Alternate History

[Wombat]

I love the concept of uchronia

http://www.uchronia.net/

My major problem with how most (not all, but the vast majority) people present it, however, is that everything seems to hinge on a single battle. The South wins at Gettysburg. Napoleon wins at Waterloo. Augustus is defeated at Actium. Single battles, single militaristic hingepoints of history -- change this one battle and the whole world will alter wildly.

I think that more authors should get away from the military and look to the social and technological aspects of the world. Historians learned a long time ago that history isn't just battles and kings, yet far too many alternate history writers seem to be stuck in this older view of what history is all about.

 

[Particle_Man]

I wonder if there are any about a Roman Republic that never had an emperor (Julius Caesar's assassination does not lead to an Augustis Caesar, but rather Brutus's faction wins out and the Republic is maintained as such)?

 

[Silver Moon]

TurtleDove is indeed King. I am currently reading his How Few Remain/American Front trilogy/American Empire trilogy/Settling Accounts quartet novels. I've finished the first nine and have ordered the tenth in the series which should arrive any day now (with the eleventh and I believe final novel hitting book stores next month).

The premise of this series is that history changed by a single event - namely the lost Confederate orders wrapped around the cigars before Antietam not having been lost and found by McClellland's troops. In this alternate history Lee wins at Antietam, France and England then recognize and ally with the Confederacy, their fleets laying seige to the Union ports, and Lincoln relucatantly conceeds and recognizes the Confederate State of America.

"How Few Ramain" deals with a flare-up between the United States and the Confederacy 20-years later, when the South purchases the states of Chichaua and Sonora from Mexico to give then an outlet to the Pacific over the objections of the United States.

The "American Front" trilogy is set during WWI where the United States is allied with Germany while the Confederacy is still allied with France and England and both are drawn into full-scale conflict.

The "American Empire" trilogy focuses on the years 1918 to 1941, but instead of Hitler's rise in Germany the focus is upon parallel events transpiring in the Confederacy. Other subplots focus upon the American occupation of Canada, which England has lost in WWI.

And the "Settling Accounts" is WWII.

 

[Particle_Man]

Hey has anyone done an alternate where Canada is the major player, and takes over chunks of the USA?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

 

[Ranger REG]

Hey has anyone done an alternate where Canada is the major player, and takes over chunks of the USA?

Only if the Inuits conquered the British and the French, can they take over USA with the help of the Cherokee Nations.

 

[dravot]

TurtleDove is indeed King. I am currently reading his How Few Remain/American Front trilogy/American Empire trilogy/Settling Accounts quartet novels. I've finished the first nine and have ordered the tenth in the series which should arrive any day now (with the eleventh and I believe final novel hitting book stores next month).

---- snip ----

The "American Empire" trilogy focuses on the years 1918 to 1941, but instead of Hitler's rise in Germany the focus is upon parallel events transpiring in the Confederacy. Other subplots focus upon the American occupation of Canada, which England has lost in WWI.

And the "Settling Accounts" is WWII.

I saw the last book yesterday in the store. Didn't pick it up though - I'll prolly get it thru Amazon at a discount.

The American Empire trilogy has one other important feature: substituting Mexico for the Spanish civil war.

Turtledove is great at the history aspect of the stories, but his characters are flat, and are more of a vehicle for a point of view rather than someone truly interesting. Still, I like the books, I just recognize that there are flaws.

 

[Mark]

I love Turtledove's books. The Two Georges, which he wrote with Richard Dreyfuss had an interesting take on a modern world in which the British won the Revolutionary War.

I have been meaning to read that one though I must admit that I got a few pages into the fourth book of the World War series and opted not to finish it. A bit too much of the same thing, IMO.

 

[Particle_Man]

It doesn't really fall into the category of alternate history (IMO, of course, technically it does), but Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt is one of my favorite books.

Let me also add praise to the awesomeness of this book. I think it counts as alternate history if you are a buddhist, alternate history + fantasy if you are not. But hey, Turtledove wrote an "alternate history" with a freaking alien invasion, so I think we can ease up on the boundaries and allow Robinson's fine work inside the category.

 

[WayneLigon]

I like it depending on how broadly it is drawn. When the story or novel had subtle changes that rely on actual knowledge of some minor historical figures - because then I guess I'm suppossed to be able to fill in ideas myself based on my knowledge of them. I'm lost and for me the story has no impact Sort of like saying 'ooooh, so he is Secretary of the Interior? Well, then it's a well known fact that he'd always wanted to do.. oh! So that's what that plot point means!'. Frequently this leads to the last line being something like.. "And then he handed the documents to President [Person who was a minor figure in real life whom I've never heard of]". Shock and surprise should ensue, but to me he might as well have handed the documents to his dog.

Broad, far reaching changes I can more easily deal with. Ano Dracula being a good one; where the Dracula story is true, and he destroys Seward and the rest, then goes on to make Queen Victoria his slave. Now that is a cool alternative world.

 

[Rabelais]

I like the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.

Looking for any novels based on alternate Roman history, including an existing Roman Empire that lasted in the present day.

Roma Aeterna from a couple years back. It wasn't bad.