This came up in a couple of earlier threads - years ago - about the state of AH in other countries and etc. And I mentioned having read Russian AH, which veered from good to facepalming bad to lunatic fringe fascism. Below is the sampling of the most popular AH books in Russia. As even paperback books are relatively expensive (as compared to other goods) in Russia, there is a thriving online community that torrents them, and I am basing "popularity" on the amount of downloads and reads.
Another thing to denote, to maximize sales, most Russian AH is not stand alone, but Turtledove style series. Often, a company will buy the rights to the concept along with the author's first two or three books and then farm out the series to other in-house writers to churn out as many books per year as possible. It is not unusual for there to be 12 book series. Sometimes, the original author's name is used as if he wrote all twelve, even though he left the series after the second or third. Sometimes, other famous writers are hired to continue the series under the aegis of the overall concept. Picture Del Rey telling Turtledove "You're writing too slowly. Eric Flint, Robert Conroy, and Nora Roberts are going to write the next three books for you. And you'll tie up their loose ends in the fourth. Go." And yes, they would use a Nora Roberts like writer in an AH series, despite her having no AH experience, if they had her under contract and wanted to use the name value. And yes, I deliberately used the inherent irony of anyone telling Turtledove that he writes too slowly to illustrate how fast these books are used to flood the market.
I am transliterating the names of authors as best I can, and I apologize if they themselves choose a different English language spelling.
Now, unto the books:
Vasily Zvyagintsev - Odysseus Leaves Ithaca. 17 volume series (allegedly all written by the author). When Nazis attack on June 22, 1941, the Soviets are ready for them. Soon, the counterattack takes the Soviets deep into Nazi held lands. Things get weird, when it turns out there are aliens involved, and the whole thing is a cosmic game between two competing forces, with humans as pawns. Humans eventually become aware of the nature of the game and try to alter it.
Highlight: the first two books, which stick to non-ASB format, and seem very military fiction based and factual.
Lowlight: from third book on, the aliens get involved, and the whole thing goes off the rails. The books should have been completely separate, but the company or the author kept pumping them out and under the same aegis. By the thirteenth book, psychic snipers suddenly are dueling Stalin in high stakes game of poker.
Sergei Burkatovsky - Yesterday There Will Be War (2008).
Contemporary Russian man falls through time and ends up in Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and tries to avert the Nazi sneak attack on Russia. Features a very understanding and friendly Comrade Stalin and (Stalin's Himmler) Beria, and a too stupid to live Hitler. When the book came out, it was highly praised by nationalists for it's "nuanced" approach to Stalin.
Highlight: Stalingrad version 0.75 being fought in the western suburbs of Moscow that goes very well for the Soviets.
Lowlight: T-34 tanks are the answer to all questions and will win all battles regardless of strategy, fuel, lack of good commanders, or anything really. T-34 = instant victory.
Alexander Mazin - Barbarians. Four book series, all written by author.
Two Russian cosmonauts re-enter atmosphere to find themselves in 3rd century AD Russia, and decide they want to jumpstart Mother Russia as a nation and the great power in the region by whomping on the nearby Goths, Vandals, and soon run up against the decaying empire of Rome. After a series of adventures, they meet up with a honorable Roman patriot and centurion, who is sick and tired of Rome decaying. The three men bond and decide to help each other and an alliance of awesome results.
Highlight: Roman empire is dysfunctional and Byzantine, and the heroes are never quite sure what is going on there. Even with their ally in place, they have to resort to keeping their own private legions, despite ostensibly doing the bidding of the Empire.
Lowlight: Book 4. Evil proto-Islamic Persian hordes full of evil brown people threaten good blonde Christians, and must be put down, but oh noes, Rome is going through political instability and might not offer any help. If only a Comrade Putin type would show up, stay in office and provide peaceful transition and stability. If only. *dreamy sigh*
Artem Rybakov - Replaying The War. Three books published (ongoing series). Group of Russian WW2 reenactors are having some fun in the woods of Belorussia, running around with paintball guns and praising each other's authentic uniforms, when they fall through the portal of time and end up in WW2 Nazi occupied Belorussia. Things look pretty bad there for a second, but wouldn't you know it - all of the re-enactors are former members of Russian special forces, and veterans of wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. They dub themselves The Lost, and dedicate their lives to killing as many Nazis as possible.
