John the OFM | 09 Oct 2009 8:19 a.m. PST |
Book, novel, novelette, bloated multi-volume series, etc. I would like to nominate the classic L Sprgue de Camp "Lest Darkness Fall". |
Ambush Alley Games | 09 Oct 2009 8:28 a.m. PST |
I liked J. Gregory Keyes' "Empire of Unreason," although I suppose it falls more squarely in the fantasy camp than true alternate history. |
GoodBye | 09 Oct 2009 8:32 a.m. PST |
I liked J. Gregory Keyes' "Empire of Unreason," Seconded! |
lugal hdan | 09 Oct 2009 8:48 a.m. PST |
Thirded, but Keyes can't finish a series to save his life. |
Martian Root Canal | 09 Oct 2009 8:48 a.m. PST |
Thoroughly enjoyed SM Stirling's Draka series
especially Marching Through Georgia. |
GoodBye | 09 Oct 2009 8:53 a.m. PST |
Thirded, but Keyes can't finish a series to save his life. I thought he wrapped up The Age of Unreason excellently. The story was effectively finished and a new one could have begun from that point if he was so inclined. I'd prefer he left well enough alone though and didn't add to it. Now if we can get Peter Jackson to film it. |
Wizard Whateley | 09 Oct 2009 9:49 a.m. PST |
I like "Lest Darkness Fall", but I'd have to say "Guns of the South". |
x42brown | 09 Oct 2009 10:42 a.m. PST |
I think "A Midsummer Tempest" by Poul Anderson tops my list. "Lest Darkness Fall" is on the list I know there are others but my mind seems to have gone blank. x42 |
Mikhail Lerementov | 09 Oct 2009 10:53 a.m. PST |
Eric Flint's THE RIVERS OF WAR and the sequel. |
gamertom | 09 Oct 2009 10:53 a.m. PST |
Hmmm
if you let alternate history include the concept of going sideways in time to parallel, alternate worlds, then H. Beam Piper's "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" is mine. Otherwise I'd have to say Gibson's & Sterling's "The Difference Engine." |
CeruLucifus | 09 Oct 2009 10:54 a.m. PST |
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper. Oh wait, you didn't say SF was OK. Never mind. (EDIT: I guess gamertom and I posted at the same time. Great minds think alike!) |
x42brown | 09 Oct 2009 11:06 a.m. PST |
My favourite book "The Drawing of the Dark" by Tim Powers might qualify. It does not change the history just give a different explanation of what was going on during the Siege of Vienna. x42 |
Dan 055 | 09 Oct 2009 11:31 a.m. PST |
How about H. Beam Piper's "He Walked Around the Horses" short story? |
Ambush Alley Games | 09 Oct 2009 12:05 p.m. PST |
x42 – I hadn't thought of Powers's stuff as alt. history, but I think you have a point! In which case I'd have to nominate On Stranger Tides, The Stress of Her Regard, Last Call, and Declare, too. I'm a great admirer of Powers' ability to take actual events and warp them into something strange by virtue of the strange filter of his imagination . . . |
Martin Rapier | 09 Oct 2009 12:32 p.m. PST |
Moorcocks 'Warlord of the Air' series. For more dour subjects, both SS-GB (Len Deighton) and Fatherland (Robert Harris) are good efforts. |
streetline | 09 Oct 2009 1:28 p.m. PST |
The Wild Cards series of books, for one. Excellent altenative superhero world. The Procurator alt-roman series (by Kirk Mitchell?). Good fun, especially New Barbarians. Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell – excellent 19th century fantasy. |
adub74 | 09 Oct 2009 2:28 p.m. PST |
Does the Warren Commission Report count? |
doc mcb | 09 Oct 2009 2:32 p.m. PST |
Fortshen's and Gingrich's GETTYSBURG trilogy is really excellent, both as reasonable what-if and also as campaign and battle descriptions. Greta fun, and immanently gamable. |
Arteis | 09 Oct 2009 2:54 p.m. PST |
Susannah Clarke's "Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell" – magic in the Napoleonic Wars. Naomi Novak's 'Temeraire' series – dragons in the Napoleonic Wars! |
mad monkey 1 | 09 Oct 2009 3:24 p.m. PST |
Peshawar Lancers by Stirling. How Few Remain by Turtledove. First one to three okay, rest went kinda downhill. Guns of the South also by Turtledove. Much better than the above. King of the Woods by John Maddox Roberts. Vikings, Aztecs and Mongols, oh my
