ive read fatherland, and then everything changed, and mid way through the southern victory series
are there any other good alt hist novels you can recommend?
are there any other good alt hist novels you can recommend?
any good alt hist novels?
- Thread starter AdmiralBlake
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Shimbo's A Kill In The Morning is a great read that has now been published as a book, it's in Waterstones and on Amazon I believe. It's set after a stalemate between Britain and Germany ends WWII early, and is basically a James Bond novel set in that world (though for rights reasons, Bond becomes an anonymous assassin). As Alternate History, it's fairly fanciful towards the end, but the initial POD is quite a good piece of work. It's most enjoyable because of its storyline, however.
Based on your thread in After 1900, you would also enjoy SS-GB, which is one of my favourite AH novels.
Based on your thread in After 1900, you would also enjoy SS-GB, which is one of my favourite AH novels.
I'd love to make some recommendations for you, but could you possibly narrow it down a bit?
Are there any particular time periods that interest you? Particular formats or storytelling mediums that you prefer (for example, Fatherland tells its alternate history premise through the form of a detective story; Southern Victory has an "everyman" focus featuring a broad cast of characters; Then Everything Changed has an omniscient narrator that focuses on the top leaders who are in charge, etc.)?
Are there any particular time periods that interest you? Particular formats or storytelling mediums that you prefer (for example, Fatherland tells its alternate history premise through the form of a detective story; Southern Victory has an "everyman" focus featuring a broad cast of characters; Then Everything Changed has an omniscient narrator that focuses on the top leaders who are in charge, etc.)?
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Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove is damn good. It's set a decade after the Spanish Armada successfully conquers England, and it's about Shakespeare getting involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish occupation and restore Queen Elizabeth to the throne.
usertron2020
Donor
The Island in the Sea of Time trilogy by S.M. Stirling is a very good one, though the way the author spends so much time on the more lurid details of lesbian sex makes one recommend that it is not for those under 17. The "suddenly, everybody got run over by a truck" ending sucks canal water. Though otherwise our heroes are OK. I must assume Stirling didn't want to write anymore Nantucket ISOT books, because a trilogy was too limiting for the story line.
Beware "Axis in the Sea of Time" by John Birmingham. Yes, he is an AH.com member (Birmo), but the author has extremely skewed ideas about the apparently infinite levels of achievement that can be reached with slave labor. He also seemed to have no understanding of agriculture, economics, logistics, Lend-Lease (to the Soviet Union), and how these subjects pertained to the USSR. The sociology of culture shock were great in that series (though he also seemed to have a problem with feminism, creating a "modern woman" character that made Gloria Steinem look like an Ottoman harem slave), but the subject was sorely underutilized.
For those who argue that the ISOT trilogy or AOT are time travel stories, not AH, I say that they represent ASB (or scifi, in the case of AOT) time travel stories that results in an AH story. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", or any other time travel story where history is NOT changed, does not qualify as AH.
The tele-play "Timequest", originally called "What if JFK had lived?". Again, a time traveller is used. Many tales of time-travellers have been used to try to prevent JFK's assassination, only to either "prove" that saving Kennedy would have "made things worse"
, or having an ASBed level of ASB "accidents" somehow always preventing anyone from stopping JFK's murder. Not in Timequest. Its worth the price of the DVD, if you can find it. Best Kennedy survives story I have EVER seen. Well acted by everyone too. Even by Bruce Campbell (!), who plays a fictional Oliver Stone character who in 2001 makes a movie called "November 22nd 1963" (1) that "exposes" some of the details of what happened in the city of Dallas on that otherwise quiet placid day.
1) ITTL, as far as the public was concerned, the only unusual event that occurred on that day was that JFK suddenly cancelled his trip to Dallas, flew out of Fort Worth with LBJ, and called the entire cabinet to DC for an unscheduled emergency meeting.
Lest Darkness Fall, by Sprague DeCamp. A story of an Italian-American engineer from the late 1930s being dropped into 536 AD Rome. Probably the first AH story where history is changed for the better!