Highlight: The second book is called "Liquidators of Time: The Hunt For Reischfuhrer of SS" and it is nowhere near pulp enough to explain just how graphically The Lost go about to hunt down and exterminate the SS. I am not being ironic when I say, I truly enjoyed the death of every Nazi in this book. Inglorious Basterds ain't got sh*t on The Lost.
Lowlight: The third book. Stalin only now becomes aware of The Lost and theorizes they are secretly working for the Nazis. Much teeth gnashing is done over how sad it is all is that we mistrust one another. But, hey, if by books four The Lost decide to whack the Soviet secret police with the same relish they took out the Nazis, I will reverse my lowlight.
Alexei Vitkovski - Vityaz (Warrior). Two books. Both written by author. May, 1942, hero of Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexander Savinov is shot down over sea by Nazis, and crashes into the choppy waters of 10th century Russia, where the local Russified Viking prince and his house jarls notice his coming. They declare him a Man from Sky, come forth from Valhalla to lead Great Russia to glory. He initially demurs, but then says, "Heck yeah" and gets it done.
Highlight: male bonding moments. Lots and lots of manly friendships.
Lowlight: feels oddly crypto-historical. It's as if the author just wanted to write about Slavic tribal history and mention the myths and beliefs of the people. Nothing Savinov does really has any real consequences, and you don't feel he is changing history, so much as just hanging around and keeping notes. And despite being specifically a WW2 fighter pilot and a Communist, he really doesn't do anything political or creative. He just fights well, but that's about it. He could have easily been a contemporary guy, and it would not change the story one bit.
Sergei Ansimov -The Bis Variant. It's 1944 and the Soviet Union armed forces are rolling into Brussels, Belgium and saving everyone from Nazi Germany. Take that, Saving Private Ryan. No, seriously, the book seems like the author is very, very pissed at having seen that movie and wants to shove it into everyone's face. Germans are idiots. Russians are geniuses. Americans couldn't pour piss from a boot without instruction printed on the heel.
Highlight: ISN'T THIS THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER? The tone is so self-congratulatory, that some initially thought it was a parody. Nope.
Lowlight: sequel, Year of Dead Snake. Set during the post-WW2 Korean War. Toned down, and without the !!!! it just becomes a dreary slog of how Russians are doing their best to save Koreans from evil Americans, but gosh, they just don't have the money they need.
Andrei Valentinov - Spartacus. Two books. Spartacus wins, and tries to reform Roman society, but it's very difficult.
Highlight: Spartacus kicking all kinds of Roman ass.
Lowlight: As is with Warrior, the book feels oddly crypto-historical. Everything Spartacus does feels temporary, and even he laments that his actions could be undone and history rewritten when he passes.
Andrei Bondarenko - Double of The Grand Duke. Four book series. Professional Russian soldier Egor Letov is brought in on a secret project, he will be sent back in time and become man who was the best friend of Peter the Great. Turns out, the alien secret service wants Peter dead, and someone must save him. Letov agrees. Transports. Saves Peter the Great. Then refuses to return, and decides to stay and change history and make Russia a great empire. Greater than even Peter the Great made it.
Highlight: third book "Alaskan Gold." 16 years after Letov arrived, won many a war against uppity foreigners and made Russia more powerful in OTL, Peter the Great turns on him. Takes away his Grand Duke title, his lands and his goods. Send hims to Alaska. Letov quickly decides to rule Alaska as his own fiefdom, mine for gold and wait for Peter the Great to change his mind. Or, if Peter does not, then... well, he did say he was going to make Russia a greater empire than even Peter made it.
