# Alternate history recommends **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [July 28, 2024, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883 "2024-07-28T07:30:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/1 "2024-07-28T07:30:01Z")
There have been threads on this topic before but it’s been a while. I really really like alternate history, at least if it includes a real knowledge of history and not just wild speculation; I have all the Ring of Fire series, that Eric Flint started with _ **1632** _. I mourn his passing. One other author from that series has also passed, Rick Boatright. I knew him in high school, we were in the same graduating class, and I dated him for a while. A nice guy and I’m sorry for his wife. I have read other alternate histories, some were series and some stand alone. Stirling did _ **The Peshawar Lancers** _ and _ **Conquistador.** _, both of which I liked, although his series of the Change began to pall on me the longer it went on. The multidimensional timelines of H. Beam Piper are some of my favorites. His short story _ **“He Walked Around the Horses”** _ is one of his best, and the signature at the end had me laughing. His short story _ **“Crossroads of Destiny”** _ has a superior twist at the end. What I would like now is something new. What author or series could someone recommend? Novels or short stories are equally okay. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/2 "2024-07-28T07:40:35Z")
I’m not sure this is what you want but there is a book that does “counterfactuals.” Basically, the rules are to take history and suppose one thing changed (someone went right instead of left) and wonder how things might have turned out differently. Just one change is educated speculation. More than one change and it could be anything hence the self-imposed restriction. The best of these I have read is the book “[What If?](https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Eminent-Historians-Imagine-Might/dp/0399152385/ref=sr_1_6?crid=C36D2QMZN8F4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ohjHFEH9iyBzcwIsGoV0AGqDpq2jNfM8QtqgZAW_3XowbAe7AwQfv7StqTpa9JMJZP5bc8sPEeXVnR4nYw1-sAw_UhFY9AgBYXFoXYhCYmL-bsWIbSK-qngF1qcRo9JAHUsQ-3lOe5WGEQXEmDYUaL0wj307N15Q-5kdHRvvX5dDSkLqnLZbD0Mx0RIJod1Ovlz1TnEedrNC-WqFG7BU4zLiVQDHYsLgYQlfBkeKe84.nYKwYKsTlxxK7zNdD8ZuAer3M28LpXSJVp0NaR7P1vI&dib_tag=se&keywords=what+if+book+of+alternative+history&qid=1722152631&sprefix=what+if+history%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-6)” Actual historians try to answer questions of what if this one thing changed (several separate stories). It is very interesting and will amaze you how some seemingly small things may have changed all of human history in profound ways. A good read. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/3 "2024-07-28T07:51:07Z")
It sounds good, I will look it up. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/4 "2024-07-28T09:33:14Z")
Ben Elton’s (of Blackadder fame) ‘Time and Time Again’ was a very enjoyable time-travelling, history-altering novel. Worth checking out. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/5 "2024-07-28T11:25:57Z")
Harry Turtledove is a well known name in the genre. He’s usually pretty readable, though I don’t know how meticulous his reseach is? He does have a PhD in Byzantine history. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/6 "2024-07-28T14:29:09Z")
The [Wild Cards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards) series, created and edited by George R R Martin is my fave alternate history series. It features an earth which branched off from our own shortly before the end of WW II, when aliens seeded our planet with a nasty virus which killed millions and mutated those who survived it, turning them mostly into horrible freaks but a lucky few into folks with exceptional powers. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/7 "2024-07-28T16:02:23Z")
I have read his work, also the Videssos series based very obviously on Byzantine history. Videssans have a dual religion, the good being those who follow Phos. The name means light in Greek. I took Koine Greek and found that _skotos_, the name of the evil side of belief, means darkness. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/8 "2024-07-28T16:22:15Z")
Following the Assiti Shards thread of Flint’s work, try _The Alexander Inheritance_. There are 5 in this “series” so far, I think. Stirling’s flip side to the Change novels are pretty good. Trilogy starting with _Islands In the Sea of Time._ Marc Jacobs has a couple of military-themed Alt History novels out. The “Cato’s Legions” trilogy follows Romans in Britannia after one of them invents the stirrup. Others include What Ifs? dealing with the early death of Rommel and the presence of Sherman Fireflys at Port Stanley during the Falklands War. Seconding Turtledove’s work. I was especially taken by his “Over the Wine-Dark Sea” tetralogy. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/9 "2024-07-28T18:17:55Z")
Ken Scholes’ Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky is a gut punch of an alternate history story, in a good way. Available online here: [https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/scholes\_11\_07/](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/scholes_11_07/) ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/10 "2024-07-28T18:51:52Z")
