As I’ve written before, I am an absolute sucker for alternate history. Most of it, unfortunately, is not very good, even by the standards of genre fiction’s transparent prose: the attraction here is really the idea, with all its surprising facets, so the best examples are typically the ones where the idea is so good, the unexpected ramifications so startling at the moment (but so obvious in retrospect), that you can forgive the cardboard characters and lackluster prose.
I think that you should mention Eric Flint's sprawling 1632verse somewhere. One of the things about that series is that it's very much based on solid technology and very little handwavium. People (including me in one short story) spent a lot of time and effort researching real people who would be alive at the time and seeing how the Americans from our era might manage to industrialize 1630s Europe with plausible contents of West Virginia garages and yards and so on.
1632 just never did it for me! In large part, I’m sure, because I care much less about the Thirty Years War than the Bronze Age, but last time I tackled it, it seemed very “inside every early modern religious fanatic is an American trying to get out.”
I love 1632 and was hoping someone would mention it in the comments. It’s a very late 90s, “triumph of liberal democracy, American vacation from history” sort of book. Still good but harder to enjoy the way it came across when newer.
I was surprised that Island in the Sea of Time came out first, because 1632 got so many more sequels, but they share a late 90s "Americans travel through time, end history there too" vibe. I may have to give it another honest go, though.
I believe that the author is Christian, but I can't remember if that was from her biography, some of her essays, or following her on Twitter. (I'm a lifelong atheist so I can't assess the books' Christian elements as offensive.)
I’m not so worried about “offensive” (I’m a big girl) as point-missing that ruins the book — I’m still mad about the sci-fi novel where a major plot point was the Catholic Church’s insistence that clones don’t have souls. But I’ll see if the library has it!
Sorry to imply that. I took your worry of annoyance as more of getting doctrine wrong, denying Christ's divinity, or portraying Biblical personalities anachronistically. The "offense" I meant was one of "sensibilities" rather than outrage.
I just can't speak to that, lacking familiarity with any of it. I just think _anyone_ interested in Rome and alternate history should read it since its starting premise is what if Rome had Watt'd Hero's steam whirligig and had its own Industrial Revolution.
On your recommendation, I got a copy of "Lest Darkness Fall" (the library system didn't have it). I enjoyed the detailed description of Rome in slow, genteel decline (like Philadelphia...) and the hero's brazen decision to change the course of history. Since I am quite clumsy, and most academics I know are, too, his 100% success rate in re-inventions struck me as just a tad over-optimistic!
I was so excited for Civilisations and I was similarly let down! If you don't mind a lot of metafictional digressions on the ethics of writing history, his book HHhH is excellent.
On a somewhat related “the Norse stick around so European colonization plays out differently” note, King of the Wood was fun. Not particularly good, but pulpy fun.
Has someone written an alternative history in which Russian traders and missionaries expand down the whole west coast, beat out the Spanish, and the western United States is Orthodox?
Not to my knowledge -- it's a bit niche! I've seen it as a throwaway bit here and there though. (P. Djèlí Clark's "The Black God's Guns" has a passing reference to "Kalifornians" with their big long beards speaking Russian.) I once wanted to find a good history of Siberian colonization as a model for how Russian expansion in the western US would have gone, but promptly forgot about it.
Mrs. Psmith, you are my HERO, and I would be RT-ing this to oblivion if I hadn’t recently gotten off Twitter. Second the comment below about 1632–I actually think the series does a pretty good job presenting how the Americans’ culture melds with local mores—but this is 800x more helpful than the websites that already exist to guide the alternate history reader. (I continue to maintain that it’s not actually alternate history if the “alternate” bit is simply “and also there is magic.”) I’ll also add that the TVTropes page for the Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility is a gem of a resource (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility).
My own introduction to the genre was through academic counterfactual history, which has made me kind of snobby about it all unless I can be made to really embrace the “speculative” aspects; best options on your list for either “hard” alternate history or such a compelling speculation that I’ll ignore the internal critic?
Ruled Britannia and Yiddish Policemen’s Union are both fairly hard (in the sense that they’re more interested in “what would happen if…” than “what can I change to produce something awesome”). I think the Nantucket series is fairly plausible if you can bring yourself to ignore the extremely implausible premise. Turtledove’s “Agent of Byzantium” stories are pretty “hard” too; the point of departure is IIRC Mohammed becoming a Christian monk.
What a great list. You've made me reconsider some books I hadn't thought worth the bother. "American Nations with magic" is such a good idea!