Lowlight: fourth book. The company publishing the series openly solicited fans on how the book should be written and how the characters should behave. The readers asked for: Peter the Great to be more evil, some samurais, pirates, and a love interest. And boy, did they get it. Peter the Great turns into Mr. Burns, there are samurai battles, cannibalistic pirates, and a comely wench. *face palm*
Yuri Nikitin - Russians Are Coming! (no, seriously, the exclamation point is in the title). Four book series. Evil NATO goes West, but Russia won't let them. War results. Russia wins, and United States collapses. Trouble brews when the Empire of Evil arises out of the ashes of United States, and tries to destroy the goodly nation of Russia as it does good in the world.
Highlight: the whole freaking thing. Just read the description. Come on!
Lowlight: third book "On The Dark Side" veers away from big set battles and turns into a behind enemy lines adventure featuring the brave men and women of "Cascade" squad preventing terror weapons of the Empire of Evil. The fourth book continued the trend with murky espionage and leggy brunettes. Where are my giant tank battles I cried? Where? For there were none. *Weeps*
Valeri Bolshakov - Law of the Sword. Three book series. Oleg Suhov, a contemporary of ours, part time Medieval historical re-enactor, and amateur blacksmithing enthusiast meets up with his pal and recent med school graduate Shurka Ponchik. Freak temporal experiment sends them to 9th century Russia, where the ruling Vikings (Rurik dynasty) immediately dub them them Russian slaves and enslave them. Vikings are a fun bunch, raiding Paris and London, and what have you, while using Suhov to blacksmith and Ponchik to nurse them back to live. Suhov gets fed up with their bullshit, revolts, and creates a Russian Empire. But alas, Russia is not ready for it. Many die. Things go horribly wrong. And Suhov decides that if he can't serve Russia, then he can at least serve the Byzantines. There, he gets a sweet gig as the special forces soldier of the Emperor, and is very good at ferreting out conspiracies.
Highlight: second book "Swordcarrier" where our main hero realizes he and his buddy just can't two-handedly create that which aught not to exist and bid goodbye to their native Russia.
Lowlight: Um, I don't mean to spoil things here, but lets just say that I was a fan of Suhov and Ponchik adventures, not Suhov adventures.
Anton Ptiburdukov (editor) - First Strike (collection). Just a great collection of alternate history short stories displaying the full majesty of Russian language and literature. Too many highlights to list, and nary a lowlight, save for some comedy that does not work (Russian poet Pushkin is a samurai and writes his stuff in haikus, zuh?). The one I enjoyed the most was Trotsky beating Stalin for the leadership of the Soviet Union and things turning out much, much worse for everyone involved, but mostly for the West as Trotsky led Red Army, combined with his acumen and sh*t-stirring ability lead to a C&C Red Alert type scenario.
All the writers returned for a second volume which I sadly can't locate right now, that did an AH version of famous literature. This included:
1) an AH "Nutcracker" where the Mouse King wins the battle against Gingerbread Soldiers, despite the efforts of Nutcracker or Clara. Written as
an after-action-report by the regimental military historian of the mice, breaking down and analyzing what went right for the Mouse King, while explaining the lunacy of Nutcracker's army tactics.
2) An AH "Captain's Daughter" where the Russian peasant Pugachev overthrows the monarchy, and chaos ensues.
3) an AH "War and Peace" set in a world where Napoleon uses the promise of freeing the Russian serfs to stir up trouble, that backfires horrendously for him, when the Russian serfs choose their own Tsar (noted Russian historical anti-French partisan leader and hussar) and throw out both the Russian monarchists and the French. Russia goes weird, and Russian emigres in France plot the assassination of Napoleon that does absolutely nothing to change the messed up world, but does give them a measure of revenge.
4) an AH "Captain Blood" who got sent not to New World for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion, but to Russia, where he quickly becomes a dashing pirate on the Volga (although with much more disastrous results for himself).
5) And a short story that got spun out into three not very good books called D'Artagnan - Cardinal's Guard. Where our plucky Musketeer is not a Musketeer, but having found the Musketeers uncouth and unfriendly to the raw youth from Gascony on a very ugly horse, throws in his lot with Cardinal Richelieu, who manipulates him into becoming his chief enforcer.
