Alternate History Books, The "what if" genre. Options

[Eternal]

I accidentaly got into the topic recently, by picking up Eric Flint's "1632" (it's his first book of the "Ring of Fire" series). It basically tells a story of a small city from today, being accidentaly transported back in time to 1632 Germany (yup - right in the middle of the 30 Year War). It was entertaining enough, where I'm planning on reading the sequels.
The main problem with the book was some leftist propaganda sprinkled throughout the main character's speeches (mostly regarding labor unions), but I still enjoyed the story a lot (and I finally got a taste of how religious and left oriented people must have felt when they were reading Goodkind's "Faith of the Fallen")
The nice thing about the book is that it is available for free online here.

After reading it, I did some search for books touching on a similar subject. I ended up reading Leo Frankowski's "The Cross Time Engineer", and liked it even more than the 1632. This one tells a story of a young engineer accidentaly being transported back in time to 13th century Poland, where he has less than 10 years to defend Europe from the Mongol Invasion. It's also part of a series ("Adventures of Conrad Stargard"), and I went through the first 3 books already.

As soon as I'm done with that I plan on reading Striling's "Island in the Sea of Time", which is supposedly one of the top books in the genre (this one's about an entire island from 20th century being transported a few millenia back).

Any other "alternative history" books worth checking out?

[The Wrath]

If you like "what if" historical books, try The Children's War, by J.N. Stroyar. It's a novel about the aftermath of a victorious Nazi Germany.

[Lemuel]

It's not a book, but Fatherland is an excellent alternate-history movie along the same lines as "The Children's War", ie, set in a universe where Axis powers won WWII.

I also heard there's a new "mockumentary" coming out that explores modern America if the Confederate States won the Civil War.

[The Wrath]

I also heard there's a new "mockumentary" coming out that explores modern America if the Confederate States won the Civil War.

It's called Deliverance.

[Eternal]

It's called Deliverance.

I thought it was called CSA (Confederate States of America). The trailer can be seen on their website.

(I never heard about Deliverance so the joke is lost on me).

This post has been edited by Eternal: Feb 26 2006, 01:50 PM

[The Wrath]

Yeah, I was making a joke about a different movie.

[khaight]

I thought it was called CSA (Confederate States of America). The trailer can be seen on their website.

Oh, my gawd. That was *so* wrong. Especially the QVC "slave shopping" parody.

On a more serious Civil War alternate-history note, check out Harry Turtledove's novel Guns Of The South. The basic premise is that a bunch of racist South Africans travel back through time and provide the Confederate Army with AK47s, on the theory that the South winning the war will result in the kind of society they can no longer have in modern times. Things don't work out exactly as you would expect. Turtledove has a PhD in history. He's written a large number of alternate history novels; IMHO this is his best.

James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation is a sort of reverse alternate history novel about World War II. The novel starts in the 1970s, with John Kennedy serving as POTUS and Nazi Germany about to finish off its conquest of the world. By the end of the novel the timeline looks a lot more familiar. The way they get from A to B is a lot of fun.

I've heard good things about John Birmingham's Weapons of Choice and Designated Targets. The basic premise is similar to the movie THE FINAL COUNTDOWN -- a modern naval fleet winds up embedded in World War II. Except they stay. I haven't read these but they're on my list.

A good alternate history short story about WWII is Cyril Kornbluth's "Two Dooms". Might be hard to find, but very chilling. The Americans lose the war, and the United States winds up partitioned between the Germans and the Japanese. Neither side is a place you'd want to live. This story is designed to make you very happy that the Manhattan Project was a success.

No WWII alternate history discussion would be complete without at least a mention of Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream. If Hitler had been a hack SF writer instead of a mass-murdering dictator, The Iron Dream would have been his magnum opus. Literally.

Eric Flint (working with David Drake) has also written an ancient-world alternate history, starting with An Oblique Approach and continuing through the just-published The Dance of Time. The Romans, led by the general Belisarius, fight a war with India. Both sides get help from the future. If you liked 1632, it's worth checking out. The first two volumes of the series are in the Baen Free Library.

That should be enough recommendations to keep you busy for a while.

[Daedalus]

L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall concerns a modern professor who suddenly finds himself in 6th century Italy. In the course of the novel, he "invents" a printing press, newspapers, and a semaphore telegraph. He also strives to prevent the fall of Rome and the advent of the DarkAges.

[Felix]

It's not a book, but Fatherland is an excellent alternate-history movie along the same lines as "The Children's War", ie, set in a universe where Axis powers won WWII.

Fatherland is a book. I've read it. It was written by Thomas Harris, as far as I remember.

[KittyHawk]

Any other "alternative history" books worth checking out?

What you are describing is more time travel than alternate history. I'd recommend Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

[Daedalus]

What you are describing is more time travel than alternate history. I'd recommend Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Doesn't time travel by its very nature change history? On this issue, see the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder" and the Michael Crichton novel Timeline.

[Eternal]

What you are describing is more time travel than alternate history.

