La victoire de la Grande Armée, by Valery Giscard d'Estaing

[Dr. Strangelove]

I saw this book in my last trip to France, and, well, it's not every day that you see an AH novel written by a former Head of State: http://www.amazon.fr/victoire-Grande-Valéry-Giscard-dEstaing/dp/2259213901

The PoD is Napoleon having a common sense attack and deciding to evacuate Moscow right after entering the city in September 1812 to lure Kutuzov into a trap. By retreating towards Poland before winter sets in, he is able to inflict the Russian Army a decisive defeat at Vilna, thus forcing the Russians to the peace table and keeping the Grande Armée mostly intact. Afterwards, he decides he's had enough, calls for a general peace conference and abdicates his crown on Eugene de Beauharnais, after crowning Prince Poniatowski as king of a restored Poland-Lithuania and promising to support the Russians against the Ottomans. For some reason. Hey, I didn't say it was a plausible AH novel, although points for using an original PoD . According to some french reviewers, there are many cringeworthy sex scenes, so he must have taken a page or two from Turtledove.

 

[Redem]

According to some french reviewers, there are many cringeworthy sex scenes, so he must have taken a page or two from Turtledove.

IIRC Valery Giscard d'Estaing wrote a book where his expy has sex with Princess Diana. So I'm starting to think he mostly seem to be using alternate history to explore his sex fantasy (then again most litterature is author writting down their fetish)

 

[Thande]

He's a former President of France, what do you expect? Turtledove probably goes to him for advice!

As Napoleonic victories go, it still sounds more plausible than the original.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

IIRC Valery Giscard d'Estaing wrote a book where his expy has sex with Princess Diana. So I'm starting to think he mostly seem to be using alternate history to explore his sex fantasy (then again most litterature is author writting down their fetish)

Eh, other reviewers also point out that the Napoleon character seems more or less a self-insertion.

 

[Lleibi]

According to some french reviewers, there are many cringeworthy sex scenes, so he must have taken a page or two from Turtledove.

Ugh really, it's awful how this habit has spilled over from cinema (where it makes sense, as a cheap gimmick to attract the young male audience) to novels.
Writing a sex scene requires either a lot of craft and subtlety, or being writing an erotic book (which also requires a lot of craft).

So, writers, seriously, leave the sex for novels in the dinosaur erotica genre.