Rate alternate history novels/series you have read out of 10 (from best to worst)

I'm intruiged... is this all some kind of market research, and if so, shouldn't you be paying us?
 
There was a Tom Swift book I read a long time ago (the second in the series, I recall, but I don't remember the name). That had a very interesting alternate history plot, although that was because he went to a parallel dimension. I'd give that an 8.5.
 
Robert Harris - Fatherland - 7/10
Keith Roberts - Pavane - 7/10
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle - 6/10
 
Lion of Macedon - David Gemmell 9/10


The only alternate history book i can remember reading.
 
Connavar said:
Lion of Macedon - David Gemmell 9/10
Click to expand...
Was going to mention this but it's not alternate history as such, he kept the history part the same but created a new reason for things being that way(who knows, it could actually be true).

As for other books, Conn Iggulden does a pretty good job of historic fiction, but again not really alternate histories.
 
To provide context, I'm not a big fan of AH so these volumes would likely be much better to the AH-neutral reader because even I noticed them and recalled them or much worse because I don't know what I'm talking about. :)


Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp: Very Good, so maybe 4/5?
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick: Good ~ 3/5
The Proteus Operation by James P. Hogan: Fair ~ 2/5
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling: Poor ~ 1/5


I love Bruce Sterling and like a lot of Gibson but not that one - don't remember why; just didn't. The Hogan can't have been too great because I no longer have it (don't know what happened to it) but I occasionally think about repurchasing it. But I haven't so far. The Dick is fine. The only one I really liked, though, was the de Camp.

AH does tend to wander into time travel, multiverse stuff, etc. The above may not be 100% free of that but it's really core AH, I think. I also love Fritz Leiber's Destiny Times Three and would put Harry Harrison's West of Eden in the ballpark of the Hogan but I don't know how strictly AH they are. Similarly, I don't know what microgenre Asimov's The End of Eternity would go in, strictly. I need to re-read that one.
 
I was disappointed in The Difference Engine. Two writers I like very much, and some of the ideas were great- maybe a clash of styles?.
It could have done with being much longer and more developed.
 
S.M. Stifling novels of the change. I give the series a 9.5.
 
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