The Alternate History Book Club

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So! I have been noticing for a while that despite its name, there didn't seem to be all that much discussion of published alternate history in the Alternate History Books forum, despite its name, and I had been thinking about ways to stimulate a bit more discussion. Now that the Maps & Graphics have been spun off into their own forum, this seems like as good a time to start as any.

The idea is this: every month, interested AH.com members would come here and post alternate history-related works they think the club should read. Once a work passes some threshold, it gets put on the reading list to be read at some future date--whatever's at the top of the reading list is the book for the month. That gives all interested parties some time to track down copies if necessary. At the end of the month, I (or whoever happens to be running things) will post a discussion thread, hopefully with a few questions or whatnot to get people started, and we can proceed from there.

If there are people out there who would be interested in this, start posting some things you'd like to see on the reading list. I'm thinking once we have about 5-10 people who've expressed interest, we should be able to get started. (Maybe fewer for the first few rounds, depending on what the enthusiasm level is like.)

Works don't have to be full length books (short stories, novellas, etc. are welcome as well) but should be related to alternate history in some way. (Time travel stories, paleofutures, and that sort of thing may be featured from time to time as well.) Plausibility is not a terribly important criterion. As far as series go: if you'd like to propose a series, please post one book at a time; the next book will not be eligible until the previous one has been read.

Questions, comments, thoughts, suggestions, proposals? Post them here!
 
Oly problem I see is that there just don't seem to be many AH books readily abailable.

Oh, there certainly are. It's just that they're not always good. Our genre of literature seems all too often made up of books you'd find on top of the toilet of a middle aged dad. Nothing wrong with that, but it's easy premises and easy characters drawn without gravitas or necessary historical accuracy, and it's not great literature.
 
Oh, there certainly are. It's just that they're not always good. Our genre of literature seems all too often made up of books you'd find on top of the toilet of a middle aged dad. Nothing wrong with that, but it's easy premises and easy characters drawn without gravitas or necessary historical accuracy, and it's not great literature.

Basically, there's plenty of literature, but this faces a great threat of just turning into a Film Brain-esque tearing apart of bad AH rather than being more like Brows Held High and being a serious review of the good and the high.
 
Basically, there's plenty of literature, but this faces a great threat of just turning into a Film Brain-esque tearing apart of bad AH rather than being more like Brows Held High and being a serious review of the good and the high.

I don't think "Brows Held High" reviews high brow and high quality, so much as it takes the piss out of pompous films attempting to be high brow which really aren't that good or are outright terrible.
 
I don't think "Brows Held High" reviews high brow and high quality, so much as it takes the piss out of pompous films attempting to be high brow which really aren't that good or are outright terrible.

Well, his review style is much more along the lines of 'comment on the bits that don't make sense or are just stupid, but still indicate what's done well.' I'd say he recommends viewing at least half of the films he reviews, sometimes because he considers them to be 'good films with some off scenes or flawed moments', sometimes because they're just stunning to watch as a visual experience even if the plot doesn't make much sense. (Though there are a few where he can't find anything good to say about the film and is basically calling out the directors for trying to use the excuse of 'art' to cover up the fact that they want to put some really repulsive stuff on film.)

EDIT: I should say that this much more characterstic of the later half of his work. His earlier works tend to be much more along the lines of 'giving the context and background ideas and commenting on the odd bit in the film which works, but still really tearing apart the film for its faults. I get the feeling he started to want to talk about films which he actually liked instead of just reviewing awful art films.

Which is why I was using it as the example- not necessarily only covering high brow and high quality, but being relatively balanced when reviewing works which aren't very good. A situation where the sort of situation where 'well the plot and characterisation are terrible, but there's that one absolutely magnificent scene that's worth reading through the rest of the dross to get to' is the end verdict should be as likely to emerge as simply tearing a bad piece of literature to pieces.
 
I'm interested too. There are excelent short stories out there as well, with tight plotting and good character development. Question: how do you deal with stories no longer In print?
 
Oh, there certainly are. It's just that they're not always good. Our genre of literature seems all too often made up of books you'd find on top of the toilet of a middle aged dad. Nothing wrong with that, but it's easy premises and easy characters drawn without gravitas or necessary historical accuracy, and it's not great literature.