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hurcheon | 09 Oct 2009 4:11 p.m. PST |
He walked around the horses is wonderful, and I have a soft spot for Turtledove's "The Road not taken" which suggests that our development is alternative to that usually done. The Draka stories I didn't like, come on when you read them and get back to reread Marching Through Georgia, then you almost end up rooting for the Nazis as the lesser evil. Also the premise that the Draka would have all the wonderful tech and none of that would be adopted by anyone else is flawed. So my vote goes to Lest Darkness Fall |
Keelhauled | 09 Oct 2009 5:25 p.m. PST |
The Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. |
MahanMan | 09 Oct 2009 7:35 p.m. PST |
I liked Stirling's Lords of Creation books (so far) and The Peshawar Lancers, but I have to say I've really liked Anderson's The Destroyermen series. |
Paint it Pink | 10 Oct 2009 3:24 a.m. PST |
I would say Guns of the South is worth reading for how it handles its premise. Marching Through Georgia is okay, but the series as a whole is less than the sum of its parts. The central premise of the book makes for an interesting mirror, in that it presents something that could be worse than the Nazis. Other than that, the series fixation on a "mighty whitey" future is at best laughable, and at worst plain vile. panther6actual.blogspot.com |
Stronty Girl | 10 Oct 2009 6:20 a.m. PST |
Does John Birmingham's World War 2.1 series count? It has people from 2050ish ending up in 1942 and changing the course of history. |
Cerdic | 10 Oct 2009 6:50 a.m. PST |
The word is ALTERNATIVE. To 'alternate' means I GO U GO! That ends the English lesson for today – please continue
.. |
mad monkey 1 | 11 Oct 2009 1:22 p.m. PST |
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Deucey | 12 Oct 2009 6:46 a.m. PST |
Make sure there is a choice of: I don't like to read alternate history when real history is much more interesting. |
JR McLennan | 12 Jun 2010 1:50 a.m. PST |
I completely agree with Martin – Warlords of the Air/Land Leviathan/Steel Tsar. Of course if you are looking for works of complete fiction that have been taken as if they were fact, look no further than anything written by Winston (sober – what is sober?) Churchill. |
(religious bigot) | 13 Jun 2010 10:08 p.m. PST |
Len Deighton's SS-GB, George Orwell's 1984, Robert Harris' Fatherland. |
ScottWashburn | 14 Jun 2010 8:31 a.m. PST |
Piper's "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" tops my list (but I'm a huge Piper fan, so I'm biased). "Lest Darkness Fall" is cool, especially since the hero FAILS to invent gunpowder :) I'm also biased in favor of Eric Flint's 1632 series (well, the first book, anyway) since my sole professional sale was to the "Ring of Fire" anthology that went with it :) The Drakka series left me cold. It was entirely implausible IMHO. As Flint once said to me: "Industrial Feudalism, now THERE's an efficient system!" :) |
arthur1815 | 19 Jun 2010 12:29 p.m. PST |
James Thurber's short story – I forget the name – in which a desparately hung-over Ulysses rant surrenders to Robert E. Lee! |
arthur1815 | 19 Jun 2010 12:29 p.m. PST |
James Thurber's short story – I forget the name – in which a desparately hung-over Ulysses Grant surrenders to Robert E. Lee! |
ThorLongus | 25 Jun 2010 7:18 p.m. PST |
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crhkrebs | 06 Jul 2010 3:25 p.m. PST |
Orwell started writing 1984 in the late 40's. How is that alternate history? Ralph |
D for Dubious | 07 Jul 2010 3:17 a.m. PST |
Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois, set in 1972 ten years after the Cuban Missile Crisis turned into WW3. A political conspiracy story set in a very believable world where the USSR is a nuclear wasteland, while the USA is a semi democracy with large craters where several of it's major cities used to be. |