One thing I love to read in AH stories, especially ISOT ones, are ones with interesting interactions resulting in culture shock, especially in first contact situations. It's always interesting to see the different mindsets in history collide, and revel in the dramatic irony of knowing how history would otherwise have developed for the downtimers. Though this isn't just limited to ISOT/time travel works. What are some good ones you've read?
Any good AH/ISOT books or stories with culture shock, first contact?
- Thread starter Strategos' Risk
- Start date
Really, no suggestions? Someone could have just mentioned The Guns of the South or In the Sea of Time or 1632 as classic examples.
MaxGerke01
Banned
The Axis of Time books by John Birmingham are another example of this.
en.wikipedia.org
Axis of Time - Wikipedia
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chankljp
Donor
I would personally highly recommend @theg*ddam*hoi2fan's "As One Star Sets, Another Rises": A TL in which the country of Japan from the year 2015 in OTL gets ISOT back to the year 1939, two years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In addition to the downtimes of 1939 from the rest of the world reacting to a militaristic and expansionist imperialist power suddenly replaced by a pacifist conservative democracy, since OTL Japan have lost territories such as the Southern half of Sakhalin Island afterWW2, you have the Japanese citizens from 1939 reacting to the rest of their country suddenly being 70 years more advance as well. Not to mention all the downtime Japanese soldiers fighting in China with their radically (To put things lightly) different social views having to find ways of integrating into a Japan that might as well be from another planet compared to the homeland that they have left behind.
Also, with the large number of American expats, tourists, diplomats, and most importantly, military personnel stationed in Japan, the same TL also explores the interactions between the uptime and downtime Americans, and the resulting cultural clashes on both sides as well.
I cannot emphasize just how much I recommend this TL, as it was one of the main reasons that made me become an active participant on this forum. With the TL inspiring so much discussion from the rest of the forum that it required two threads in addition to the story only thread due to all the user discussions and ideas that it generated.... Discussions that are still actively on-going despite the last story post being made back in 2018.
The Axis of Time books by John Birmingham are another example of this.
Axis of Time - Wikipedia
I'm well aware, I actually made this thread last week at the exact moment when the ISOT took place in-universe:
Thank you! This is precisely what I'm looking for. I want to read the explorations into different societies, see how the past would have reacted to the present- that's what I'd like to read about.
chankljp
Donor
Just wanted to be sure: Are you only looking for ISOT/first contact works set in a historical setting? Or are works in fandom sub-forum of interests to you as well? If so, there are most certainly a few works that explores the themes of cultural clashes/'Humans Through Alien Eyes' that I am sure you might be interested in reading as well, even if you are not familiar with the setting that the TLs take place in.
I'm okay with alien first contact stories as well. Speaker for the Dead is one of my favorites. Even though I'd prefer cross-cultural stories between humans from different times, worlds, or series (such as fandoms).
chankljp
Donor
Ok... In this case, I absolutely, 100% recommend you give @django's "Event Horizon: Storm of Magic" a try:
Story only thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-company-lands-on-westeros-story-only.342309/
The premise is simple: What if the fantasy worlds of Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings), A Song of Ice and Fire, Warhammer Fantasy, and Avatar: The Last Airbender all took place on four separate habitable planets in the same star system.... And oh, said stat system is now being visited by a joint UN-private colonial space expedition from an advanced 22nd century cyberpunk Earth?
Yes, yes, I know.... While the idea might make you roll your eyes and dismiss it as a 'crack fic' at first, I swear that it is absolutely worth the read if you are into the idea of exploring how people from vastly different settings interact and view each other in a first contact scenario. And this TL is one of the most viewed fandom TLs on this entire forum for a very good reason.
If we're putting fandom works on the table, this one's a classic for Mass Effect fans.
Into the frying Pan is an interesting one. Our earth is transported to warhammer 40k universe. Too bad the story is put on hiatus before it got to the interesting bit. But what is already there is still a good read.
I ended up staying up until 4 AM reading like the first fifteen chapters of that story, so yeah this work is pretty much exactly the sort of work that I'm looking for. It's an amazing work that really goes into the social, cultural, and political after-effects of an ISOT. Lives up to the potential of Axis of Time and blows past it. (I'm disappointed that the extent of what we learn in Stalin's Hammer is that King Farouk is turning Egypt into an independent neutral power and that Slim Jim Davidson is buying up everything, and not much else.) Also it avoids making the awkward little in-joke interactions that series indulges in on occasion, there's no Otto fucken Skorzeny chiding Prince Harry for wearing a Nazi costume that one time, which really dates that book to the '00s.
chankljp
Donor
Glad to hear that you enjoyed my recommendation!
The AOSAR TL really is, in my opinion, one of the 'gold standard' for ISOT TLs on this forum in terms of quality and attention to detail.... Seeing you binge reading though the entire thing in a single sitting really brings me back to when the TL was still new, and I was excitedly waiting for each new entry to be posted.
I kinda like that story and the best story that I ever read in this site along with Fear, Loathing and Gumbo of the '72 Elections (which, in no small part, the simplistic writings that they had on those stories) and so much so that I am planning to write (after I finished my current TL in the 'Chat', at least) a crossover between that story and The Loud House, of all things! Don't ask me about that.
But still kinda sad to the fact that the 'Part 2' of that story has seemingly placed into 'indefinite hiatus', and the author has seemingly moved on with his new story itself.
But nevertheless, this is best thing that I have read in the best site of the world! (No, I'm not sarcastic on that line, lol).
- Prince_Malty
TomNolan
Banned
By the way, a very interesting point of view regarding the Avatar. Are you citing research? or purely your point of view? I would study this in more detail. I am 20 years old, this universe is closer to me than history books.
chankljp
Donor
Huh? I am sorry, but what were you talking about? I didn't cited any sort of research on the post that you quoted.