Well, the idea is that people will suggest books that they want to read, or that they've read in the past and think are good. And the discussion will hopefully look at it from a number of different angles: not just whether it was plausible, but whether it was a good story, what you thought might be going on in other parts of the world, what you might do differently if you were doing a serious timeline, etc. :p

Which is why I was using it as the example- not necessarily only covering high brow and high quality, but being relatively balanced when reviewing works which aren't very good. A situation where the sort of situation where 'well the plot and characterisation are terrible, but there's that one absolutely magnificent scene that's worth reading through the rest of the dross to get to' is the end verdict should be as likely to emerge as simply tearing a bad piece of literature to pieces.

This was something like what I had in mind--though it would be a discussion rather than a review; I'm sure some of us will just have different opinions and different tastes.

I'm interested too. There are excelent short stories out there as well, with tight plotting and good character development. Question: how do you deal with stories no longer In print?

That's a good question--also some stories may be harder to find in other countries, for our non-US/UK members. I'm hoping that having a list of potential upcoming works would give people a chance to track down more obscure works, whether through libraries, Amazon, or other means.

Anyway, I note that no one has tossed out any suggestions yet. I'll start with a few:

"He Walked Around The Horses" by H. Beam Piper. (Short story, available through Project Gutenberg)

The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Novel--Axis wins WWII)

Bring The Jubilee by Ward Moore (Novel--South wins Civil War)

Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove (Short story collection)
 
Well, the idea is that people will suggest books that they want to read, or that they've read in the past and think are good. And the discussion will hopefully look at it from a number of different angles: not just whether it was plausible, but whether it was a good story, what you thought might be going on in other parts of the world, what you might do differently if you were doing a serious timeline, etc. :p



This was something like what I had in mind--though it would be a discussion rather than a review; I'm sure some of us will just have different opinions and different tastes.



That's a good question--also some stories may be harder to find in other countries, for our non-US/UK members. I'm hoping that having a list of potential upcoming works would give people a chance to track down more obscure works, whether through libraries, Amazon, or other means.

Anyway, I note that no one has tossed out any suggestions yet. I'll start with a few:

"He Walked Around The Horses" by H. Beam Piper. (Short story, available through Project Gutenberg)

The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Novel--Axis wins WWII)

Bring The Jubilee by Ward Moore (Novel--South wins Civil War)

Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove (Short story collection)

l
LOL! The first three were just the ones I had in mind. "He Walked Around the Horses" (a tale told entirely in correspondence about a world where the US never came into being and Napoleon never emerged.)It was the first AH story I ever read, many years ago. I have been fascinated with the field ever since. I would definitely recommend it to any AH fan. "High Castle" is also good, so long as you ignore the somewhat ASB POD
 
Here's a thought: Perhaps this could also discuss the AH essays that have been published.

You mean like the ones Churchill wrote? Those could definitely be part of this.

Would love to join!

Well, feel free to suggest some books if there are any you'd like to see discussed!

l
LOL! The first three were just the ones I had in mind. "He Walked Around the Horses" (a tale told entirely in correspondence about a world where the US never came into being and Napoleon never emerged.)It was the first AH story I ever read, many years ago. I have been fascinated with the field ever since. I would definitely recommend it to any AH fan. "High Castle" is also good, so long as you ignore the somewhat ASB POD

I'll take that as a second vote for those three, then. :p Any others you had in mind?
 
I like those choices, especially Bring the Jubilee. My only concern though: is Bring the Jubilee rare to find? I have a copy myself, but it's an old copy that I only found in a used bookstore. So I'm worried that it might be a harder book to find. If we read it, will everyone be able to get it?
 
I like those choices, especially Bring the Jubilee. My only concern though: is Bring the Jubilee rare to find? I have a copy myself, but it's an old copy that I only found in a used bookstore. So I'm worried that it might be a harder book to find. If we read it, will everyone be able to get it?

Looking at Amazon, it appears there was a more recent re-printing, and there seem to be some used copies floating around. I also recall that it shows up in an abridged version in the "Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century" collection, which actually might cause more confusion--I forget what parts they left out of the anthology...
 
I would love to sign up, but there's no many translation of english alternate history, and at my knowledge not at all translation of non-english alternate history...
For instance, the only text ever translated in french of Turtledove was about a short participation in a book on how Lord of the Rings inspired authors.
You can sign me, but I don't know if I would be able to participate.
 
I'm still hilariously badly-read in published AH. Part of that is these boards, where every major author is heaped with scorn regularly by disgruntled fanboys. This club would give me a reason to really dive into something. Count me in.
 
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