Donald Reaver
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Do not recognize that title Galveston Bay, is that also know as "Star Gate". Great books by Andre Norton, read most of her output growing up.
Recommend me some AH Books.
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Do not recognize that title Galveston Bay, is that also know as "Star Gate". Great books by Andre Norton, read most of her output growing up.
I liked Star Ranger too... I have both still
chuckle, I cited the wrong author... it was Robert Silverberg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gate_of_Worlds
Hey people object to Tsouras's and Harrison's works because they are just bloody awful!
(Much of what they write is actually physically impossible)
And because we expected them to do better?
(I liked Tsouras's Disaster at D-Day & Gettysburg)
And you don't have to be British to dislike them, its a world wide phenomenon.
(I'm every bit as Irish as Harry Harrison was)
For something yet un-mentioned
The Whale has Wings by David Row
And
The Foresight War by Anthony Williams
And
Redcoats Revenge by Col. David G. Fitz-Enz (USA Ret.)
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I'd recommend "The Shiloh Project" by David Poyer, first published in 1981, and now available on Amazon (in an updated version) for Kindle. It was one of the first AH novels I read and it was a very, very unsettling read. Basically, the South wins the Civil War (by way of a Union defeat at Gettysburg), the British recognize the Confederacy, and 120 years after the "War of Secession" the world is divided between the Union and its allies (Russia chief among them) and the British Empire and its allies (the Confederacy, France, and a few others. President Robert E. Lee "freed" the slaves with his "Conditional Emancipation" edict and things went downhill for the black population ever since.
The South is a closed-off police state, behind barbed wire, machine gun towers, and guard dogs, the world is in an "Almost War" between the two blocs, and the Union has developed the atomic bomb.
The British and their Confederate allies desperately want to get that technology before the Union and its allies gain an insurmountable edge in the arms race, and the plot is on.
It is a good read (even if the Southern victory is kind of hand-waved away in regards to its plausibility) but like I said, it is a very chilling book.
I would also recommend Ben Bova's book "Triumph" which is kind of the flip side of the Robert Harris novel, "Fatherland"
(basically a different and perhaps "better" ending to World War Two, leading to a [possibly] different and "better" post-war era)
The South is a closed-off police state, behind barbed wire, machine gun towers, and guard dogs, the world is in an "Almost War" between the two blocs, and the Union has developed the atomic bomb.
The British and their Confederate allies desperately want to get that technology before the Union and its allies gain an insurmountable edge in the arms race, and the plot is on.
It is a good read (even if the Southern victory is kind of hand-waved away in regards to its plausibility) but like I said, it is a very chilling book.
I would also recommend Ben Bova's book "Triumph" which is kind of the flip side of the Robert Harris novel, "Fatherland"
(basically a different and perhaps "better" ending to World War Two, leading to a [possibly] different and "better" post-war era)
I definitely recommend A Kill in the Morning, a great AH Spy Adventure/Thriller.
You're very kind.
Funny, I was just looking through this thread and I hadn't even thought of mentioning my own book.
For some recommendations from me:
- Fatherland is great.
- The Sound of his Horn is a weird novel but well worth reading.
- I finished Bring the Jubilee recently - that's worth reading, though a bit slow to start I thought.
- I'm reading The Guns of the South ATM and enjoying it.
- The Afrika Reich and The Madagaskar Plan are also good if you like all-out military thrillers. Guy Saville has his world all worked out and slips in lots of AH details between explosions... a bit like I do.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned For Want of a Nail by Robert Sobel (subtitled 'If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga') - a classic 'history book' style AH which takes history in very unexpected directions - it even includes a critique of itself by an ATL historian!
For something shorter, He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper is also a classic - written as an exchange of correspondence following a strange man appearing in an alternate Europe of 1809 (it has a great last joke right at the end too - maybe 'joke' isn't the right word but I can't think how to describe it otherwise without giving it away!). It's available free from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18807
For something shorter, He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper is also a classic - written as an exchange of correspondence following a strange man appearing in an alternate Europe of 1809 (it has a great last joke right at the end too - maybe 'joke' isn't the right word but I can't think how to describe it otherwise without giving it away!). It's available free from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18807
"Triumph" is indeed a fun one. I enjoyed a lot of Ben Bova books over the years
So, a few more (in no particular order):
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken is a good children's AH book - though of course if a child doesn't know OTL, he/she may not realise that it is AH! (I read it when I was about 7 or 8 and got all confused because there were references to things which didn't match what I knew of history!)
It's set in the reign of James VIII/III (who in OTL was the 'Old Pretender' after James VII/II was ousted).
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson is an interesting one. It's not a bad read, but a bit on the implausible side, starting with the PoD (the Black Death kills 99% of the European population). It focuses on just a few characters as they are reincarnated at various stages of ATL history - and seem to be at the centre of major events every time. The other problem is that there's a variation on a butterfly net in place. Inventions/discoveries happen at about the same dates as OTL, etc, with just the locations/names changed. But, as I say, it's quite a good read.