That is all for now. If you guys and gals want to hear more, I will scour the interwebs for it.
Another thing to denote, to maximize sales, most Russian AH is not stand alone, but Turtledove style series. Often, a company will buy the rights to the concept along with the author's first two or three books and then farm out the series to other in-house writers to churn out as many books per year as possible. It is not unusual for there to be 12 book series. Sometimes, the original author's name is used as if he wrote all twelve, even though he left the series after the second or third. Sometimes, other famous writers are hired to continue the series under the aegis of the overall concept. Picture Del Rey telling Turtledove "You're writing too slowly. Eric Flint, Robert Conroy, and Nora Roberts are going to write the next three books for you. And you'll tie up their loose ends in the fourth. Go." And yes, they would use a Nora Roberts like writer in an AH series, despite her having no AH experience, if they had her under contract and wanted to use the name value. And yes, I deliberately used the inherent irony of anyone telling Turtledove that he writes too slowly to illustrate how fast these books are used to flood the market.
I am transliterating the names of authors as best I can, and I apologize if they themselves choose a different English language spelling.
Now, unto the books:
Vasily Zvyagintsev - Odysseus Leaves Ithaca. 17 volume series (allegedly all written by the author). When Nazis attack on June 22, 1941, the Soviets are ready for them. Soon, the counterattack takes the Soviets deep into Nazi held lands. Things get weird, when it turns out there are aliens involved, and the whole thing is a cosmic game between two competing forces, with humans as pawns. Humans eventually become aware of the nature of the game and try to alter it.
Highlight: the first two books, which stick to non-ASB format, and seem very military fiction based and factual.
Lowlight: from third book on, the aliens get involved, and the whole thing goes off the rails. The books should have been completely separate, but the company or the author kept pumping them out and under the same aegis. By the thirteenth book, psychic snipers suddenly are dueling Stalin in high stakes game of poker.
Sergei Burkatovsky - Yesterday There Will Be War (2008).
Contemporary Russian man falls through time and ends up in Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and tries to avert the Nazi sneak attack on Russia. Features a very understanding and friendly Comrade Stalin and (Stalin's Himmler) Beria, and a too stupid to live Hitler. When the book came out, it was highly praised by nationalists for it's "nuanced" approach to Stalin.
Highlight: Stalingrad version 0.75 being fought in the western suburbs of Moscow that goes very well for the Soviets.
Lowlight: T-34 tanks are the answer to all questions and will win all battles regardless of strategy, fuel, lack of good commanders, or anything really. T-34 = instant victory.
Alexander Mazin - Barbarians. Four book series, all written by author.
Two Russian cosmonauts re-enter atmosphere to find themselves in 3rd century AD Russia, and decide they want to jumpstart Mother Russia as a nation and the great power in the region by whomping on the nearby Goths, Vandals, and soon run up against the decaying empire of Rome. After a series of adventures, they meet up with a honorable Roman patriot and centurion, who is sick and tired of Rome decaying. The three men bond and decide to help each other and an alliance of awesome results.
Highlight: Roman empire is dysfunctional and Byzantine, and the heroes are never quite sure what is going on there. Even with their ally in place, they have to resort to keeping their own private legions, despite ostensibly doing the bidding of the Empire.
Lowlight: Book 4. Evil proto-Islamic Persian hordes full of evil brown people threaten good blonde Christians, and must be put down, but oh noes, Rome is going through political instability and might not offer any help. If only a Comrade Putin type would show up, stay in office and provide peaceful transition and stability. If only. *dreamy sigh*
Artem Rybakov - Replaying The War. Three books published (ongoing series). Group of Russian WW2 reenactors are having some fun in the woods of Belorussia, running around with paintball guns and praising each other's authentic uniforms, when they fall through the portal of time and end up in WW2 Nazi occupied Belorussia. Things look pretty bad there for a second, but wouldn't you know it - all of the re-enactors are former members of Russian special forces, and veterans of wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. They dub themselves The Lost, and dedicate their lives to killing as many Nazis as possible.
