne]

Originally posted by lord of the mark Oh, be careful then, SHWI is addictive.

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.what-if/topics?gvc=2

is this what we are talkin about?