Alt-History Novels

[Colonel Sanders]

What makes for a good one?

The first one I remember reading was Guns of the South, in which South African assholes figure out a way to travel back in time to equip the Confederacy with AK-47s during the American Civil War. As silly as it sounds, it was a fun read.

On the more serious side, Red Army, a short-ish book about a quick and successful Soviet invasion of Western Europe was a great read too.

There was also a series entitled WWIII that I remember starting off great. I think it was by the time it hit the fourth book that the author truly ran out of steam and imagination. But that's forgivable. He'd milked it for everything it was worth in the first three books.

OTOH I have read others that just fell flat; as in, I don't remember their names they were so unworthy of reading or reviewing.

Stephen King's 11/22/63 was really good, despite the fucking it took at the hands of the recent TV series. But of course, even in the book, the alternate thread was all bad--as in, don't mess with the past blahblahblah.

But generally, what makes for a good alt-history fiction book? And does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[marc]

I remember a book called Alterneties, where a guy finds a gateway leading to alternative timelines. He sells the information to the government. The government, which is loosing the Cold War, uses the gates to steal technology from the alternate USA's.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Darwinia .

In March 1912, in the event some people called the "Miracle," Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, including its inhabitants, disappear suddenly overnight and are replaced with a slice of an alien Earth, a land mass of roughly equal outlines and terrain features, but with a strange new flora and fauna which seems to have followed a different path in evolution.

I remember reading it in high school and not understanding it much, but I wasn't much of a reader then.

 

[RavenSky]

Darwinia .

In March 1912, in the event some people called the "Miracle," Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, including its inhabitants, disappear suddenly overnight and are replaced with a slice of an alien Earth, a land mass of roughly equal outlines and terrain features, but with a strange new flora and fauna which seems to have followed a different path in evolution.

I remember reading it in high school and not understanding it much, but I wasn't much of a reader then.

Thanks! Just added it to my Kindle

 

[credoconsolans]

What makes for a good one?

The first one I remember reading was Guns of the South, in which South African assholes figure out a way to travel back in time to equip the Confederacy with AK-47s during the American Civil War. As silly as it sounds, it was a fun read.

On the more serious side, Red Army, a short-ish book about a quick and successful Soviet invasion of Western Europe was a great read too.

There was also a series entitled WWIII that I remember starting off great. I think it was by the time it hit the fourth book that the author truly ran out of steam and imagination. But that's forgivable. He'd milked it for everything it was worth in the first three books.

OTOH I have read others that just fell flat; as in, I don't remember their names they were so unworthy of reading or reviewing.

Stephen King's 11/22/63 was really good, despite the fucking it took at the hands of the recent TV series. But of course, even in the book, the alternate thread was all bad--as in, don't mess with the past blahblahblah.

But generally, what makes for a good alt-history fiction book? And does anyone have any suggestions?

What makes for a good alt-history? The use of historic characters doing what you would expect them to do but that they turned left instead of right.

Melissa Scott - A Choice of Destinies: Alexander the Great goes West instead of East.

 

[KeepTalking]

But generally, what makes for a good alt-history fiction book? And does anyone have any suggestions?

What makes for a good alt history novel is what makes for any good work of fiction, well thought out characters with whom the reader can connect. Beyond that, it helps if the author has a good appreciation and understanding of the time period that is being tweaked, and can make that setting believable.

One of my favorites is Island in the Sea of Time by SM Stirling. In this novel, the modern day (late '90s, anyway) island of Nantucket is transported back into the bronze age, along with a single Coast Guard cutter, and they must learn to adapt to the times, and open up trade with a bronze age Europe. It is the first of a three book series, and also tied to a post-apocalyptic series called The Emberverse, the first novel of which is Dies the Fire. The Emberverse deals with what happens to the rest of the world at the moment that Nantucket Island is transported into the past (electricity and gunpowder stop working, chaos ensues), and has expanded into 12 novels with more to come.

Another alt history favorite of mine is Harry Turtledove's Atlantis series. Unlike much of Turtledove's alt history output, there is no science fiction aspect to this one. It starts with the premise that the North American east coast separated from the mainland about a hundred million years in the past, and was discovered by fishermen about 50 years before Columbus set sail for the new world. The first novel in the series is Opening Atlantis.

 

[bilby]

But generally, what makes for a good alt-history fiction book? And does anyone have any suggestions?

What makes for a good alt history novel is what makes for any good work of fiction, well thought out characters with whom the reader can connect. Beyond that, it helps if the author has a good appreciation and understanding of the time period that is being tweaked, and can make that setting believable.

One of my favorites is Island in the Sea of Time by SM Stirling. In this novel, the modern day (late '90s, anyway) island of Nantucket is transported back into the bronze age, along with a single Coast Guard cutter, and they must learn to adapt to the times, and open up trade with a bronze age Europe. It is the first of a three book series, and also tied to a post-apocalyptic series called The Emberverse, the first novel of which is Dies the Fire. The Emberverse deals with what happens to the rest of the world at the moment that Nantucket Island is transported into the past (electricity and gunpowder stop working, chaos ensues), and has expanded into 12 novels with more to come.

Another alt history favorite of mine is Harry Turtledove's Atlantis series. Unlike much of Turtledove's alt history output, there is no science fiction aspect to this one. It starts with the premise that the North American east coast separated from the mainland about a hundred million years in the past, and was discovered by fishermen about 50 years before Columbus set sail for the new world. The first novel in the series is Opening Atlantis.

Going the other way, into greater science fictional elements, there is William R. Forstchen's Lost Regiment series, in which humans from a patchwork of different historical periods and locations on Earth are thrown together on an alien planet. IMO the bad guys are a bit too bad, and some of the characters a bit flat, but it is a fun read if alt-history and sci-fi are your thing. The series centres on a fictional American Civil War regiment, who arrive in the midst of a group of medieval Russians, who are being kept in serfdom by aliens who prey upon them. The aliens are basically mongol hordes painted with a slightly overdone level of hyperbole; I suspect the books would be better if they had just used real Mongols, although I guess it would then be difficult to paint them as a realistic existential threat to a well-armed and prepared regiment of 19th Century elite soldiers.