Highlight: The second book is called "Liquidators of Time: The Hunt For Reischfuhrer of SS" and it is nowhere near pulp enough to explain just how graphically The Lost go about to hunt down and exterminate the SS. I am not being ironic when I say, I truly enjoyed the death of every Nazi in this book. Inglorious Basterds ain't got sh*t on The Lost.
Lowlight: The third book. Stalin only now becomes aware of The Lost and theorizes they are secretly working for the Nazis. Much teeth gnashing is done over how sad it is all is that we mistrust one another. But, hey, if by books four The Lost decide to whack the Soviet secret police with the same relish they took out the Nazis, I will reverse my lowlight.
Alexei Vitkovski - Vityaz (Warrior). Two books. Both written by author. May, 1942, hero of Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexander Savinov is shot down over sea by Nazis, and crashes into the choppy waters of 10th century Russia, where the local Russified Viking prince and his house jarls notice his coming. They declare him a Man from Sky, come forth from Valhalla to lead Great Russia to glory. He initially demurs, but then says, "Heck yeah" and gets it done.
Highlight: male bonding moments. Lots and lots of manly friendships.
Lowlight: feels oddly crypto-historical. It's as if the author just wanted to write about Slavic tribal history and mention the myths and beliefs of the people. Nothing Savinov does really has any real consequences, and you don't feel he is changing history, so much as just hanging around and keeping notes. And despite being specifically a WW2 fighter pilot and a Communist, he really doesn't do anything political or creative. He just fights well, but that's about it. He could have easily been a contemporary guy, and it would not change the story one bit.
Sergei Ansimov -The Bis Variant. It's 1944 and the Soviet Union armed forces are rolling into Brussels, Belgium and saving everyone from Nazi Germany. Take that, Saving Private Ryan. No, seriously, the book seems like the author is very, very pissed at having seen that movie and wants to shove it into everyone's face. Germans are idiots. Russians are geniuses. Americans couldn't pour piss from a boot without instruction printed on the heel.
Highlight: ISN'T THIS THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER? The tone is so self-congratulatory, that some initially thought it was a parody. Nope.
Lowlight: sequel, Year of Dead Snake. Set during the post-WW2 Korean War. Toned down, and without the !!!! it just becomes a dreary slog of how Russians are doing their best to save Koreans from evil Americans, but gosh, they just don't have the money they need.
Andrei Valentinov - Spartacus. Two books. Spartacus wins, and tries to reform Roman society, but it's very difficult.
Highlight: Spartacus kicking all kinds of Roman ass.
Lowlight: As is with Warrior, the book feels oddly crypto-historical. Everything Spartacus does feels temporary, and even he laments that his actions could be undone and history rewritten when he passes.
Andrei Bondarenko - Double of The Grand Duke. Four book series. Professional Russian soldier Egor Letov is brought in on a secret project, he will be sent back in time and become man who was the best friend of Peter the Great. Turns out, the alien secret service wants Peter dead, and someone must save him. Letov agrees. Transports. Saves Peter the Great. Then refuses to return, and decides to stay and change history and make Russia a great empire. Greater than even Peter the Great made it.
Highlight: third book "Alaskan Gold." 16 years after Letov arrived, won many a war against uppity foreigners and made Russia more powerful in OTL, Peter the Great turns on him. Takes away his Grand Duke title, his lands and his goods. Send hims to Alaska. Letov quickly decides to rule Alaska as his own fiefdom, mine for gold and wait for Peter the Great to change his mind. Or, if Peter does not, then... well, he did say he was going to make Russia a greater empire than even Peter made it.