Actually, I think time travel implies alternate history. I've always believed that if you go back in time, you'd create a 'parallel universe', and as a consequence, an alternate history. It elegantly gets around the problem of some paradoxes - like the one where you go back in time and kill your earlier-self.

[D'kian]

On a more serious Civil War alternate-history note, check out Harry Turtledove's novel Guns Of The South. The basic premise is that a bunch of racist South Africans travel back through time and provide the Confederate Army with AK47s, on the theory that the South winning the war will result in the kind of society they can no longer have in modern times. Things don't work out exactly as you would expect. Turtledove has a PhD in history. He's written a large number of alternate history novels; IMHO this is his best.

I agree. Turtledove works best when he stays confined to one book. When he tries a series of books, like the Worldwar and Great War timelines, he invariably falls into two literary vices: 1) he attempts to reconstruct real events in different lcoations or carried out by diferent people. Sure it's fun for the Race to establish a Warren Commision, but, really, it's also ridiculous (and I won't mention the big department store's ad on Home). 2) he gets extremely repetitive. Just about every scene by any POV character begins with a recap of the character. How often do we need to hear that Sam Carsten gets sunburned even in Seattle? Or that Chester Martin likes California's weather better than Ohio's?

He also tends to mix up his characters on minor points. Given the large number of POV characters, though, some mix-ups are understandable.

[Lemuel]

Doesn't time travel by its very nature change history?

Only if you believe in paradoxes.

Splinter thread begins in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... 7 ... 6 ... 5 ...

[Fenriz]

Fatherland is a book. I've read it. It was written by Thomas Harris, as far as I remember.

It was written by Robert Harris.

Thomas Harris writes novels about cannibalistic psychiatrists rather than alternate history novels.

[Robert J. Kolker]

It's not a book, but Fatherland is an excellent alternate-history movie along the same lines as "The Children's War", ie, set in a universe where Axis powers won WWII.

I also heard there's a new "mockumentary" coming out that explores modern America if the Confederate States won the Civil War.

Fatherland started as a novel by Harris and was made into a movie. It is well written.

I have seen the mockumentary. It is crude, heavy handed satire. It is not that well done.

Bob Kolker

[Robert J. Kolker]

As soon as I'm done with that I plan on reading Striling's "Island in the Sea of Time", which is supposedly one of the top books in the genre (this one's about an entire island from 20th century being transported a few millenia back).

Any other "alternative history" books worth checking out?

Some are better than others. Winston Churchill wrote an AH novel based on a CSA victory. Nail Ferguson wrote an AH called -For Want of a Nail-. The American Rebels are defeated at Saratoga by Burgoyne and the Revolution fails. Ferguson then writes an extended and extensive history of British North America (there is no United States). It is reasonably well done and is very much alternate -history- rather than science fiction. All that is necessary to make a different world is a different free will choice at a critical juncture.

If you like a more science fiction approach S.M. Stirling's Domination of Draka series is for you.

The classic modern alternate history sf is Ward Moore's -Bring the Jubilee- where a time traveling historian accidentally changes the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. The result is -our- time line, the one we know and love.

There is also a collection of SF stories entitled Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg (I think). Suppose the Roman Empire never collapsed and continued on into "our time", i.e. the same year but a completely different world.

And for people who like light t.v. fare, one can always get the DVD for -Sliders-. Our hero goes to different time lines through an EPR time warp hole in the continuum.

Bob Kolker

[D'kian]

The classic modern alternate history sf is Ward Moore's -Bring the Jubilee- where a time traveling historian accidentally changes the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. The result is -our- time line, the one we know and love.

Given where the central character comes from, I found the ending to be a relief. I must say the author did a good job with the ultimate consequences of a split North American continent, something few other AH writers manage to do.

There is also a collection of SF stories entitled Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg (I think). Suppose the Roman Empire never collapsed and continued on into "our time", i.e. the same year but a completely different world.

The stories are indeed by Silverberg. They were published in SF magazines originally, but have been collected into a book called Roma Eterna. I like his point of departure and the consequent lack of Christianity in the world (which BTW is blasphemous in the extreme, because it boldly states Christianity is a human invention entirely; I like that, too).

Overall it's very good, but I half-expected a more advanced technology by our time. I mean, there shouldn't have been a Dark Age at all, right?

On a related note, there is a Turtledove series about a Byzantine secret agent around the 7th Century AD. Christianity does exist, but Islam does not. And the Persian Empire is the other great power. In this series, collected in "Agent Of Byzantium," there are early technological advances, mostly brought on by the Persians. It's a good read.

And for people who like light t.v. fare, one can always get the DVD for -Sliders-. Our hero goes to different time lines through an EPR time warp hole in the continuum.

I saw some of it when it first came on TV. Not bad. But the main problem is that the cast is constantly looking for one thing and one thing only: the way home. Just once I wish some clever scientist would build a multidimensional transport, or time machine, or warp hole doohickey for the purpose of exploration, not as a plot device to get lost in time, space or space-time (see The Time Tunnel, Lost In Space, Voyager, Quantum leap, Voyagers!, etc.)

[PKD]

The Man in the High Castle. ;-)


-PKD