For a PoD much further back, there's West of Eden / Winter in Eden / Return to Eden by Harry Harrison. The Cretaceous–Paleogene (or -Tertiary) extinction event didn't happen, so the dinosaurs weren't wiped out and evolved into intelligent reptiles - but there are human-analogues (not quite human, but close enough) too.
Harry Turtledove's already been mentioned in this thread, but I don't think The Two Georges, which he co-wrote with Richard Dreyfuss, has been. It's a detective/adventure story set in modern times, but in an ATL where the American colonies are still in the British Empire. The actual PoD is kind of skimmed over, but the ATL world is quite internally consistent.
Finally, there's What If? (subtitled 'The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been') and its sequels What If? 2 ('More What If?: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been') and What Ifs? of American History. They're collections of essays investigating some well-known and some less well-known PoDs. Personally I found the first to be better overall than the second (I haven't read the third), but that might just be me.
Okay, I'm nearly late for dinner, so that'll do for now!
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken is a good children's AH book - though of course if a child doesn't know OTL, he/she may not realise that it is AH! (I read it when I was about 7 or 8 and got all confused because there were references to things which didn't match what I knew of history!)
It's set in the reign of James VIII/III (who in OTL was the 'Old Pretender' after James VII/II was ousted).
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson is an interesting one. It's not a bad read, but a bit on the implausible side, starting with the PoD (the Black Death kills 99% of the European population). It focuses on just a few characters as they are reincarnated at various stages of ATL history - and seem to be at the centre of major events every time. The other problem is that there's a variation on a butterfly net in place. Inventions/discoveries happen at about the same dates as OTL, etc, with just the locations/names changed. But, as I say, it's quite a good read.
For a PoD much further back, there's West of Eden / Winter in Eden / Return to Eden by Harry Harrison. The Cretaceous–Paleogene (or -Tertiary) extinction event didn't happen, so the dinosaurs weren't wiped out and evolved into intelligent reptiles - but there are human-analogues (not quite human, but close enough) too.
Harry Turtledove's already been mentioned in this thread, but I don't think The Two Georges, which he co-wrote with Richard Dreyfuss, has been. It's a detective/adventure story set in modern times, but in an ATL where the American colonies are still in the British Empire. The actual PoD is kind of skimmed over, but the ATL world is quite internally consistent.
Finally, there's What If? (subtitled 'The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been') and its sequels What If? 2 ('More What If?: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been') and What Ifs? of American History. They're collections of essays investigating some well-known and some less well-known PoDs. Personally I found the first to be better overall than the second (I haven't read the third), but that might just be me.
Okay, I'm nearly late for dinner, so that'll do for now!
You could call them AH now, but Sir John Hackett's The Third World War books are a must.
This may be hard to find, but it was rereleased in 1995 for the 50th Anniversary of VJ-Day. It was originally published in 1971: David Westheimer's Death is Lighter Than a Feather. It's a what-if novel of Operation OLYMPIC, the Invasion of Kyushu set for 1 Nov 1945: the invasion the A-bombs made unnecessary. The A-bomb in the novel is assumed not to be ready until 1946, and thus the decision is made to invade Japan. Reading this book when I was 12 got me interested in AH-read the paperback edition in 1983. There are two or three other novels about the invasion of Japan, but this one is the best.
This may be hard to find, but it was rereleased in 1995 for the 50th Anniversary of VJ-Day. It was originally published in 1971: David Westheimer's Death is Lighter Than a Feather. It's a what-if novel of Operation OLYMPIC, the Invasion of Kyushu set for 1 Nov 1945: the invasion the A-bombs made unnecessary. The A-bomb in the novel is assumed not to be ready until 1946, and thus the decision is made to invade Japan. Reading this book when I was 12 got me interested in AH-read the paperback edition in 1983. There are two or three other novels about the invasion of Japan, but this one is the best.
Grey Tide in the East is a nice read. A nice story about what could have been in WWI - If the book was a bit more realistic in - especially naval - things it could have made a great story.
Tidal Effects the follow up is not as good, too much geared to make a German US conflict
Tidal Effects the follow up is not as good, too much geared to make a German US conflict
Would I suggest to look or consider at the Novels and/or tales from the late Victorian (also Edwardian) 'invasion literature' that starts with the 'Battle of Dorking' by George Tomkyns Chesney ... I think that's with today's perspective would've been considering how AH genre precursors.
The classic example is The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, which was hugely popular at the time.
"For the next ten years Childers's book remained the most powerful contribution of any English writer to the debate on Britain's alleged military unpreparedness" quoted from his biography.
The author was an infamous man in his own right.
Just found Stephen Frys "Making History" - its a nice read about a History Student preventing the birth of Hitler (with the help of a time machine built by a "not so Yew" - and he ends up in a different world with his "original" memories. I am at 62% on the kindle and plan to spend the weekend finishing it...
I liked it too, interesting parallel universes. It was interesting enough that I am looking forward to more from that writer.