Alternate History

[Toby Frost]

I enjoyed The Plot Against America. Fatherland doesn't contain any SF elements, either.

On the other end of the scale is West of Eden by Harry Harrison, where the meteor that struck the Earth was only half the size as in reality, and dinosaur-like people end up fighting cavemen. A pretty wild idea executed very well, IIRC.

 

[Vladd67]

For Want of a Nail, by Robert Sobel. The divergence point here is that reinforcements arrived for Burgoyne at Saratoga allowing him to be victorious. This book is written as a history book rather than a novel giving the histories of The Confederation of North America, The United States of Mexico, and the fate of other nations in the world from 1777 through to the late twentieth century.

For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga: Amazon.co.uk: Sobel, Robert: 9781853672811: Books

Buy For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga Repint by Sobel, Robert (ISBN: 9781853672811) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Danny McG]

There's a recent Cold War series (the name escapes me *) about a squad of British troops fighting their way out as the Russian tanks roll through West Germany.

*Something Zone or Zone something?

 

[Susan Boulton]

Try Widowland.

Widowland

'Reading this terrific, Orwellian novel you almost hold your breath' Bel Mooney To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edit...

www.quercusbooks.co.uk

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling

It has psychic phenomenon. Fantasy?

 

[Toby Frost]

True, it does have a character who has visions. But it's more alternate history than fantasy, so I'd still call it alternate (or alternative!) history.

 

[Lostinspace]

Funny that nobody has mentioned The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon which won the 2008 Hugo.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I finally read "The Man in the High Castle" this year. Mixed feelings about the ending, but otherwise very impressed. The characters are phenomenal.

Funny that nobody has mentioned The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon which won the 2008 Hugo.

I loved that book! The Sitka Jewish Autonomous Region feels so real in it.

After one too many steampunk story where The Glorious British Empire Lasts Forever, I'd quite like to see more stories where The Glorious British Empire Never Existed. I don't quite have the historical chops to work that out myself. I did come up with the idea of England as a province of the Holy Roman Empire. Better-informed friends told me that was actually not so far-fetched: the Hapsburgs had at least one opportunity to acquire the British crown by marriage IRL. It would be interesting to describe a world where European colonisation petered out early, giving the rest of the world a fighting chance to modernise independently.

 

[BAYLOR]

Funny that nobody has mentioned The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon which won the 2008 Hugo.

That one sounds quite interesting.

 

[tobl]

i found 1639 quite interesting and liked a few books more in the series but honestly it just got tiring. i read fatherland... yeah good, but damn... honestly i find the all alternate history concept annoying. i guees my suspension of desbelief can't take it. but you want one without syfy or fantasy elements... have you thought of the illuminatus trilogy by robert anton wilson?it's an alternate history of our own reality

 

[Guttersnipe]

Has there ever been an alternate history story about what would've happened hadn't any land west of the Mississippi been colonized by European-Americans or anyone else? A Native American nation, maybe?

 

[tobl]

Has there ever been an alternate history story about what would've happened hadn't any land west of the Mississippi been colonized by European-Americans or anyone else? A Native American nation, maybe?

i believe i read somewhere about an indian empire .... but i do mean Indian and not native-american.

 

[Danny McG]

There's the fairly recent Lady Astronaut series, beginning with The Calculating Stars

 

[asp3]

There's the fairly recent Lady Astronaut series, beginning with The Calculating Stars

I can't say I'm really into alternative history but I loved the first book. I haven't ready any of the others though.

 

[hitmouse]

Has there ever been an alternate history story about what would've happened hadn't any land west of the Mississippi been colonized by European-Americans or anyone else? A Native American nation, maybe?

In Welsh folklore there Is a story about a lost tribe of Welsh-speaking native americans called the Madogwys, living in the midwest, descendents of a Prince Madoc who escaped war in north Wales to land in north America in 1170.

The story is the subject of a rather good book, film, and album, American Interior by Gruff Rhys, who goes on the trail of an ancestor who believed the story and went looking for the Madogwys in the early 19th century. It is a good story about wishful thinking. As Rhys says: “ He went looking for a tribe that wasn’t there, and he didn’t find them. Such is life.”

 

[Danny McG]

Martin Cruz Smith - The Indians won (1970)

I faintly recall reading this one about 40 years ago.
The premise being the Native Americans kept control of their lands so the European settlers are the poor immigrants.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I have fond memories of Joan Aiken's alternative-history children's books: "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase", "Black Hearts in Battersea" etc. Unfortunately, my grasp of history was so poor I didn't even realise that they /were/ alternative history. They're set in what would have been the Georgian period, except the Catholic King James II was never deposed and has been succeeded by James III. The treacherous House of Hanover are constantly plotting to overthrow the King and place a George on the throne.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I suppose this could qualify as alternate history:

Mack Reynolds on Africa, Islam, utopia, and progress

It's surprising you don't hear more about Mack Reynolds. By all accounts he injected his stories with radical politics and anti-imperialist utopianism, and he was certainly a precursor of the New Wave. He was well-regarded in his day, and a...

sfgospel.typepad.com

It's in Project Gutenberg:

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Black Man's Burden, by Mack Reynolds.

 

[Danny McG]

More recently we have Sarah Gailey with her book River of Teeth

Back in the 1950s hippos were released into the American swamp areas, now we have massive herds of feral hippos roaming about.

In true Wild West style they get periodically rounded up by men riding tame hippos

 

[Danny McG]

Gordon Stevens And all the king's men

What happens when the Nazis invade in 1941 and subsequently occupy Britain?

I read this years ago, it's very good