Beware "Axis in the Sea of Time" by John Birmingham. Yes, he is an AH.com member (Birmo), but the author has extremely skewed ideas about the apparently infinite levels of achievement that can be reached with slave labor. He also seemed to have no understanding of agriculture, economics, logistics, Lend-Lease (to the Soviet Union), and how these subjects pertained to the USSR. The sociology of culture shock were great in that series (though he also seemed to have a problem with feminism, creating a "modern woman" character that made Gloria Steinem look like an Ottoman harem slave), but the subject was sorely underutilized.
For those who argue that the ISOT trilogy or AOT are time travel stories, not AH, I say that they represent ASB (or scifi, in the case of AOT) time travel stories that results in an AH story. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", or any other time travel story where history is NOT changed, does not qualify as AH.
The tele-play "Timequest", originally called "What if JFK had lived?". Again, a time traveller is used. Many tales of time-travellers have been used to try to prevent JFK's assassination, only to either "prove" that saving Kennedy would have "made things worse"
, or having an ASBed level of ASB "accidents" somehow always preventing anyone from stopping JFK's murder. Not in Timequest. Its worth the price of the DVD, if you can find it. Best Kennedy survives story I have EVER seen. Well acted by everyone too. Even by Bruce Campbell (!), who plays a fictional Oliver Stone character who in 2001 makes a movie called "November 22nd 1963" (1) that "exposes" some of the details of what happened in the city of Dallas on that otherwise quiet placid day.1) ITTL, as far as the public was concerned, the only unusual event that occurred on that day was that JFK suddenly cancelled his trip to Dallas, flew out of Fort Worth with LBJ, and called the entire cabinet to DC for an unscheduled emergency meeting.
Lest Darkness Fall, by Sprague DeCamp. A story of an Italian-American engineer from the late 1930s being dropped into 536 AD Rome. Probably the first AH story where history is changed for the better!
Grey Wolf
Donor
I would definitely second this
And All The King's Men by Gordon Stevens is similar to SS GB and one of the best and most powerful novels I have read
http://www.amazon.co.uk/And-All-Kings-Gordon-Stevens/dp/033031534X
I have alternate history favourites that are more of a fun exploration of time travel, alternate dimensions and paradoxes (Elleander Morning, Napoleon Disentimed, Replay)
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
If you can find a copy, For Want of a Nail by Robet Sobel. May push the bounds of plausabaility at times, but it is still fun.
usertron2020
Donor
Replay was outstanding, though the "foredoomed/hopelessness" angle could have been downplayed, or improved.
Order it online; it's not that difficult to find. The only negative thing I can say about the book is the lack of illustrations.
some of my favorites:
'1901' by Robert Conroy. One of the earlier AH novels, about a German invasion of the USA. If you like this one, you could read "1920: America's Great War" by the same author, as it tells practically the same story.
"Resurrection Day" by Brendan DuBois. The aftermath of a 'Cuban missile crisis goes hot' war.
"A Different Flesh" by Harry Turtledove. The Europeans find primitive Homo Erectus in the New World instead of Native Americans.
The Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik, 8 of them so far, set during Napoleonic times in a world where sentient dragons exist and are ridden by men into war.
'1901' by Robert Conroy. One of the earlier AH novels, about a German invasion of the USA. If you like this one, you could read "1920: America's Great War" by the same author, as it tells practically the same story.
"Resurrection Day" by Brendan DuBois. The aftermath of a 'Cuban missile crisis goes hot' war.
"A Different Flesh" by Harry Turtledove. The Europeans find primitive Homo Erectus in the New World instead of Native Americans.
The Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik, 8 of them so far, set during Napoleonic times in a world where sentient dragons exist and are ridden by men into war.
Redcoats Revenge by Col. David Fitz-Enz USA(Ret.)
If only because its the only alt/hist I've ever read where America actually loses!?
If only because its the only alt/hist I've ever read where America actually loses!?
usertron2020
Donor
I'd like to check that out. But where is the POD? If its after the war starts, or worse, after France enters, I shudder to think.
Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson maybe?
http://www.amazon.com/Years-Rice-Salt-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553580078
http://www.amazon.com/Years-Rice-Salt-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553580078