WI Turtledove Writes Good Alternate History?

I think so. They're in the past now, so this is someone's view of how 2001 could have developed. That would be a SpaceWank and a Government Screw respectively.

That would put you in the distinct minority. Just because a SF book written in 1950 was set in 2000 and it is now 2009, this does not make it an alternate history. Books like 1984 and 2001 are future histories. 1984 comes closer to AH because it does present a world which, technologically and socially, could almost have been presented as a dystopian "alternate 1948" when Orwell wrote it. 2001 is simply SF which was made obsolete by the march of time. The key element of AH is the "What if"..element. What if an event that happened in our history did not happen or happened differently? IF an author has not asked this question (explicitly or implicitly) he has not written AH.
 
I like Turtledove's works. I'm sure he knows his stuff when he comes to history; he has a doctorate in it for fuck's sake. But he writes books that are meant more to entertain than to inform.
 
It all depends on what your definition of 'good' alternate history is. For instance, he is the acknowledged 'master' of alternate history in the sense that he can just sign his name to any piece of AH.COM and he'll be able to flog it off...

lol.. and he has that rubbish beard, just like another "Master" from sci-fi I could mention.

His plots make about as much sense, too.
 
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