Lowlight: fourth book. The company publishing the series openly solicited fans on how the book should be written and how the characters should behave. The readers asked for: Peter the Great to be more evil, some samurais, pirates, and a love interest. And boy, did they get it. Peter the Great turns into Mr. Burns, there are samurai battles, cannibalistic pirates, and a comely wench. *face palm*
Yuri Nikitin - Russians Are Coming! (no, seriously, the exclamation point is in the title). Four book series. Evil NATO goes West, but Russia won't let them. War results. Russia wins, and United States collapses. Trouble brews when the Empire of Evil arises out of the ashes of United States, and tries to destroy the goodly nation of Russia as it does good in the world.
Highlight: the whole freaking thing. Just read the description. Come on!
Lowlight: third book "On The Dark Side" veers away from big set battles and turns into a behind enemy lines adventure featuring the brave men and women of "Cascade" squad preventing terror weapons of the Empire of Evil. The fourth book continued the trend with murky espionage and leggy brunettes. Where are my giant tank battles I cried? Where? For there were none. *Weeps*
Valeri Bolshakov - Law of the Sword. Three book series. Oleg Suhov, a contemporary of ours, part time Medieval historical re-enactor, and amateur blacksmithing enthusiast meets up with his pal and recent med school graduate Shurka Ponchik. Freak temporal experiment sends them to 9th century Russia, where the ruling Vikings (Rurik dynasty) immediately dub them them Russian slaves and enslave them. Vikings are a fun bunch, raiding Paris and London, and what have you, while using Suhov to blacksmith and Ponchik to nurse them back to live. Suhov gets fed up with their bullshit, revolts, and creates a Russian Empire. But alas, Russia is not ready for it. Many die. Things go horribly wrong. And Suhov decides that if he can't serve Russia, then he can at least serve the Byzantines. There, he gets a sweet gig as the special forces soldier of the Emperor, and is very good at ferreting out conspiracies.
Highlight: second book "Swordcarrier" where our main hero realizes he and his buddy just can't two-handedly create that which aught not to exist and bid goodbye to their native Russia.
Lowlight: Um, I don't mean to spoil things here, but lets just say that I was a fan of Suhov and Ponchik adventures, not Suhov adventures.
Anton Ptiburdukov (editor) - First Strike (collection). Just a great collection of alternate history short stories displaying the full majesty of Russian language and literature. Too many highlights to list, and nary a lowlight, save for some comedy that does not work (Russian poet Pushkin is a samurai and writes his stuff in haikus, zuh?). The one I enjoyed the most was Trotsky beating Stalin for the leadership of the Soviet Union and things turning out much, much worse for everyone involved, but mostly for the West as Trotsky led Red Army, combined with his acumen and sh*t-stirring ability lead to a C&C Red Alert type scenario.
All the writers returned for a second volume which I sadly can't locate right now, that did an AH version of famous literature. This included:
1) an AH "Nutcracker" where the Mouse King wins the battle against Gingerbread Soldiers, despite the efforts of Nutcracker or Clara. Written as
an after-action-report by the regimental military historian of the mice, breaking down and analyzing what went right for the Mouse King, while explaining the lunacy of Nutcracker's army tactics.
2) An AH "Captain's Daughter" where the Russian peasant Pugachev overthrows the monarchy, and chaos ensues.
3) an AH "War and Peace" set in a world where Napoleon uses the promise of freeing the Russian serfs to stir up trouble, that backfires horrendously for him, when the Russian serfs choose their own Tsar (noted Russian historical anti-French partisan leader and hussar) and throw out both the Russian monarchists and the French. Russia goes weird, and Russian emigres in France plot the assassination of Napoleon that does absolutely nothing to change the messed up world, but does give them a measure of revenge.
4) an AH "Captain Blood" who got sent not to New World for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion, but to Russia, where he quickly becomes a dashing pirate on the Volga (although with much more disastrous results for himself).
5) And a short story that got spun out into three not very good books called D'Artagnan - Cardinal's Guard. Where our plucky Musketeer is not a Musketeer, but having found the Musketeers uncouth and unfriendly to the raw youth from Gascony on a very ugly horse, throws in his lot with Cardinal Richelieu, who manipulates him into becoming his chief enforcer.
That is all for now. If you guys and gals want to hear more, I will scour the interwebs for it.
