Just a random thought, anyone here a fan of Alternate History?
i.e. Harry Turtledove?
On a similar note, I loved the “What If” series of Marvel Comics, even ones detailing alternate timelines of titles that I didn’t follow.
My only complaint? Every one of the Captain America “What If” stories that I remember always ended with the Red Skull pulling off his mask and cackling.
Well, that’s certainly true.
I like how the ol’ Watcher got taken down a notch in * Earth X *
yeah, read Guns of the South, in the second cycle of Worldwar now.
Cool, I think Turtledove did a messy way of ending the “Colonization” Trilogy though
Definitely! Turtledove is one of my favorite authors. I especially enjoy his Great War series. As for the “messy” ending to Colonization, I think it was intentional to open the door for a third series. Probably in the 1980s if I don’t miss my guess.
I’ve read some good collections of alternate reality short stories, in particular “What Might Have Been,” ed. by Gregory Benford & Martin H. Greenburg, which had four volumes (that I know of): “Alternate Empires,” “Alternate Heros,” “Alternate Wars,” and “Alternate Americas”.
Don’t forget his "Hitler Victorious"collection.
In re. the Colonization serie, I don’t think the third book his the last of it, after all he does have a tendency of writing tetralogies, I didn’t have the feeling that the cycle was over, I think there will be a fourth one. He did mention on his webpage that a major character was going to die in the last book of that serie (didn’t say who though).
You’re kidding, right, detop? Turtledove’s going to end one of his series? Everything of his I’ve seen fits the old cliche of the SF writer who can’t end a sequence to save his life. I’d like him if he were only concise.
I like realistic alternative history. I’m trying to find a cheap copy of Parvane at the moment. That looks good. I’m currently reading Turtledoves’ World War, but I don’t like it all that much. WW2 alt. hist. is interesting… 1984… The Man In The High Castle, etc. that’s good. It’s believeable: What if Germany/Japan won the war??? This “what if a race of giant intelligent lizards invaded in the middle of WW2” is a bit much to swallow.
Still, any other recomendations??
Big_yellow,
If you want more realistic alternate history, I recommend his “Great War” series, about a alternate WWI if the Confederacy had won the Civil War.
i think Turtledove just sits down and writes straight, alternating characters with only a vague idea of where he is going and a broad general plan to get certain people to certain locations by books end. The rest is just filler, but really interesting filler. He rotates the characters, gives them about 3 pages each, and divids the chapters at 24 pages, and each book by 20 chapters. I was overwelmed by the vast vast vast amount of characters in the Great War series, it took 4 chapters just to get back to the first ones. Luckily, they began to die off and that shortened the length to get back to them. Guns of the South is an exception, but it is an earlier work.
He can’t end the Alien series yet, too many unanswered questions. Won’t get into them since i may be spoiling.
Nobody has mentioned H. Beam Piper yet. His short story “He Walked Around the Horses” is one of my favorites. It is found in his book titled Paratime. It tells the story of that British diplomat that Charles Fort reported on, who disappeared in Germany in the early 19th century. The story is about his “real” fate, and is told in the form of a series of letters back and forth between German and British officials. The signature of the last letter is priceless! The irony of it made me laugh myself silly.-
Actually all of his Paratime stuff is interesting, dealing with alternate histories, some of which split so far back that there are no “doubles” found. he was good at extrapolating what might happen “if” something had happened in a different way. Try “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen” for a book length story, or the rest of the sotries in the book Paratime. If you can’t find it let me know I have an extra copy and I could send it to you. Piper’s othere sci-fi is good too.
Guns of the South is one of my favorites. Mostly because it was AFAICR the first such thing I had ever heard. How radically would history have changed if the south had automatic weapons during the Civil War?
I have no idea who it’s by because I first heard it on NPR as I was driving home from work and I always missed the first five minutes or so of the show.
Guns of the South is by Harry Turtledove, I was unaware it ever made it to NPR though
It was several years ago. I was working in Sand Springs and living in Stillwater so I had a 60 mile commute to listen to it. That would make it about 8 years ago.
Nope, not kidding. [url=http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/future.html]See there for yourself**.
<SPOILER ALERT> OK, this is a WAG, but I think there will be another serie of books with the Lizards. It will mostly deal with the US spaceship arriving at their home planets and with the characters surviving the Colonization serie, as well as the baby Lizards raised as humans.
And Arden, if you liked Guns of the South, you might want to give a try to Bring on the Jubilee !, by Ward Moore IIRC.
Oops, sorry for the bad link, another case of premature postulation :o