Alternate History

[TomMazanec]

Is this the place for AH on this forum? Ever since I read Silverberg's "Trips" I have had a fascination with the concept of alternate histories, but they don't seem to be a big thing here. This subforum seems to be for real history. Science Fiction doesn't really describe AH, much less fantasy or horror, but AH is a growing area of SF. Where do such stories go here?

 

[svalbard]

Here is a good spot. I enjoy some AH. Robert Harris's Fatherland was enjoyable. Kim Stanley Robinson The Years of Rice and Salt is an exceptional work.

 

[Vladd67]

The term Alternate History almost makes me twitch, surely it should be Alternative History?

 

[Rodders]

I read Harry Turtledove’s Tilting The Balance series back in the nineties.

Essentially, Aliens invade Earth during the Second World War and all the combatants joins forces to beat them. It was enjoyable, but I didn’t finish the series.

 

[svalbard]

I read Harry Turtledove’s Tilting The Balance series back in the nineties.

Essentially, Aliens invade Earth during the Second World War and all the combatants joins forces to beat them. It was enjoyable, but I didn’t finish the series.

I think Turtledove did another one set on the 9th century about the Vikings and Alfred of Wessex? I remember reading the first book in the series buy never going back to it.

 

[TomMazanec]

How about giving me some books where travel between AH timelines is public knowledge? I like thinking how this affects society.
Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson. It is travel to the past but, as soon as the tourists get there, it becomes an AH.
Famous Men Who Never Lived K. Chess
The GURPS Infinite Earths background
Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series (I think AH travel is public knowledge there. Can hardly wait for the last book).
Any others?

 

[BAYLOR]

How about giving me some books where travel between AH timelines is public knowledge? I like thinking how this affects society.
Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson. It is travel to the past but, as soon as the tourists get there, it becomes an AH.
Famous Men Who Never Lived K. Chess
The GURPS Infinite Earths background
Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series (I think AH travel is public knowledge there. Can hardly wait for the last book).
Any others?

Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove.
Kelly Country by A Bertram Chandler
Custer At the Alamo by Gregory Urbach

 

[svalbard]

Julian May's The Many Coloured Land series.

 

[TomMazanec]

BAYLOR:
But are AH timelines public knowledge in those books?
svalbard:
Ah, yes, the Pliocene Earth.

 

[Stenevor]

Does Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle count? Loved it when I read it and responsible for more googling than any other books I've read to pick out the facts from the fiction. Keith Roberts Pavane is well worth a read too.

 

[Don]

Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove.

I enjoyed Joe Steele as well as Turtledove's The Guns of the South. Robinson's novella "Lucky Strike" is my favorite alternate/alternative history story.

 

[Bick]

Julian May's The Many Coloured Land series.

That’s alternative pre-history isn’t it?

 

[psikeyhackr]

Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove

Agent of Byzantium

In a universe where Mohammed became a Christian, the Byzantine Empire has not only survived, it flourishes--developing technology at an e...

www.goodreads.com

I don't know if you count parallel worlds as alternate history.

The Family Trade​

(The Merchant Princes #1)​

by Charles Stross​

Goodreads

Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

www.goodreads.com

 

[Guttersnipe]

Are there any alternate history novels that don't have a shred of sci-fi or fantasy? It's been my obsession as of late.

 

[BAYLOR]

Are there any alternate history novels that don't have a shred of sci-fi or fantasy? It's been my obsession as of late.

Joe Steel by Harry Turtledove

 

[Bick]

Are there any alternate history novels that don't have a shred of sci-fi or fantasy? It's been my obsession as of late.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.

 

[Danny McG]

SS:GB

 

[BAYLOR]

1. Clash of Eagles
2. Eagles in Eagles
3. Eagle in Exile

By Alan Smalle

Alt history trilogy in which Rome never fell , has landed in North America . The Rome of this timeline also facing off against a very powerful Mongol Empire.

 

[CupofJoe]

I found The Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling enjoyable enough. The divergent point is most of Europe and North America being destroyed by a meteor show in the 1870s. The story itself is set 140[?] years after that.

 

[BAYLOR]

I found The Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling enjoyable enough. The divergent point is most of Europe and North America being destroyed by a meteor show in the 1870s. The story itself is set 140[?] years after that.

Ive read that one , it's terrific . I wish he'd follow up book to it.