I would very much recommend _Cahokia Jazz_ by Francis Spufford. > **[Cahokia Jazz: A Novel: Spufford, Francis: 9781668025451: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Cahokia-Jazz-Novel-Francis-Spufford/dp/1668025450)** > > Cahokia Jazz: A Novel \[Spufford, Francis\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Cahokia Jazz: A Novel It’s a noir mystery set in a 1920s America where the Native American population had not been decimated and so are active participants in the urban melting pot of the titular city Cahokia (roughly around St. Louis in our world). Here’s a lengthy and thoughtful review (note that, while it doesn’t spoil the mystery plot, it does reveal the world building forthrightly and extensively): > **[Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford](https://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2024/03/cahokia-jazz-by-francis-spufford.html)** > > Joe Barrow is a big city murder cop in 1922. A hulking, silent type who dogs the footsteps of his flashier, more loquacious partner Phineas ... ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/11 "2024-07-28T20:21:38Z")
A couple of books by Brendan Dubois. “Resurrection Day” and “Amerikan Eagle”. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/12 "2024-07-28T22:07:33Z")
I’d recommend the books of Guy Gavriel Kay, but with the one caveat - his ‘historical’ works aren’t so much an alternative history, as they are a retelling of moderately well-known historical periods through his own very personal lens of mythology, magic, and political manoeuvring. As well, he loves to focus on a society that is at the crest of its wave, and is unlikely to be able to preserve its art, culture, and tolerance of others in the face of a current challenge. Examples include _Tigana_, based around the city-states of Renaissance Italy; _A Song for Arbonne_ about the politics of Provence; _The Lions of Al-Rassan_ about the fall of Grenada; _The Sarantine Mosaic_, two novels _Sailing to Sarantium_ and _God of Emperors_ about the Emperor Justinian in Byzantium, and there are many more. As I say, they may not fit your definition of ‘alternative history’, but I find them thoroughly enjoyable and take the chance to recommend them whenever I can! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/13 "2024-07-28T22:26:49Z")
The one about the fall of Grenada sounds good, but stories about the loss of a homeland are usually so sad. But then again, I had one great grandfather who had to leave his home in Germany to avoid the draft. He was sixteen when he left, and became a farmer here in Kansas. Better than being cannon fodder though. Oh, speaking of stories, I still miss the story writing contests you used to moderate. The favorite of the ones I wrote had the first person storyteller contemplating murder at the end of it. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/14 "2024-07-29T11:38:15Z")
> [@Hoops](#): > > I would very much recommend _Cahokia Jazz_ by Francis Spufford. This is what I came here to recommend! It’s such a gorgeous novel. I just finished it last week and still can’t get over how amazing it was. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/15 "2024-07-29T14:58:25Z")
It’s not a novel, but I’m going to give a shout out to one of my favorites, Walter Jon Williams “The Last Ride of German Freddie”. Nietzsche travels to the American west to treat his chronic health problems, and becomes the legendary gun-slinging philosopher German Freddie. I also enjoyed “The Difference Engine”, by Gibson and Sterling. Lord Babbage manages to perfect his mechanical computer, and kicks off the computer revolution a century early. It kind of started the steampunk genre, or at least gave it some momentum. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/16 "2024-07-29T18:43:29Z")
Robert Conroy was another significant alternate history author (before his death in 2014). Most of his alternate history scenarios are based on wars. If you really want to get a look at the field, check out [Uchronia](http://www.uchronia.net/). It’s a website the catalogs alternate history works and it’s pretty thorough. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/17 "2024-07-29T19:25:49Z")
A book of short stories I enjoyed: > **[Alternate Kennedys](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Kennedys)** > > Alternate Kennedys is an alternate history anthology edited by Mike Resnick, published in the United States by Tor Books. There are 26 stories in the anthology, including Resnick's own "Lady in Waiting". The remaining stories by various authors present scenarios where members of the Kennedy family had lives that were different from real life. The anthology was released on July 1, 1992. > > This article about an alternate history novel of the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.... Stories like if the Kennedy family went to Hollywood after WW2 instead of politics. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/18 "2024-07-29T21:59:56Z")
I want to thank everyone here for their suggestions. To **Little Nemo** the shout out for the website _Uchronia_ is really great. I had no idea a place like that was out there. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/19 "2024-07-29T22:12:55Z")
Just saw one on my bookshelf that I really liked: **The Two Georges** by Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfuss (Yes, that Richard Dreyfuss!) Semi-steampunk althistory where the colonies never declared independence. Featuring a cameo appearance by “Tricky Dick” Nixon, a slimy used steamer salesman. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883/20 "2024-07-29T22:17:41Z")
_The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_, by Michael Chabon. After the Israelis lost the War of Independence, the US allows a Jewish homeland to be established in a tiny bit of Alaska. It starts out as a noir-ish mystery novel but gets weirder as it goes on. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-history-recommends/1004883.md?page=2)