I was hoping to buy a good alternative history book,but it’s been somewhat difficult to find one.I’d like a book that…
Is somewhat weird but still almost believable;
is around 100 to 400 pages long(I’m pretty new to the genre,so it’s best if it’s fairly short);
and includes some important historical event or historical person(preferably American,but anybody would do).Put simply,I’d like a book kind of like the Harry Turtledove books.Any ideas on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
There’s Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard, although there’s a strong paranormal element that may be too weird/not believable enough for you. The (fictional) early 19th century protagonist meets several major Romantic Era literary figures and learns about the connection they all share to a mysterious race of vampire-like creatures.
The historic parts are pretty well researched, and the Powers manages to make the totally invented parts fit together with the known life and works of these authors. Some of their choices actually become a lot more sympathetic in the fictional context, like Lord Byron’s insistence that his illegitimate daughter Allegra be kept away from both him and her mother and raised in a convent instead.
Have you tried the Flashman books? Not quite alternative history, more an alternative take on history.
Do you want historical fiction? Or fantasy?
For a realistic take on the genre you could grab What If?. It’s what introduced me to the genre.
If you want fantasy you could get Guns of the South. An entertaining and light read, but not plausible in the least bit.
For something not published, “realistic” alternative history you could read online, Decades of Darkness. This timeline is about what would have happened should New England had succeeded from the U.S. early in our nation’s history. Warning, it is very long.
I don’t read too much in this genre, but i really enjoyed Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America.
It’s an alternate history in which FDR is defeated in the 1940 Presidential election by an isolationist Charles Lindbergh. The novel is not, for the most part, about big-man politics; rather, it focuses on a semi-autobiographical Philip as a boy, growing up Jewish in New Jersey during a time of increased isolationism and also anti-Semitism in American culture. The novel is set in the same New Jersey town area where Roth himself grew up, and reflects his own ideas about how his life might have been different in his alternate history timeline.
The book mentions plenty of real historical figures, and does deal with the big-picture politics of the era, but it’s also a study of childhood and of American culture more generally. The most important big-picture issue is the formation of a new government department whose mission is to fully integrate and Americanize Jews in the US by taking them from their neighborhoods and placing them with good American families across the country, especially in the midwest and south.
It’s at the upper limit of your page-count, at about 400 pages.
ETA: This book is, in many of its historical aspects, eminently believable. I teach college history, focusing on the United States in the 20th century, and it’s clear that Roth understands American culture of the late 1930s and 1940s. As with most Roth books, his male characters are stronger and better written than his female ones.
Well,I especially would like to read historical fantasy-type novels,but historical fiction is alright too,so long as it isn’t too romantic.I think I will check on those books;I had heard of Guns of the South,and from what I’ve read,it seems like a good book,although it is over 500 pages,so I might buy that one.Thanks for the help.
No,I actually haven’t heard of those books.What are they about?
Are there any strange alternative history books that read more like actual history books than conventional novels? I like the idea of the genre, but I’d rather focus on the global picture than get bogged down in character drama. The excerpt of the fictional history book in Nineteen Eighty-Four was really interesting to me.
Harry Flashman is a a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward, and he somehow ends up at most of the significant events during the 19th century. Marvelous fun reads.
If you’re looking for a good “strange” AH with elements of fantasy I highly recommend Devil’s Tower and its sequel Devil’s Engine by Mark Sumner. They’re essentially westerns but the alternate history element is that the mass deaths of the Civil War a decade or so earlier opened some kind of cosmic breach and allowed magic to work. This caused a collapse of civilization in western America and the only authority are the local “Sheriffs” who have enough magical power to assert authority over their town.
Oh, I forgot my recommendation.
Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula, where, having defeated van Helsing, Count Dracula weds Queen Victoria and ushers in an era when vampires no longer need to hide in England. Until someone starts killing undead prostitutes in White Chapel…
You’ll want this one then: For Want of a Nail. It reads just like a history book, with footnotes and everything. Brilliant.
I loved **Guns of the South **when I read it. But I read it when I was 16. Does it hold up for adult readers?
I didn’t read this myself, and therefore don’t know the title or author, but maybe one of you does: does anyone know what alt history (probably fantasy) novel has the unlikely sub-premise that New Hampshire is the capital of the US, which in turn is a French…uh, what’s Canada to England again? Anyway, that sort of political relationship.
Little Nemo, that sounds like the made up card game they were making fun of, then all bought, on the Big Bang Theory 
I read a lot of such excerpts (chapter headings, mainly) and end-of-the-book notes in S.M. Stirling’s Domination series.
Polite but not demonstrative.
Greenhill published a series of AH books by historians that were “non-fiction”. The list of them is here. They’re out of print but most of them are available on Amazon in cheap used copies.
Ryan, just read Flashman and be done with it. You are going to be reading all of the books eventually. Might as well start now.
On other news, try Peshawar Lancers or Conquistador by S.M. Stirling.
I highly recommend Phil Dick’s The Man In The High Castle.
This thread has gotten more replies than I expected.Thanks for the help everyone!