Pheatius

I have a passion for alternate history, the ‘what ifs’ of the past and the effects they would have on our present or recent past. Harry Turtledove is the master of this genre in writing, (In my humble opinion) but many others have penned works of alternate history.

Tell me about a favorite story you have read, written or would like to see.

The possibilities are truly endless.

Just want to see if there is anyone else in TFP interested in Alternate History.

Mr. Mojo

I love Harry Turtledove... I've read all this Second Civil War ('The Great War- American Empire Series)
and the whole Worldwar - Colonization series.

I cant wait for the next one

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warrrreagl

I've never heard of it, and I like it already.

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Strelich

There was a PBS documentary (more like a Brit documentary) that aired a week ago about Nazi Germany's startlingly intricate plans about occupying Britain. The detail was the thing, it was startling. And had they succeeded, I quiver to think of all of Eurasia under the Axis, Von Braun securely under the control of Germany, and how the world would fan out from that.

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Monty this seems strange to me.
The movies had that movie thing,
but nonsense has a welcome ring
and heroes don't come easy.

Maveric

ever read Stephen Baxter & Arthur C. Clarke's Light of Another Days?
One of the plot devices in this story is a Cam that can view into the past at anypoint in time. The entire History of earth had to be rewritten because of all the lies, misconceptions, and inaccuracys... A good portion of the story covers some of the "Real Story" of what happened behind the scenes of famous historical events...

KillerYoda

<i>Fatherland</i> by Robert Harris was pretty good for "what if the Nazis won the war in Europe.

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Xixox

To go a little further in the Wayback Machine... I'd give a recommendation for the works Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey. Not so much a rewrite of modern history, these take place in an alternate ancient history. It is set in Europe... timeline is difficult to pin down, best narrowed down to late medieval to early Renaissance eras.

It's a view of the world with just a mere twist of the religious tellings of various cultures. It covers Christianity and Judaism with a swirling of Nordic myths and Druidic rituals. It's not preachy or anything, but it makes you think about religions in our cultures & how we've been molded by them.

And it's just really really good storytelling to boot

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Pheatius

I love to read just about all eras in alternate history, but having been into the genre for a while I think I have read most variations of the American Civil war and WW II. I have about 55 to 60 books on alternate history with about 10 or so being more 'scholarly' approach to the what ifs of history.

My focus recently has been to find some fiction or historical analysis of WW I. Any suggestions?

Mr. Mojo

This was a great collection of short essays.
<a target=new href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=4Z1SKK0U09&pwb=1&ean=9780425176429"><b>What if?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been</b></a>

Counterfactuals--considerations of alternate outcomes--make up one of the main provinces of military history. This volume, for which an A&E companion TV documentary is scheduled in November, incorporates two dozen essays and a dozen sidebars on what might have happened by writers of diverse specialties, including generalist Lewis Lapham, novelist Cecelia Holland and historians John Keegan, David McCullough and Stephen Ambrose. Readers willing to be open-minded can <b>consider Europe's fate had the Mongols continued their 13th-century course of conquest.</b> They can speculate on the <b>death in battle of Herndno Cortes and the consequences of an Aztec Empire surviving to present times. Thanks to James McPherson, they can read of a battle of Gettysburg fought in 1862 (instead of 1863) and resulting in a Confederate victory</b>, or the consequences of a Confederate defeat at Chancellorsville courtesy of Steven Sears. <b>Ambrose suggests that Allied defeat on D-Day would have meant nuclear devastation for Germany in the summer of 1945.</b> Arthur Waldron presents a China, and a world, that might have been far different had Chiang Kai-shek not taken the risk of invading Manchuria in 1946. Consistently well drawn, these scenarios open intellectual as well as imaginative doors for anyone willing to walk through them. Maps and photos not seen by PW. Audio rights to Simon & Schuster; foreign rights sold in the U.K. and Germany. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

And many more – well worth it.

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When I jerk off I feel good for about twenty seconds and then WHAM it's right back into suicidal depression

troy h

In the vein of "pure" alternate history (i.e. one fact is changed w/o invoking time travel) you have to go with Turtledove and the implications of the atlernate civil war bit. Another good one is SM Stirling's Draka series - a bad guy that makes the Nazis look like choir boys! And the bad guys win . . .

If you expand this to include time travel alternate history . . . I like Eric Flint's 1632-1633 . . . the Belisarius series . . . SM Stirling's Nantucketer series . . . all should not be missed.

troy

AnUnkind

Thanks for the new reading material. I read one alternate history short story and wanted to read more and what I gather from this thread will help in gettin the goods.

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Kadath

Thomas Pynchon's "V." is the one that comes first to mind at this late hour.

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Pheatius

Is anyone familiar with any foreign language films that have dealt with Alternate history?