Deleted member 82792
I was just wondering if there's many AH books set in Australia. Most books in that genre are set in America or Europe, but I can't help but feel my homeland is getting left out.
Australian alternate history books
Though it counting can be debated as it was set in the future when it was written.
Kelly Country by Arthur Bertram Chandler
http://www.bertramchandler.com/novels/kelly.aspx
http://www.bertramchandler.com/novels/kelly.aspx
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Beganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Began
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Began_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_When_the_War_Began_(TV_series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_When_the_War_Began_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Beganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Began
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Began_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_When_the_War_Began_(TV_series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_When_the_War_Began_(TV_series)
Not sure if it counts, the axis of time series has parts set in Australia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_Time
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_Time
He wrote He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, which was adapted into a movie I liked when I saw it as a teen. And in fact, he was a member of this site. Not sure if he still is.
Kelly Country by A. Bertrand Chandler; Ned Kelly leads an Australian War of Independence:
http://www.bertramchandler.com/novels/kelly.aspx
http://www.bertramchandler.com/novels/kelly.aspx
That was my first thought. there were a couple of other alternate histories references in Chandler's sci-fi.
One short story had the protagonist alter the past and create a Catholic Australia still fighting against communists in Vietnam.
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From Uchronia:
Bradley, James. "The Boys Who Saved Australia, 1942"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: Australian troops had not delayed the Japanese march through the Kokoda pass towards Port Moresby.
Gill, John H. "Samurai Down Under: The Japanese Invasion of Australia"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: The Japanese turned Coral Sea into a strategic victory by pressing forward its attack and occupation of Port Moresby.
Broderick, Damien. "Schrödinger's Dog"
Summary: Scientists harness bifurcating universes as a result of quantum mechanics. The main character passes through several alternative worlds — one in which whites didn't reach Australia, one from Joanna Russ's The Female Man, one in which Chinese communism has overrun Australia, etc.
Hayden, G. Miki. Pacific Empire
Divergence: 1939 CE
What if: Japan avoided joining in the Tripartite alliance with Germany and Italy, but subsequently attacked the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii in December 1939, and two days later invaded the Hawaiian islands.
Macintyre, Stuart, and Sean Scalmer (eds.). What If? Australian History as it Might Have Been
Summary: Twelve counterfactual essays on possible turning points in Australian history, including work by Frank Bongiorno, Ann Curthoys, Jim Davidson, Tom Griffiths and Tim Sherratt, Helen Irving, Marilyn Lake, Stuart Macintyre, Peter Read, Tim Rowse, Sean Scalmer, Virginia Spate, and James Walker, plus an introduction by the editors.
Masson, Sophie. The Hand of Glory
Divergence: 1792 CE
What if: The Jacobin takeover didn't happen and the peaceful reformation of French government was allowed to continue. Subsequently, France estblished colonies on the Indian Ocean coast of Australia.
McMullen, Sean. "A Greater Vision"
Divergence: c 40,000 BCE
What if: Aborigines in Australia progressed much much faster, developing steam engines by 22000 BCE, atomic power by 10000 BCE and rockets by 800 BCE.
Summary: Worried by Europe's increasingly speedy and warlike technological progress, aborigines decide to stop Columbus's expedition.
McNaughton, James. New Hokkaido
Divergence: 1941 CE
What if: Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor, and bypassed Australia to conquer New Zealand.
Summary: In 1987, a schoolteacher becomes embroiled in the conflict between the Free New Zealand movement and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Richardson, Hal. "The Time of Fear"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: Japan won the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Summary: Life in occupied Australia.
Scott, John A. N
Divergence: 1941 CE
What if: Australia's constitutional crisis of 1941 resulted in a right-wing government.
Summary: A different World War II in Australia, including a Japanese attack on Sydney and occupation of the north.
Vader, John. The Battle of Sydney
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: The Japanese attacked the American West Coast rather than Midway, and destroyed much of the US Pacific Fleet.
Summary: The subsequent Japanese invasion of Australia.
Voermans, Paul. The Weird Colonial Boy
Summary: A boy follows one of his tropical fish sideways in time to a world in which Australia remains a penal colony in 1978.
Bradley, James. "The Boys Who Saved Australia, 1942"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: Australian troops had not delayed the Japanese march through the Kokoda pass towards Port Moresby.