I think that you should mention Eric Flint's sprawling 1632verse somewhere. One of the things about that series is that it's very much based on solid technology and very little handwavium. People (including me in one short story) spent a lot of time and effort researching real people who would be alive at the time and seeing how the Americans from our era might manage to industrialize 1630s Europe with plausible contents of West Virginia garages and yards and so on.
1632 just never did it for me! In large part, I’m sure, because I care much less about the Thirty Years War than the Bronze Age, but last time I tackled it, it seemed very “inside every early modern religious fanatic is an American trying to get out.”
I love 1632 and was hoping someone would mention it in the comments. It’s a very late 90s, “triumph of liberal democracy, American vacation from history” sort of book. Still good but harder to enjoy the way it came across when newer.
I was surprised that Island in the Sea of Time came out first, because 1632 got so many more sequels, but they share a late 90s "Americans travel through time, end history there too" vibe. I may have to give it another honest go, though.
Have you read Helen Dale's two-part Kingdom of the Wicked perchance? If not, I'd highly recommend it as a fan of Rome and alternate histories.
I have not, largely because I thought it would probably annoy me as a Christian, but maybe I'll give it a shot.
I believe that the author is Christian, but I can't remember if that was from her biography, some of her essays, or following her on Twitter. (I'm a lifelong atheist so I can't assess the books' Christian elements as offensive.)
I’m not so worried about “offensive” (I’m a big girl) as point-missing that ruins the book — I’m still mad about the sci-fi novel where a major plot point was the Catholic Church’s insistence that clones don’t have souls. But I’ll see if the library has it!
Sorry to imply that. I took your worry of annoyance as more of getting doctrine wrong, denying Christ's divinity, or portraying Biblical personalities anachronistically. The "offense" I meant was one of "sensibilities" rather than outrage.
I just can't speak to that, lacking familiarity with any of it. I just think _anyone_ interested in Rome and alternate history should read it since its starting premise is what if Rome had Watt'd Hero's steam whirligig and had its own Industrial Revolution.
I will check it out!
Pavane is a great piece of alt history
On your recommendation, I got a copy of "Lest Darkness Fall" (the library system didn't have it). I enjoyed the detailed description of Rome in slow, genteel decline (like Philadelphia...) and the hero's brazen decision to change the course of history. Since I am quite clumsy, and most academics I know are, too, his 100% success rate in re-inventions struck me as just a tad over-optimistic!
Very happy to see the GURPS mention!
No Robert Silverberg?
The bit about the new Lourve pyramid -- just the thought of it puts me in hysterics. Thanks for the comprehensive review.
I was so excited for Civilisations and I was similarly let down! If you don't mind a lot of metafictional digressions on the ethics of writing history, his book HHhH is excellent.
On a somewhat related “the Norse stick around so European colonization plays out differently” note, King of the Wood was fun. Not particularly good, but pulpy fun.
Has someone written an alternative history in which Russian traders and missionaries expand down the whole west coast, beat out the Spanish, and the western United States is Orthodox?
Not to my knowledge -- it's a bit niche! I've seen it as a throwaway bit here and there though. (P. Djèlí Clark's "The Black God's Guns" has a passing reference to "Kalifornians" with their big long beards speaking Russian.) I once wanted to find a good history of Siberian colonization as a model for how Russian expansion in the western US would have gone, but promptly forgot about it.
Mrs. Psmith, you are my HERO, and I would be RT-ing this to oblivion if I hadn’t recently gotten off Twitter. Second the comment below about 1632–I actually think the series does a pretty good job presenting how the Americans’ culture melds with local mores—but this is 800x more helpful than the websites that already exist to guide the alternate history reader. (I continue to maintain that it’s not actually alternate history if the “alternate” bit is simply “and also there is magic.”) I’ll also add that the TVTropes page for the Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility is a gem of a resource (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility).
My own introduction to the genre was through academic counterfactual history, which has made me kind of snobby about it all unless I can be made to really embrace the “speculative” aspects; best options on your list for either “hard” alternate history or such a compelling speculation that I’ll ignore the internal critic?
Ruled Britannia and Yiddish Policemen’s Union are both fairly hard (in the sense that they’re more interested in “what would happen if…” than “what can I change to produce something awesome”). I think the Nantucket series is fairly plausible if you can bring yourself to ignore the extremely implausible premise. Turtledove’s “Agent of Byzantium” stories are pretty “hard” too; the point of departure is IIRC Mohammed becoming a Christian monk.