An essential 'must-read' list for beginning AH readers?

the_lyniezian

Banned
Having only really scratched the surface in terms of actual alternate history fiction myself (I mean, I've read some stuff but not much), I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any particular books worth reading for someone needing to get a grip on the genre? (Not just me, bear in mind- don't limit it to what you think I would read!)

Mention if possible both novels and shrot story collections if possible, you could mention other forms of speculative fiction too such as Future History-type works and slightly ASBish things such as some of S.M. Stirling's works...

Also if you could recomend a few fics on this here site it might be worthwhile.
 

edvader

Bring the Jubilee-Alternate ACW by Ward Moore.Man in the High Castle by Philip K.Dick should be read.Also Two Dooms by C.M. Kornbluth has to be read as this like Dick's is an ah Axis victory scenario.If the South Won the Civil War by Mckinley Kantor is non fiction but should be read as well.That is it for now.Hope you like it.Forgot-Daw books has one called Other Earths co edited by Martin Greenburg.This is AH.He has co-edited other books in the Daw series that may have ah stories.There is one more book of his dealing with different inventions which I will get title.Try Difference Engine a steampunk with AH.There is a new DAW book out called Steampunk'd.
 
Last edited:
Thande

Thande

Donor
Burton has recommended DoD as an archetype of how to write a timeline, which I would concur with: you needn't read it all to start with, and it's not the only way you can write a timeline, but it's a good format and illustrates what one can do with a POD, research and hard work.
 

Emperor of Scandinavia

Something you wont see every day

If Israel lost the war​

Pretty much Arab planes destroy israeli airforce on runway. And it only gets better from there (from arab point of view)​

This book is a 6 day war in reverse.​

The book's authors are:Richard Chesnoff/Edward Klein/RObert Littell​
 
LordVetinari

LordVetinari

Not sure if it counts, but an enjoyable read in my opinion is the steampunl/biopunk/alternate history series Leviathan by Scott Westerfield. Basically WWI with fabricated animals vs steam-powered war machines. It may not count, but it has some splendid artwork and while some might consider it a bit young (late teens at best) it is a quick read, and fun.

Also consider Harry Turtledoves Works.

Also Robert Conroy and his series of books 1862, 1901, 1942, 1945, etc. They're pretty good, though some consider some aspects implausible.

If you want to see a history wank go beyond the logical or even uncalled for need, then to learn how far wanking it can go, and how to really annoy AH.commers, then read Harry Harrisons Stars and Stripes trilogy. It is a guilty pleasure of mine, but it wanks the US for all its worth. Let me put it this way. By the 1870s, America has armored Gatling gun carriers (see Tank) and also battleships near on par with the Dreadnoughts of just Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 fore WWI.

Thats all I can think of for now.
 

Dr. Strangelove

Banned
Thande said:
Burton has recommended DoD as an archetype of how to write a timeline, which I would concur with: you needn't read it all to start with, and it's not the only way you can write a timeline, but it's a good format and illustrates what one can do with a POD, research and hard work.
Click to expand...

I second this. I'd even say that it's even better when you read it beginning in a random page and skipping parts as you wish. It is my role model on how to write a TL.

To contradict my own advice, I'd like to recommend MNP's The Raptor of Spain: cool and unusual PoD, lots and lots of characters and character development, and it proves false the assumption that timelines cannot continue to be interesting centuries after the PoD when no one who lived IOTL has even been born.

Look, the alt-crusades are made by christians and muslims together against a tribe of atheists that took over the holy places, what else do you need?
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Dr. Strangelove said:
[
To contradict my own advice, I'd like to recommend MNP's The Raptor of Spain: cool and unusual PoD, lots and lots of characters and character development, and it proves false the assumption that timelines cannot continue to be interesting centuries after the PoD when no one who lived IOTL has even been born.
Click to expand...

Even though I always, always misread the title as "The Rapist of Satan", for which I blame the ASB forum's influence.
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Ynnead said:
Rapist of Satan sounds like a movie cinema snob would review.
Click to expand...

Directed by Bruno Mattei and also released under titles such as Devil Whores II: Scalextric Boogaloo and Hell is for Paedos.

But I digress. Back to the subject of the thread-- it might be worth people familiarising themselves with Turtledove, at least his earlier works. While we like to bash his more recent output, it helps if you at least have a clue what we're talking about...
 
Ynnead

Ynnead

Turtledove is enjoyable to read, his TLs may not be plausible but I found his books to be a very good read, of course I skipped every sex scene and mentally tuned out any mention of sunburns.
 

the_lyniezian

Banned
Thande said:
Burton has recommended DoD as an archetype of how to write a timeline, which I would concur with: you needn't read it all to start with, and it's not the only way you can write a timeline, but it's a good format and illustrates what one can do with a POD, research and hard work.
Click to expand...

I'm sure this is something really silly I ought to know, but remind me what DoD stands for?
 

J.D.Ward

Donor
Three AH novels that have not been mentioned above.

The Sound of his Horn by Sarban

A century after the Nazi victory. A classic of AH.

Lord Darcy by Randell Garrett

An alternate twentieth century in a world in which the assassination of Richard the Lionheart failed and magic develops as an applied science.

Times without Number by John Brunner

Britain - four centuries after the victory of the Spanish Armada. A lighter escapist look at the same POD as Pavane
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
J.D.Ward said:
Lord Darcy by Randell Garrett

An alternate twentieth century in a world in which the assassination of Richard the Lionheart failed and magic develops as an applied science.
Click to expand...

I really hate that sort of setting. I can't speak for the quality of those individual books because I haven't read them, but I hate it when an author creates a scenario based on alternate history and PODs and parallel development and so on and then throws in "oh yeah, also, magic". Irritated me to no end in The Peshawar Lancers and it only appears in like one scene, which just makes it stick out all the more. It's like reading a purely historical novel and then suddenly the Duke of Wellington fires laser beams out of his eyes to light his cigar and then nobody ever mentions it again.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Kay, I suggest this every time but go find a copy of Harry Turtledoves "The Gladiator" and read about Alternate History Nerds playing tabletop games in Soviet Italy.

It's like he knows his audience enough to poke fun at us through a brutal dictatorship story with time-crossing protagonists... <3

9780765353795.jpg


When you come to AHchan you'll have a new outlook on the whole genre...as if you were from Soviet Italy. ;)
 
LSCatilina

LSCatilina

After novels, i should highly advice reading this book

"Uchronie", by Charles Renouvier

Edited by "Belles Lettres philosophiques" in France (i don't know for foreigners editors), the book which created the word uchronia, about a Roman Republic reborn out its ashes, due to the exile of Christianity in East.
The alternate history is quite good, but there's too a really interesting reflexion about the time, and the nature of history.

A must-have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top