Gill, John H. "Samurai Down Under: The Japanese Invasion of Australia"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: The Japanese turned Coral Sea into a strategic victory by pressing forward its attack and occupation of Port Moresby.
Broderick, Damien. "Schrödinger's Dog"
Summary: Scientists harness bifurcating universes as a result of quantum mechanics. The main character passes through several alternative worlds — one in which whites didn't reach Australia, one from Joanna Russ's The Female Man, one in which Chinese communism has overrun Australia, etc.
Hayden, G. Miki. Pacific Empire
Divergence: 1939 CE
What if: Japan avoided joining in the Tripartite alliance with Germany and Italy, but subsequently attacked the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii in December 1939, and two days later invaded the Hawaiian islands.
Macintyre, Stuart, and Sean Scalmer (eds.). What If? Australian History as it Might Have Been
Summary: Twelve counterfactual essays on possible turning points in Australian history, including work by Frank Bongiorno, Ann Curthoys, Jim Davidson, Tom Griffiths and Tim Sherratt, Helen Irving, Marilyn Lake, Stuart Macintyre, Peter Read, Tim Rowse, Sean Scalmer, Virginia Spate, and James Walker, plus an introduction by the editors.
Masson, Sophie. The Hand of Glory
Divergence: 1792 CE
What if: The Jacobin takeover didn't happen and the peaceful reformation of French government was allowed to continue. Subsequently, France estblished colonies on the Indian Ocean coast of Australia.
McMullen, Sean. "A Greater Vision"
Divergence: c 40,000 BCE
What if: Aborigines in Australia progressed much much faster, developing steam engines by 22000 BCE, atomic power by 10000 BCE and rockets by 800 BCE.
Summary: Worried by Europe's increasingly speedy and warlike technological progress, aborigines decide to stop Columbus's expedition.
McNaughton, James. New Hokkaido
Divergence: 1941 CE
What if: Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor, and bypassed Australia to conquer New Zealand.
Summary: In 1987, a schoolteacher becomes embroiled in the conflict between the Free New Zealand movement and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Richardson, Hal. "The Time of Fear"
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: Japan won the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Summary: Life in occupied Australia.
Scott, John A. N
Divergence: 1941 CE
What if: Australia's constitutional crisis of 1941 resulted in a right-wing government.
Summary: A different World War II in Australia, including a Japanese attack on Sydney and occupation of the north.
Vader, John. The Battle of Sydney
Divergence: 1942 CE
What if: The Japanese attacked the American West Coast rather than Midway, and destroyed much of the US Pacific Fleet.
Summary: The subsequent Japanese invasion of Australia.
Voermans, Paul. The Weird Colonial Boy
Summary: A boy follows one of his tropical fish sideways in time to a world in which Australia remains a penal colony in 1978.
TheScottishMongol
Banned
I see the hyperfocus on WW2 in alternate history applies to more than just the US...
The Seven Thunders
Set in a universe where one of the ancient tribes of Israel (Zebulon?) sailed to Australia and lived in relative harmony and collaboration with the Indigenous peoples there.
An occupying slaveholding empire called the Frouzeans conquered them before the Israelites and Indigenous peoples overthrew them and created a semi-theocratic constitutional/absolutist monarchist nation striving towards gender equality, anti-racism and opposed to slavery (called the nation of Wil'ah).
They go on to form a league of small nations to counter the Mongols who just took China and are angling to conquer the rest of Asia to boot while trying to deal with a resurgent Frouzean Empire.
What the book lacks in plausibility it makes up for in imagination and heart.
Set in a universe where one of the ancient tribes of Israel (Zebulon?) sailed to Australia and lived in relative harmony and collaboration with the Indigenous peoples there.
An occupying slaveholding empire called the Frouzeans conquered them before the Israelites and Indigenous peoples overthrew them and created a semi-theocratic constitutional/absolutist monarchist nation striving towards gender equality, anti-racism and opposed to slavery (called the nation of Wil'ah).
They go on to form a league of small nations to counter the Mongols who just took China and are angling to conquer the rest of Asia to boot while trying to deal with a resurgent Frouzean Empire.
What the book lacks in plausibility it makes up for in imagination and heart.
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