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Best 'What if..?' or Alternate History Book?

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Hilhog0 Since: Jan, 2011
#1: Jun 23rd 2011 at 6:25:26 AM

Hey guys, had enough weirdness for the moment, having finished Gravity's Rainbow, and am looking to start on this genre. I was just wondering if anyone has any recommendations or any thing that particularly blew their mind? Thanks guys :D

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FurikoMaru Reverse the Curse from The Arrogant Wasteland Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: He makes me feel like I have a heart
BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
Daniel Bensen
#3: Jun 23rd 2011 at 7:57:32 AM

I really enjoyed The Lords Of Creation by S.M. Stirling. A lot of fun, and the books didn't take themselves too seriously.

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pagad Sneering Imperialist from perfidious Albion Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Sneering Imperialist
#4: Jun 26th 2011 at 11:23:25 AM

Fatherland by Robert Harris. Detective story/thriller set in 1960's Nazi Germany. 'tis a cracking read.

Fox on the Rhine by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson. What if the July 1944 bomb plot succeeded in killing Hitler? This one is more military fiction.

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BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
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#5: Jun 26th 2011 at 11:53:34 AM

@Furiko Maru. I love the style, but now I'm mad I have to wait for the next installment to come out!

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#6: Jun 27th 2011 at 9:57:15 PM

In the Years of Rice and Salt by Robert Silverberg. My favorite of the genre.

The Great Northern Threadkill.
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#7: Jun 27th 2011 at 10:13:30 PM

Randall Garrett's Lord D'arcy.

Falco Since: Mar, 2011
#8: Jun 28th 2011 at 9:07:31 PM

Just pimped Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union in another thread but it also belongs here.

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blueharp Since: Dec, 1969
#9: Jun 28th 2011 at 9:18:11 PM

Read an anthology, What Might have Been, Alternate X, etc.

BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
Daniel Bensen
#10: Jun 28th 2011 at 10:54:42 PM

Thanks for the Randall Garrett recommendation.

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nman Since: Mar, 2010
#11: Jun 29th 2011 at 2:33:54 PM

If you want alternate history and World War II, then Worldwar: In the Balance is pretty cool.

BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
Daniel Bensen
#12: Jun 29th 2011 at 11:11:27 PM

[up] World War II was proceeding nicely until the SPACE LIZARDS showed up!

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FarseerLolotea from America's Finest City Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#13: Jun 30th 2011 at 9:25:18 PM

I've read so many good ones that it's hard to pick a favorite, really. (Coincidentally enough, I'm currently reading Temeraire.)

GinaInTheKingsRoad from California Since: Jan, 2001
#14: Jul 18th 2011 at 12:12:03 AM

Just finished Jo Walton's Small Change Trilogy (Farthing, Ha'Penny, Half a Crown), which were quite frankly brilliant. The US never provided Lend-Lease Aid to the Allies in WWII, and in 1941 the British form a tentative peace with Hitler, allowing the Nazis to focus on the Eastern Front. The series are mysteries, first two are set in 1949, the third in 1960. I'm working on fleshing out Jo's page with tropes from them.

Definitely agree with Falco on The Yiddish Policemens Union rec. My favorite of Harry Turtledove's is Ruled Britannia (I'm a theatre nerd).

edited 18th Jul '11 12:12:35 AM by GinaInTheKingsRoad

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MetaFour AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN from A Place (Old Master)
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#15: Jul 18th 2011 at 3:26:54 AM

If you want something with alt-history and weirdness, The Man In The High Castle doesn't disappoint.

edited 18th Jul '11 3:27:07 AM by MetaFour

Kelfeth Since: Jun, 2011
#16: Jul 18th 2011 at 9:38:10 AM

Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" was tons of fun.

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#17: Jul 18th 2011 at 1:40:09 PM

John Birmingham is a pretty good bet. So is Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series in which a beatup WWII destroyer gets sucked into a world where the dinosaur killing asteroid missed and the two dominant lifeforms evolved from raptors and lemures. Guess which ones are the bad guys? Also reccomend The Lords Of Creation but his stand alone books Conquistador and The Peshawar Lancers are also worth a look. Oh and Eric Flint's 1632 series.

edited 18th Jul '11 1:40:27 PM by tricksterson

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MrShine Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Hoping Senpai notices me
#18: Jul 18th 2011 at 2:49:46 PM

I've enjoyed what I've read by Dick, but have little interest in the conceit behind alternate histories, or in reading about Nazis either for that matter. Would The Man In The High Castle still be an enjoyable read, do you think?

EDIT: Clarification, I mean, coming at it from the perspective of a science fiction fan, but not an alternate history fan.

edited 18th Jul '11 2:52:09 PM by MrShine

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#19: Apr 13th 2013 at 9:58:20 PM

There's a novella by Ward Moore, Bring the Jubilee, which is possibly the only decent alternate American Civil War book I've ever read.

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#20: Apr 16th 2013 at 1:05:01 PM

Kenneth Oppel's Airborn series is a fun read, although personally I didn't like the third book.

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Xtifr World's Toughest Milkman Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
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#21: Apr 17th 2013 at 4:12:03 PM

The Years of Rice and Salt is by Kim Stanley Robinson, not Robert Silverberg.

The Man in the High Castle is...well, c'mon, it's Philip K. Dick! Its not going to be like any sort of normal book about Nazis and stuff. It's...Dickian. If you like PKD, you'll probably like it. That said, while it is his only major SF award, it's not my favorite of his books. But I like it.

And I'm going to give the nth vote for The Yiddish Policemen's Union. It's one of the best books by an outstanding (if insufficiently prolific) writer. That said, it's pretty heavy. If you're looking for something light and frothy, you may want to start elsewhere. But if you're up for the challenge, it's very rewarding.

edited 17th Apr '13 4:12:15 PM by Xtifr

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Lightningnettle Nettle Since: Apr, 2012 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
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#22: Apr 18th 2013 at 12:47:00 PM

For light and frothy, I like Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. I just wish he'd write another in that universe. The hero is a bureaucrat from the Environmental Perfection Agency who gets tangled up in figuring out why a spell dump is leaking Bad Stuff. An everyday hero in a magic-is-technology world. Never read anything else quite like it.

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#23: Apr 19th 2013 at 12:06:04 AM

Mike Resnick has done a whole bunch of Alternate X anthologies. One of the oddest is Alternate Skiffy, which is about alternate reality version of famous science fiction writers. ("Skiffy" is a humorous mispronunciation of "sci-fi" common in some branches of SF fandom.) The ones I've read have all been pretty fun.

Oh, and speaking of alternate reality science fiction writers, there's always The Iron Dream, which is about an alternate reality where Adolph Hitler is schlocky fantasy writer. (Although it's really intended more as a criticism of schlocky fantasy, and its tendency to have Unfortunate Implications.)

edited 19th Apr '13 12:07:02 AM by Xtifr

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TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#24: Apr 20th 2013 at 9:43:55 AM

well, 1632 has already been mentioned, but the creator and main author of that series, Eric Flint (with David Drake) did another I love.

Belisarius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisarius_series

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#25: May 6th 2013 at 10:42:53 AM

If you want to go way back in time with your alternate history, Harry Harrison's West Of Eden trilogy is really cool.


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